The Emperors of Soul
Alright so I read about Marvin and Smokey, now it’s time to get into one of my Mother’s favorite groups, the Temptations.
I recently finished the story of the Tempts by Otis Williams which of course was another self-congratulatory biography, but it seems like the stories of all the Motown artists are the same: small town group made up of people from the south, they had a local group until being “discovered” by Motown, they had a string of hits spanning however many years, enter drugs/drinking/etc., people die.
Specific to the Temptations though, here are a few interesting facts:
Most celebrated members (Eddie, Melvin, Paul, Otis, David) were from Alabama. Otis was from Texas and David was from Mississippi.
Although Paul’s death was ruled as a suicide, his family believes he was murdered. They cite that Paul was right handed, but the bullet entered the left side of his head. There was also a bottle of liquor on his left side that was arranged as if he had dropped it when shot. Finally, there were two shots fired from the gun that killed him and only the bullet in his head was found.
David Ruffin grew up singing in his family’s gospel group before he turned secular.
Otis tried cocaine, but was turned off as he didn’t like the feelings it caused.
Paul had sickle cell anemia which was the real cause of why he didn’t tour with the Tempts.
Melvin is the uncle of Rick James. The bass singer and David Ruffin are also distant cousins.
Eddie Kendricks was fyne.
. . .
Alright well I suppose that’s my own personal fact, lol, but he was!
So yeah, that’s some facts fo ya. This week Radio KaNisa features some of their biggest hits (and my personal favorites).
