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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

Here's a full length (12:04) version of Papa Was A Rolling Stone by the Temptations in high quality evidently played off vinyl. This longer version has a very long instrumental introduction and a long bridge at the midpoint. The musicianship impresses me. A very haunting melody with a string section and brass, rare in music nowadays. Since I know little about the recording industry, I have to ask the intelligentsia (a big word for FReepers), what techniques were used in the early 1970s to create such a sound. I presume it was recorded in the rather modest facilities of Motown...

There will only be one David Ruffin and the group he led - The Temptations. Ruffin died today 15 years ago of a drug overdose. His driver took him to the hospital and dropped him off. At first no one knew who he was...a few days later family members claimed his body. There are lot of websites dedicated to The Temptations, David Ruffin, Motown music, and the era that produced the music.

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...

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...

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...

“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.

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...

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...

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...

The pants are down and the truth is out "The Five" of the US Supreme Court turned out in reality to be only "The Two". The "Conservative Movement" sales pitch for four "Conservative" justices (Roberts, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett) turned out to be a scam... Day 272 Of The Dictatorship of COVID-19: Trump's Shrewd Response Way back in March President Trump put Vice-President Mike Pence in charge of the coronavirus response leading the White House Coronavirus Task Force with its cast of characters including the high-profile Dr. Anthony Fauci and others like Dr. Robert Redfield of the Centers for Disease...

The coronavirus story continues the Dictatorship of COVID-19 worldwide the Faucian version of how humanity is supposed to live with the backdrop of President Trump's diagnosis and treatment now underway. "If we had an honest media" starts this Twitter post..... We'll move forward and consider those from the world of music who have moved on this week. He was one of my friend's favorite singers back in the 1970's and songs like this remind me why my friend loved the music of Mac Davis who passed away this week at the age of 78..... Before we remember the music of...

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.

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.

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.

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