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With The Smokey Robinson-penned ‘My Girl,’ The Temptations created a keystone soul song that put the group on the map, adding to Motown’s winning streak.With The Smokey Robinson-penned ‘My Girl,’ The Temptations created a keystone soul song that put the group on the map, adding to Motown’s winning streak. Dub der-nern, dub der-nern… That little guitar lick is not remotely emphatic. It’s not loud, not heavy. There is nothing about it that is gimmicky, and it uses just two notes of a major scale. Yet the moment you hear it, you just know what the song is. It’s “My Girl”...

Strong -- who passed away Sunday, Jan. 29, at the age of 81 in Detroit -- co-wrote some of Motown's most enduring hits.More than 73 years ago, Barrett Strong, as a singer, declared “Money (That’s What I Want)” — for the first hit single from the Motown empire. What he actually wound up getting was musical immortality. As a songwriter. Strong — who passed away Sunday, Jan. 29, at the age of 81 in Detroit — co-wrote some of Motown’s most enduring hits, with a variety of collaborators but primarily the late Norman Whitfield. Those included “I Heard It Through...

Richard Street, for nearly three decades a member of The Temptations, has died. He is the second former member of the fabled Motown group to pass away in two weeks; last week former Tempations tenor Damon Harris died. Both singers can be heard on the 1972 hit "Papa Was A Rolling Stone." Street and Harris joined the band at the tail end of its heyday. Harris was only with the group for four years. Street was being treated for blood clots at Saint Rose Dominican Hospital in Las Vegas, where he died Wednesday morning. He was 70 years old.

Damon Harris, who sang with the Temptations on many of their hits of the 1970s, died here on Feb. 18. He was 62. The cause was prostate cancer, said Chuck Woodson, his cousin and a family spokesman. Mr. Harris was a decade younger than anyone else in the Temptations when he joined in 1971, replacing Eddie Kendricks. He was the lead singer on “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” the group’s last No. 1 single, and was also heard on “Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are),” “Masterpiece” and other hits. He left in 1975.

The Grammy-winning song is a revered example of the group’s fruitful relationship with producer Norman Whitfield and his co-writer Barrett StrongThe Temptations’ soulful staple, “Cloud Nine,” released on October 25, 1968, is much celebrated as the first Motown song to win a Grammy. It’s also a revered exemplar of the group’s fruitful relationship with producer Norman Whitfield and his co-writer Barrett Strong. Recorded with a new-look Funk Brothers band featuring the wah-wah guitar of Dennis Coffey, it was also the marker of the taut, tense new sound the combined talents would create together from that point on. But as...

As the Detroit Free Press reports, Williams shared stories from the group’s 61-year history. With the latter-day Temptations and Four Tops back in the city where both groups were born, for a double bill show at Detroit’s Fox Theatre tonight (6), the Tempts’ surviving co-founder Otis Williams paid a visit to the Motown Museum yesterday. Shop the best of the Temptations’ discography on vinyl and more. As the Detroit Free Press reports, Williams shared stories from the group’s 61-year history, imparting his wisdom to an audience including 13 aspiring artists from the museum’s Hitsville Next programs. The event was hosted...

Turning points in music history are almost always more complicated than they appear at first glance. That's exactly the case with the Temptations' "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)," which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 3, 1971. In a way, the history of the song goes back to 1969, when Motown producer Norman Whitfield and his frequent writing partner Barrett Strong penned it. At the time, though, it didn't fit with what the Temptations were doing; it was a ballad perfectly set up for a dreamy, romantic orchestration, and the group had moved away...

“It was the third of September / That day I’ll always remember,” begins “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” the classic song by the Temptations. Though it became one of their biggest hits, the group initially rejected the song - and that opening line proved problematic as well. “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” was penned by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, two of the most successful songwriters in Motown’s arsenal. Whitfield created the song’s haunting melody, while Strong handled the lyrics. “Norman said he wanted lyrics that were fun, not serious, so listeners would have a good time with it,” Strong...

There is a wonderful musical, Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, on stage in Los Angeles. It is a superb theatrical production. For those of us of a certain age, the music of the Temptations was the soundtrack of our youth. From "My Girl" of 1964 to "Papa was a Rolling Stone" in 1972, the Temptations made their indelible musical mark on the 1960s. There were countless hits in between and many later. The Temptations differed from the surf and car songs of the Beach Boys and of course sounded nothing like the Beatles. They were...

A train pulls into the station roughly 3/4s of the way through video but leaves in time for the nice finish.

