Friday, 24 November 2017
734 Goodbye The Temptations - The Jones
Chart entered : 22 February 1992
Chart peak : 69
The Temptations were always bigger in their native US than here but they had a steady string of Top 20 hits here throughout the sixties then hit an artistic peak around the start of the seventies with classics like "Ball of Confusion" and "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" directed by Norman Whitfield . After 1973 the UK hits dried up ( and in the US their chart positions were lower ) but they sporadically charted in the eighties and reached number 12 in 1984 with "Treat Her Like A Lady". There were many line up changes. In 1968 David Ruffin was fired and replaced by Dennis Edwards from The Contours. In 1971 Eddie Kendricks who was unhappy with Whitfield's new material quit and was replaced by Ricky Owens from The Vibrations. Shortly after that Paul Williams was forced to retire through illness and was replaced by Richard Street from The Monitors. Owens' tenure was short and he was replaced by Damon Harris from The Young Vandals. By the time of their 1982 comeback he'd been replaced by Glenn Leonard. He was in turn replaced by Ron Tyson in 1983. The following year Dennis left and was replaced by Ali-Ollie Woodson.
"The Jones' " was from their 1991 album "Milestone", their second album in a row to fall short of the charts in the US. It was written by New York songwriter and producer Alton "Wookie " Stewart. It sees the lads adopting the new jack swing style with a James Brown sample . Ali, Ron and Otis Williams share the lead vocals on the song though I don't know which of them does the superfluous rap section towards the end. The song is a narrative about a man who dances with a hot girl but whose passion is killed by finding out her surname is Jones - we don't find out why. New jack swing isn't really my thing but I quite like the bass line and the hook. It was a hit because DJs in Chicago found it a perfect fit for a dance style known as "Chicago Steppin" and it became a club favourite after the album had died. Its performance was surely affected by the simultaneous reissue of My Girl which reached number 2 on the back of Home Alone although whether "The Jones'" prospered in its slipstream or was crushed by it is impossible to say.
They released another single from the album , the plodding soft soul of "Hoops of Fire", but it made no impression.
In 1993 Richard left the group after an argument with Otis. Bass man Melvin Franklin's health began to decline and he couldn't always perform with the group. He died in February 1995 before the release of their album of pop standards "For Lovers Only" on which he features on a couple of tracks. Ali-Ollie who was fighting throat cancer was let go shortly afterwards.
Many assumed that would be the final Temptations record but Otis, the sole survivor from the classic line up, had other ideas and replacements were recruited. As the least obtrusive member who'd never done a solo lead vocal, Otis has had a lot of flak for keeping the group going, with comparisons to a Beatles featuring just Ringo ( which may yet happen of course ). Having said that, their commercial fortunes did revive under his stewardship. Their next album "Phoenix Rising" , a pedestrian collection of smooth R & B in the vein of Boyz II Men ( Men II Codgerz ?) was their highest charting since 1982. Their profile was further raised that year by a TV mini-series based on Otis's autobiography though he had to fight his way through a blizzard of lawsuits as a result.
The group plodded on with Ron remaining alongside Otis in the line up, releasing three more moderately successful albums in the same vein for Motown before being released from their contract in 2004 . They then recorded a couple of covers albums for New Door which actually outsold the last couple of Motown efforts. Their poorly-received 2010 album "Still Here" seems likely to be their last.
The Temptations have become a byword for a high death rate over the years but it should be noted that only one of the was under 50 at the time.
With a voice similar to The Four Tops' Levi Stubbs, David seemed well equipped for solo success and initially he achieved it. His first single "My Whole World Ended" made the US Top Ten in 1969 and his first three albums ( one of them with brother Jimmy ) sold well. Outside of the grooves though, his life was unravelling. He had a lifelong struggle with cocaine addiction and he had a torrid relationship with singer Tammi Terrell which involved physical abuse. Some made the link between an incident in which he'd hit her on the head in 1967 and her death from a brain tumour in 1970. The following year, Motown declined to release his third solo album and though his recording career recommenced a couple of years later the lost momentum was never fully recovered. After a couple of under-performing albums in 1973 and 1974, disco, or more precisely, Van McCoy gave him a shot in the arm. McCoy helmed his 1975 album "Who I Am" which yielded a Top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic with "Walk Away From Love". He recorded two more albums with McCoy but the last one sold poorly and he left Motown in 1977. He signed with Warner Brothers and recorded two more albums which didn't break out of the R & B charts. In 1982 he served a short sentence for tax evasion.
