Saturday, May 02, 2020

DVD/150: GET READY 1965-1972 - THE TEMPTATIONS (David Peck / Phil Galloway, 2006)

100 fantastic minutes spent with Otis Williams, part-founder of Motown legends The Temptations and the last living member of the Classic Five line-up which included David Ruffin, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks.


The Temptations came together when Otis and Franklin (formerly of The Distants) joined forces with Kendricks and Williams (formerly of The Primes) but the group's success really started when they recruited the tempestuous ego of David Ruffin then the hits started coming.


The Classic Five lasted for four years before Ruffin's demands - including wanting their name changed to David Ruffin AND The Temptations - led to his dismissal, replaced by Dennis Edwards; his arrival coinciding with a new direction in sound, this time into a more hard-edged urban sound.


These tv appearances show how The Temps not only were sublime vocally but visually too with their choreographed slides, boogaloos, drops, gestures, claps and fingersnaps.


Shelf or charity shop?  Seriously??  MY GIRL, GET READY, AIN'T TOO PROUD TO BEG, YOU'RE MY EVERYTHING, I WISH IT WOULD RAIN, CLOUD NINE, BALL OF CONFUSION, JUST MY IMAGINATION, and PAPA WAS A ROLLING STONE are just some of the filmed performances but the real treasures are 15 acapella tracks straight from Motown Studio A which shows off David Ruffin and Dennis Edwards' gruff vocals, Eddie Kendricks' sweet falsetto, Paul Edwards' tenor, Melvin Franklin's bottomless bass and Otis providing the vocal glue to meld them all together,


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