The powerful song was the second single from the group’s ‘Puzzle People’ album.It’s October 18, 1969. The Russian Soyuz 8 spacecraft returns to Earth with cosmonauts Shatalov and Yeliseyev. Jefferson Airplane’s Paul Kantner is arrested for marijuana possession. Wyclef Jean and golfer Ernie Els are each one day old; Led Zeppelin are preparing to release their second album. Gas costs 35c a gallon in America and 6s 2d (31p) in Britain. And America’s new favorite pop single is “I Can’t Get Next To You” by the Temptations. Another triumph in the ongoing collaboration between the vocal group, producer Norman...

The 1964 Motown classic joins an elite group of megahits on Spotify.“My Girl,” the 1964 hit from The Temptations, has just crossed a major streaming milestone. Today, the track hit one billion listens on Spotify. By far the group’s most-streamed song, “My Girl” joins the elite group of less than 1,000 high-streamers, and becomes one of the oldest songs on the list. “My Girl” was the first number-one hit from The Temptations, though many more would follow throughout the 1960s and 70s. Written by Smokey Robinson, a beloved artist in his own right, and singer Ronnie White, “My Girl” was...

Because he was such an icon, he was able to have Black artists on TV when they were often not welcomed nor wanted elsewhere.I cannot recall when I first heard the name Ed Sullivan, but it certainly had to have been when I was a ghetto youth coming of age in the 1970s and 1980s. I initially connected his name with music superstars Elvis Presley and The Beatles, and their now legendary appearances on his variety show. I was intrigued by how he introduced musical guests, his mightily distinctive diction, his genuinely low-key demeanor. But I had no clue, truly,...

The Temptations -- Papa Was A Rolling Stone

Olivia Rodrigo schooled Anthony Fauci on "man crush Mondays" in a new video aimed at pushing young people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The nation's leading infectious diseases expert and the "good 4 u" singer read tweets from fans in the pro-vaccination video released Friday by the White House. After Fauci reads aloud a tweet wishing him a "happy man crush Monday" and praising his "intelligence" and "compassion," he tells Rodrigo, "Well that's very nice to say that." When asked if he knows what the lovey-dovey term means, he responded with a laugh, "No idea." "Man crush Monday is just...

...this weekend we mark the year of tyranny known as DC 19 (The Dictatorship of COVID-19). Day 362 Of The Dictatorship Of COVID-19, Day 362 Of America And The World Held Hostage "Just in the last 12 months in the United States of America we were under the threat of the force of law for losing our liberties if we decided to go outside our homes, if we decided to travel, if we decided that we were going to open our businesses and trade with each other, if we decided that we wanted to go to church and worship. These...

Bruce Williamson Jr., the lead singer of the Temptations, has died from the coronavirus. He was 49. The soul singer died Sunday night at his home in Las Vegas, TMZ reported. Williamson, who was not an original member, joined the Temptations in 2006 and sang with the group until 2015.

Temptations - Get Ready Joe Biden VP selection theme song. Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, Susan Rice. I never met a girl who makes me feel the way that you do. (You're alright)Whenever I'm asked who makes my dreams real, I say that you do. (You're outta sight) So, fee-fi-fo-fumLook out baby, 'cause here I come. And I'm bringing you a love that's true.So get ready, so get ready.I'm gonna try to make you love me too.So get ready, so get ready 'cause here I come. (Get ready 'cause here I come) I'm on my way.(Get ready 'cause here I come)

Grammy-winning singer Dennis Edwards, an unmistakable voice during legendary act the Temptations’ heyday, died Thursday night (Feb. 1) of complications from meningitis, confirms his wife of 18 years, Brenda Edwards. Mr. Edwards, who lived in Florissant, died in a hospital in Chicago, and had been in and out of hospitals since he was diagnosed May 2017. He would have been 75 on Saturday (Feb. 3). Mr. Edwards received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, given to the Temptations, in 2013 that included original Temptations singer Otis Williams and the survivors of the departed members of the group. The Post-Dispatch profiled Edwards at...

Satan at His Most Subtle: A Reflection on the Temptations and Traps of the Pious By: Msgr. Charles PopeWhat is temptation? Temptation is the work of Satan to drag you to Hell. And Satan can read you like a book and play you like piano. Do not exaggerate his power, but do not underestimate it either.Some of his subtlest work is done in the area of religious observance. There, he can cloak himself quite easily in the lamb’s clothing of piety, but, wolf that he really is, distort it, either through excess or defect, thereby destroying you with what...