The Temptations

The Temptations, popular American vocal group for the Motown Record Company and the premier soul group of the 1960s. Formed in 1960 by five teenagers who had moved with their families from the South to Detroit, Michigan, the Temptations combined the intricate harmonies of the Northern urban groups with the raw abandon of Southern soul music (see Rhythm-and-Blues Music: Motown and Soul Music).

First known as the Elgins, the original members of the Temptations were Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, Melvin Franklin, Otis Williams, and Eldridge Bryant. In 1964 David Ruffin replaced Bryant. Over the next five years, considered the group’s prime, the Temptations had two lead singers: Ruffin, a raspy baritone, and Kendricks, a winsome falsetto. The Temptations were also supported by two brilliant songwriter-producers at Motown Studios, Smokey Robinson and Norman Whitfield.

Ruffin, a gospel singer before joining the Temptations, helped to bring the group international stardom with his performance of the song “My Girl” (1964). “My Girl” became a number-one single on the Billboard magazine pop charts in 1965. The mixture of swirling violins, Ruffin’s ardent gospel style, and the velvety harmonies of the Temptations made classics of songs such as “My Girl,” ”Since I Lost My Baby” (1965), “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” (1966), and “(I Know) I’m Losing You” (1966). In 1968 Ruffin left the group amid rumors of ego clashes. The group added vocalist Dennis Edwards while producer Whitfield drastically altered the group’s material, releasing a number of socially conscious songs, including “Cloud Nine”(1968), which won a 1968 Grammy Award, and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” (1972), which won two 1972 Grammy Awards. The new records, although elegantly produced and highly popular, lacked the warmth and depth of the Ruffin-era classics. Yet Whitfield occasionally reverted to the bluesy romanticism of the earlier Temptations, as on “I Can’t Get Next to You” (1969) and “Just My Imagination” (1971), both of which went to number one on the pop charts. In 1989 the Temptations were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Only one member of the mid-1960s group, Otis Williams, is still alive and singing with the Temptations. In 1973 Paul Williams shot himself in the head. In 1991 Ruffin was found at the emergency entrance to a Philadelphia hospital, dead from a drug overdose. Kendricks died of lung cancer less than a year later, and Franklin died in 1995. The group continued to perform and release new music, including Ear-Resistible (2000), which won a Grammy Award for best traditional rhythm-and-blues vocal album.