In the meantime, Eddie had outstripped him after leaving The Temptations in 1971. His first two solo albums did quite well but in 1973 he got together with producer Frank Wilson and scored a US number one with "Keep On Truckin", often regarded as the first disco hit , and almost repeated the trick with "Boogie Down", the following year. That was his high watermark but his sales remained buoyant until 1978 when he bought himself out of his Motown contract and signed for Arista. Two albums for them and one for Atlantic sold very poorly and by the early eighties he was in much the same boat as David.
The pair of them briefly rejoined The Temptations for the "Reunion" album and tour. Eddie's vocals were deemed sub-par as a result of his heavy smoking and David often went missing during the tour. Nevertheless, the pair decided to work as a duo and collaborated with Hall and Oates on their "Live At The Apollo" album in 1985. The single "A Night at the Apollo Live !" was a minor hit for the quartet in the UK. They released an album "Ruffin & Kendrick" in 1988 , a reasonable attempt at contemporary soul with a strong Hall and Oates influence although they weren't involved, having fallen out with David over his drug use for which he served another jail sentence in 1987. The album, released by RCA didn't sell well, and was the last thing either of them would record.
The following year, The Temptations were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and David , Eddie and Dennis decided to tour as "Ruffin / Kendrick / Edwards Former Leads of The Temptations". Despite Otis going to court to try and stop them they toured in 1991 but Eddie had to drop out after being diagnosed with lung cancer. Shortly after that David died in hospital , aged 50, after overdosing on crack in Philadelphia. Eddie didn't survive him forlong. At the end of the year, he had a lung removed and went back out on tour but he fell ill again in the summer of 1992 and died that October aged 52.
After being forced to step down from singing with the group, Paul continued to work with them on choreography. In 1973, he recorded the gospel-tinged soul song "Feel Like Giving Up" but before it could be released he was found dead in an alley near his girlfriend's house having apparently shot himself, aged 34.
After leaving the group Dennis re-commenced a solo career on Motown and scored immediately with "Don't Look Any Further", a duet with Siedah and a moderate hit in both the US and UK ( twice, in 1984 and 1987 ). He released two albums of contemporary soul but they didn't break out of the R & B chart. He then rejoined The Temptations for a short time ( 1987-9 ) before being fired again. After the deaths of David and Eddie he released another solo LP , "Talk To Me" on a minor label which received minimal attention. After that, he decided to trade on his past and put together his own Temptations line up. After a legal tussle with Otis, they became The Temptations Review featuring Dennis Edwards. Paul's son, Paul Jr is part of the line up.
Ali-Ollie recovered sufficiently to dabble in acting and record an R & B LP "Right Here All Along" in 2001. It didn't make much impression and Ali-Ollie put together a Temptations-like revue called Emperors of Soul. In 2006 he threw his lot in with Dennis's outfit and toured with them for two years before leukaemia forced him out. He died in 2010 aged 58.
Richard toured as a solo performer after leaving the group but didn't make any solo recordings apart from a charity CD of old Temptations hits for a hospital in 2005. He died of a pulmonary embolism in 2013 aged 70.
Damon re-formed his previous band The Young Vandals after being sacked though they were re-named Impact. They released an eponymous album in 1976 which isn't a bad soft soul effort but they sound identical to The Stylistics. It didn't sell and the label, Atco, dropped them. The following year they released a similar effort "The Pac Is Back" on Fantasy with the same result.
Damon dissolved the band and became a solo artist. Fantasy let him release one solo LP , "Silk" in 1978. It's a decent pop soul album with the title track being particularly good . "I Fell In Love", about falling for a prostitute, would also be strong if it didn't drag on for such a ridiculous length.
When that album failed to make an impression , Damon went back to college and retired from music for over a decade. In the nineties Damon came back and did some touring, sometimes by himself, sometimes with Richard. In 1998 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and founded the Damon Harris Cancer Foundation in 2001. The disease came back and claimed him in 2013 aged 62.
Glenn became a Born Again Christian minister. He returned to music in 2002 with his own Temptations Revue Show. He released an under-produced solo CD "Then And Now" in 2011 re-recording some Temptations tracks and demonstrating his falsetto range. He currently tours with a couple of latter day members of The Platters and The Drifters as Leonard, Coleman and Blunt.
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As a slight point of order, the reissue of "My Girl" in 1992 was on the back of the film of the same name rather than Home Alone. Both featured washed up child star Macaulay Culkin, which may explain the mix up.
ReplyDeleteSpot on. I'll correct that, thanks.
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