The Temptations “From The Beginning”

Around 1958, Otis Williams started a group called Otis Williams and the Siberians featuring Elbridge “Al” Bryant, James “PeeWee” Crawford, Arthur Walton, and Vernard Plain, as their lead singer. Early managers included Bill Williams & Milton Jenkins. Milton had rehearsal space where the met two groups. The Primes, from Birmingham, Alabama , Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, and Kell Osborne; and their sister group, The Primettes who would eventually become The Supremes. “Sometime in early 1959, had a new manager, Johnnie Mae Matthews,and a namechange”The Distants” In 1959, the group heard a recording of a song called “Need It”, recorded by the Voice Masters. The most striking thing about the track was the deep growl of the bass singer, Melvin Franklin. It turned out that Melvin and Otis attended the same school and they began hanging out and singing together, developing a tight relationship that would remain until Melvin’s death in 1995. The Distants lead singer Vernard quit Richard Street joined the Distants. This lineup “Al Bryant, James Crawford, Melvin Franklin, Richard Street, and Otis Williams” – recorded the song “Come On”, which became a local hit. A few weeks later, James “Pee Wee” Crawford dropped out, and was replaced by Albert “Mooch” Harrell. In 1960, the group was playing at the Saint Stephen’s community center where Berry Gordy handed Otis a business card. Not long after, “Mooch” Harrell was let go because of personality conflicts, and the group had also decided to let their manager Johnnie Mae go as well. Richard Street began missing rehearsals, so the group was essentially down to a trio (Al, Melvin & Otis) Otis called Berry Gordy and arranged an audition for a couple weeks later,Around this time Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams joined the group and they became The Elgins. The group went to Motown and auditioned for Mickey Stevenson
Berry Gordy loved the old raw songs they had like “Oh, Mother Of Mine”, which became
their first record. A few days before signing, they discovered that another group was calling themselves The Elgins and they would change their names to The Temptations “The group worked hard, and Berry produced most of their sessions, . Most leads on these early releases were split between Eddie, with his sweet first tenor and falsetto, (“Paradise”) and Paul, with his deeper baritone (“I’ll Love You Till I Die”). In early 1963 they cut their sixth single, “I Want A Love I Can See”, with Paul Williams on lead. This was a Smokey Robinson song and production. Smokey, would be one of the two writer-producers who would create their greatest hits The other would beNorman Whitfield. On the road, Drinking and drug use was becoming a problem for Al Bryant so the group began to look for replacements . One night, while the group was winding up a show, DavidRuffin came out of the audience and leapt onto the stage. The minute Ruffin got up and did his soon to be legendary throwing the microphone into the air, catching it, and doing full splits, that was it! The audience went wild! However fighting between Al and Paul, ended with Al breaking a beer bottle on Paul’s face, sending him to the hospital for stitches. After that, the situation only got worse and the Fox Theaters’ annual Christmas show in 1963 was Al’s last peformance with The Temptations. More To Come …
All Credit is given to The Classic Temptations Memorial Website for providing this information. The photos used were borrowed from The Temptations Forever Website.!
see ya soon…..