Before My Girl, Motown insiders called them the Hitless Temptations
For three years after signing with Motown in 1961, the Temptations released song after song that went nowhere, earning a cruel nickname. Then Smokey Robinson wrote a tune for the gruff, mellow voice of their newest singer, and My Girl gave them their first pop number one.
The group grew from two rival Detroit acts. Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams had sung in church together as boys in Birmingham, Alabama, and moved north as The Primes, whose manager also created a sister group that became The Supremes. Otis Williams, a Texas teenager, led The Distants with Melvin Franklin and Al Bryant. When The Primes broke up in 1960, Otis needed two more voices for a Motown audition, and Kendricks agreed to join provided Paul Williams came too.
They auditioned as The Elgins in March 1961, but another act already had that name, so a new one was chosen on the steps of the Hitsville studio. Their first charting single reached only 22 on the rhythm and blues list in May 1962, and eight releases through 1963 did little. They nearly became The Pirates, and a planned song, Do You Love Me, went to The Contours when Berry Gordy could not reach them.
Change came with personnel. Bryant, who preferred his milk-delivery job to rehearsals, was dismissed after onstage fights, and David Ruffin, who had impressed the group by joining them onstage, replaced him in January 1964. The Way You Do the Things You Do became their first top 20 hit that April. Robinson and fellow Miracle Ronnie White wrote My Girl on tour; released on 21 December 1964, it topped the pop chart in March 1965 and remains their signature song.
With Dennis Edwards replacing Ruffin in 1968, producer Norman Whitfield steered them into psychedelic soul, and Cloud Nine made them Motown's first Grammy winners. Their tally reached four pop number ones and fourteen R&B chart-toppers. In 2023 Billboard named them the greatest R&B and hip-hop artists of all time. Otis Williams, the last surviving founder, still performs with the group.
Source: The Temptations
