The Temptations
The Temptations are an American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan, who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s to early 1970s. The group’s work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top 10 hit single “Cloud Nine” in October 1968, pioneered psychedelic soul, and was significant in the evolution of R&B and soul music. The band members are known for their choreography, distinct harmonies, and dress style. Having sold tens of millions of albums, the Temptations are among the most successful groups in popular music.
Featuring five male vocalists and dancers (save for brief periods with fewer or more members), the group was formed in 1960 in Detroit under the name the Elgins. The founding members came from two rival Detroit vocal groups: Otis Williams, Elbridge “Al” Bryant, and Melvin Franklin of Otis Williams & the Distants, and Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams of the Primes. In 1964, Bryant was replaced by David Ruffin, who was the lead vocalist on a number of the group’s biggest hits, including “My Girl” (1964), “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” (1966), and “I Wish It Would Rain” (1967). Ruffin was replaced in 1968 by Dennis Edwards, with whom the group continued to record hit records such as “Cloud Nine” (1968), “I Can’t Get Next to You” (1969), and “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today)” (1970). The group’s lineup has changed frequently since the departures of Kendricks and Paul Williams from the act in 1971. Later members of the group have included singers such as Richard Street, Damon Harris, Ron Tyson, and Ali-Ollie Woodson, with whom the group scored a late-period hit in 1984 with “Treat Her Like a Lady” and in 1987 with the theme song for the children’s movement program Kids in Motion.
Over the course of their career, the Temptations released four Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles and fourteen R&B number-one singles. Their music has earned three Grammy Awards. The Temptations were the first Motown recording act to win a Grammy Award – for “Cloud Nine” in 1969 – and in 2013 received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Six of the Temptations (Edwards, Franklin, Kendricks, Ruffin, Otis Williams, and Paul Williams) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. Three classic Temptations songs, “My Girl”, “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)”, and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”, are among The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The Temptations were ranked at number 68 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Artists of all time. They were the first Motown artist to get a Grammy Award and to get a Lifetime Achievement Award (which they gained in 2014).
As of 2023, the Temptations continue to perform with founder Otis Williams in the lineup (Williams owns the rights to the Temptations name.
Legacy
Berry Gordy insisted that all his acts be equally appealing to both white as well as black audiences, and employed an extensive creative team to help tailor Motown talent for the crossover success he desired. Motown choreographer Cholly Atkins, along with Paul Williams, created the trademark precise and energetic, yet refined, dance steps used by the Temptations onstage. The most famous of these, the Temptation Walk, or Temptation Strut, was adapted from similar moves by the Flamingos and the Vibrations, from those two sources, Atkins and Williams crafted the resulting signature dance routine.
Like other similar independent companies of the period, Motown was not a member of the Recording Industry of America, preferring to stay independent and handling their own widely varied distribution through thousands of “Mom & Pop” record stores and small radio stations. As such, hit singles by Motown artists such as the Temptations never achieved official “gold” or “platinum” RIAA certification until after Motown joined the RIAA in 1977.
During the 1960s and 1970s, a number of soul groups showed a significant influence from the Temptations, such as the Trammps, Tavares, Manhattans, the Chi-Lites, Parliaments, the Dramatics, the Dells, the Spinners, the Softones, the Delfonics, Daryl Hall & John Oates, and Motown labelmates the Miracles, Four Tops, the Monitors, Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Originals, the Jackson Five and the Undisputed Truth. These acts and others, showed the influence of the Temptations in both their vocal performances and their onstage choreography.
The Temptations’ songs have been covered by scores of musicians, from R&B singers such as Otis Redding (“My Girl”), Bobby Womack (“I Wish It Would Rain”), and Luther Vandross (“Since I Lost My Baby”), to the white soul and reggae bands such as Rare Earth (“Get Ready”), UB 40 (“The Way You Do and The Things You Do”) and the Rolling Stones (“My Girl”, “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg”, “Just My Imagination”) and Mick Jagger’s collaboration with reggae artist Peter Tosh on (“Don’t Look Back”). Funk Brothers(Motown) recorded “My Girl”, “Runaway Child Running Wild”, and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”. Hall & Oates performed “My Girl”, and “The Way You Do The Things You Do” in Live with Ruffin and Kendricks. Marcus Miller covered “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”. British rock singer Rod Stewart released a cover of “I’m Losing You” in 1971, and, in 1991, collaborated with the Temptations on the single “The Motown Song”. In 2017, The Temptations and Otis Williams’ then-protégé, Kyle Maack, recorded a cover of “Treat Her Like a Lady” for Maack’s Shaky Ground EP which also included two additional Temptations covers.
In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the Temptations number 67 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.The Temptations were voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame in 2005. They received the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2013. On Saturday, August 17, 2013, the Temptations were officially inducted into the R&B Music Hall of Fame at the inaugural ceremony held at the Waetejen Auditorium on the campus of Cleveland State University.
In 2018, the story of the Temptations served as inspiration for the jukebox musical Ain’t Too Proud, which opened on Broadway in March 2019. The show was nominated for 11 Tony Awards at the 73rd Tony Awards and won Best Choreography.