House Party (The Temptations album)

House Party
Studio album by The Temptations
Released November 4, 1975
Recorded 1974-1975
Genre Soul, funk, disco
Label Gordy
GS 973
Producer Jeffrey Bowen
The Temptations chronology
A Song for You
(1975)A Song for You1975		 House Party
(1975)		 Wings of Love
(1976)Wings of Love1976
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]


House Party is a 1975 album released by the American R&B vocal group, the Temptations, on Motown Records' Gordy label.

Overview

This album is made up of vaulted songs recorded both prior to and following the sessions for A Song for You. House Party contains the final sessions recorded by falsetto Damon Harris as a member of the group, as well as the first for his replacement, Glenn Leonard. The sessions featured a slew of producers and composers from both within and outside of the Motown stable. The completed project was overseen by Jeffrey Bowen, who produced A Song for You and the subsequent album, Wings of Love.

The Temptations were not given creative input on the final release, to which Otis Williams referred in his autobiography Temptations as a "mismatched collection of, pardon my French, shit."[2] Despite Williams' reservations regarding the circumstances surrounding the compilation and release of these tracks, as well as the album's perceived lack of commercial appeal, fans of the group have given House Party favorable reviews in the years since its release.

Brothers Brian and Eddie Holland, collectively two-thirds of the Holland–Dozier–Holland hit-making stable, worked on the first track and only single, "Keep Holdin' On", while Stax Records stalwart Steve Cropper contributed to three songs as producer and/or writer. Vocal highlights include a rare lead performance by Otis Williams on his own composition, "Darling, Stand by Me (Song for My Woman)", the Richard Street-led ballad, "If I Don't Love You This Way" (a cover of a song by the Jackson 5 originally featured on their Dancing Machine album and named by the family group's lead singer Michael Jackson as one of his favourite songs[3]); Glenn Leonard's debut in the ensemble vocal of "What You Need Most (I Do Best of All)"; and fan-favorite bass singer Melvin Franklin's lead vocals on "Ways of a Grown-Up Man."

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalist(s)Length
1."Keep Holdin' On"Brian Holland, Eddie HollandEdwards3:55
2."It's Just a Matter of Time"Frank JohnsonEdwards3:31
3."You Can't Stop a Man in Love"George Soule, Terry WoodfordEdwards3:50
4."World of You, Love, and Music"Steve Cropper, Artie WayneEdwards4:04
5."What You Need Most (I Do Best of All)"Dennis Edwards, David English, Damon Harris, Richard Street, Otis WilliamsWilliams, Street, Franklin, Leonard3:19
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalist(s)Length
6."Ways of a Grown-Up Man"Cropper, Richard CasonFranklin4:05
7."Johnny Porter"Bobby Ray Appleberry, Bill CuomoEdwards4:39
8."Darling, Stand by Me (Song for My Woman)"Edwards, English, Street, WilliamsWilliams3:44
9."If I Don't Love You This Way"Leon Ware, Pam SawyerStreet3:31

Personnel

Performers
Producers

Charts

Year Album Chart positions[4]
US US
R&B
1975 House Party 40 11

Singles

Year Single Chart positions[4]
US US
R&B		 US
AC		 UK
1976 "Keep Holdin' On" 54 3 — —
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic review
  2. ↑ Williams, Otis; Romanowski, Patricia (2002). Temptations (2nd ed.). New York City: Cooper Square Press. p. 177. ISBN 978-08154-1218-2.
  3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aedRLb1G_ZM
  4. 1 2 "The Temptations US albums/singles chart history". allmusic.com. Retrieved 2013-03-12.
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