“When Paul Riser added the strings and horns, I came into the studio and Smokey was sitting at the console. “I remember we were performing at the (long defunct Detroit nightclub) The 20 Grand and Smokey said: ‘I have a song for you guys,’” recalls Williams of the birth of their signature My Girl. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesĪmong that crew was Smokey Robinson, the young singer-songwriter who penned a track that would help rocket the group to superstardom. “It was necessary timing and it was meant to be that God in his infinite wisdom put all of these producers, writers and artists together at that time and made such profound music.”ĭavid Ruffin, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, Otis Williams and Eddie Kendricks of the Temptations pose for a portrait in 1965. “It was happenstance,” Williams says now, who initially found trouble in the city but later found solace in music, later founding the Temptations with its original lineup of Al Bryant, Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin and Paul Williams.
As fate would have it, he wound up in Detroit just as the city’s homegrown Motown Records (founded by Berry Gordy and named, of course, after the city’s then claim to fame as the automobile capital of the world) was in its infancy.
Williams, who grew up in Texas, packed up and moved to Michigan with his mother when he was 10 (his parents separated shortly after Williams was born). “I am profoundly blessed to be doing what I’m doing 59 years later.” “Here I am, 77 years old and I’m enjoying my life as if I’m 27,” Williams says to the Guardian. In addition, Williams was recently honored at the Apollo Theater’s recent Spring Gala where he was bestowed a spot on the historic Harlem theater’s Walk of Fame. A jukebox musical, based on their rise and told from the perspective of Williams dubbed Ain’t Too Proud (named after their 1966 signature Ain’t Too Proud to Beg) debuted on Broadway in March and later garnered 11 Tony nominations, winning for best choreography. With 14 R&B No 1 singles under their belts (among them: My Girl, The Way You Do the Things You Do, Cloud Nine, Papa Was a Rolling Stone and Get Ready), their music provided a soundtrack to the 60s and early 70s, helping lift up Motown Records in the process.ĭespite launching over a half-century ago, the Temptations and their legend has lately been enjoying fresh relevance.
It’s a sentiment that has lasted through the Temptations’ success, as they have held onto the distinction of being one of the most commercially dominant vocal groups in music history.
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