Temptations Live!

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Temptations Live!
Temptations Live! cover
Live album by The Temptations
Released March 6, 1967
Recorded The Roostertail's Upper Deck, Detroit, Michigan, October 3, 1966
Genre Soul
Length 47:45
Label Gordy
GS 921
Producer None given
Professional reviews
The Temptations chronology
Greatest Hits
(1966)		 Temptations Live!
(1967)		 The Temptations with a Lot o' Soul
(1967)

Temptations Live! was the first live album to be released by The Temptations. Recorded on October 3, 1966 in the Upper Deck of the Roostertail club in Detroit, Michigan, and released on album by Gordy (Motown) Records in 1967, the album features David Ruffin, Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, and Otis Williams performing their regular live repertoire for a highly receptive crowd mostly comprised of young women. Included in the set are Temptations hits such as "My Girl", "My Baby", "Get Ready", "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", "Don't Look Back", and the group's then-current single, "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep". Out of the several live albums the group recorded during their career, this is the only one to feature David Ruffin.

Contents

[edit] Overview

Also included in the show's lineup are performances of The Beatles' "Yesterday" and the pop standard "Ol' Man River", a solo showcase for Melvin Franklin. Paul Williams' rendition of "Don't Look Back" takes his popular solo number, and expands it to seven minutes as he improvises a strut across the stage and urges the audience to "walk on" with him.

The show was performed on a "Motown Monday", a series of seven performances, each showcasing a different major Motown act, hosted at the Roostertail by Scott Regen every Monday during the late summer and fall of 1966. The Temptations' show was the final one in the series; the "Motown Mondays" began on August 22 with The Four Tops, and the other nights featured Jr. Walker & the All Stars, Marvin Gaye, Martha & the Vandellas, The Miracles, and The Marvelettes.

Originally issued with sixteen tracks, Temptations Live! was fully remixed and remastered in 1998, repairing audio problems with the original album, and adding the original show finale, "The Way You Do the Things You Do", to the album, which did not make the original 1967 release because it could not fit on the LP.

[edit] Track listing

Superscripts denote lead singers for each track: (a) David Ruffin, (b) Eddie Kendricks, (c) Paul Williams, (d) Melvin Franklin.

[edit] Side one

  1. Intro by Scott Regen – 1:09
  2. Medley – 4:49
    1. "Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue)" (Norman Whitfield, Edward Holland, Jr.) b
    2. "The Girl's Alright with Me" (Whitfield, Holland, Eddie Kendricks) b
    3. "I'll Be in Trouble" b (Smokey Robinson) b
    4. "I Want a Love I Can See" (Robinson) c, a
  3. "What Love Has Joined Together" (Robinson, Robert Rogers) – 3:01 b
  4. "My Girl" (Robinson, Ronnie White) – 3:08 a
  5. ""Yesterday"/"What Now My Love" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Gilbert Bécaud, Pierre Delano, Carl Sigman) – 3:08 a, d
  6. "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep" (Whitfield, Holland) – 2:23 a
  7. Group Introduction – 0:49
  8. "I Wish You Love" (Albert Beach, Charles Trenet) – 1:52 b
  9. "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" (Whitfield, Holland) – 2:57 a

[edit] Side two

  1. "Old Man River" (Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II) – 4:44 d
  2. "Get Ready" (Robinson) – 2:10 b
  3. "Fading Away" (Robinson, Rogers, Warren Moore) – 1:55 b
  4. "My Baby" (Robinson, Rogers, Moore) – 2:10 a
  5. "You'll Lose a Precious Love" (Robinson) – 2:50 a
  6. "Baby, Baby I Need You" (Robinson) – 1:50 c, b
  7. "Don't Look Back" (Robinson, White) – 7:07 c

[edit] Compact disc bonus track

  1. "The Way You Do the Things You Do" (Robinson, Rogers) – 3:24 b

[edit] Personnel

  • The Temptations: Eddie Kendricks, David Ruffin, Paul Williams, Otis Williams, and Melvin Franklin (David English)
  • The Temptations Band:
    • Cornelius Grant: guitar, musical director
    • Bill Upchurch: bass
    • "Stormin" Norman Roberts: drums
  • Johnny Trudell's Horn Section:
    • Johnny Trudell, Maurice Davis, and Floyd Jones or Billy Homer: trumpets
    • Don White and George Bohannon: trombones
    • Teddy Buckner and Ernie Rogers: alto saxophones;
    • George Benson and Angelo Carlisi: tenor saxophones;
    • Thomas "Beans" Bowles: baritone saxophone, flute