CONCERT FOR WICHITA: RESCHEDULED TO JAN. 5.
The Motown group whose songs are still karaoke favorites, who are still attracting sold-out crowds in their most recent tour, just released their first album in eight years, and have a musical headed to Broadway.
Even if you weren’t alive when the Temptations “blew up” in the 1960s, you probably know a few of their songs. With hits like “My Girl,” “Get Ready,” “I Can’t Get Next to You” and “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” the smooth-stepping quartet has been plugging away for six decades despite tumultuous turnover in its ranks.
The Temptations
Tour Dates
Tickets start at $35
HAPPENED – KCMO – Aug. 11 Sat., 2018 – Ameristar Casino, 3200 N. Ameristar Dr.
RESCHEDULED for WICHITA – Jan. 5. Sat., 2019 – With Four Tops – Hartman Arena, 8151 Hartman Arena Dr., Park City, KS
Over those decades their sound hasn’t changed much. Their fans know what they like, and the group continues to give it to them in big doses.
“We always stay with what made us great in the first place,” Otis Williams, the group’s leader told AARP. “Our harmonies. Great songs. The Temptations soul.”
Williams, 76, is the sole surviving member of the “Classic Five” that included Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, Melvin Franklin and David Ruffin. Now he sings with Ron Tyson, Terry Weeks, Larry Braggs and Willie Green.
The group’s latest lineup reflects two major changes announced late last year. The departure of lead singer Bruce Williamson Jr., who had been with the group since 2007, and bass singer Joe Herndon, who spent 15 years with the group, were replaced with Larry Braggs, former lead singer for Tower of Power, and Willie Green as the group’s bass singer.
Changes in personnel are nothing new to Temptations fans, and fans have been split for years over whether new additions to the Temptations line-up are suitable and whether the legacy of the group has been damaged by the ever-increasing cast of characters who have appeared as a Temptation. The Temptations always had a rotating cast of characters. Indeed, David Ruffin, the lead on “My Girl,” was replaced by Dennis Edwards on lead for “Papa Was A Rolling Stone,” and he was replaced by Ali Woodson on lead for “Treat Her Like A Lady.”
“I’ve lost some great people, and every one of them was an integral part of the Temptations,” Williams continued with AARP. “The wheel has been rolling successfully for years. I’ve had to deal with 24 different strong personalities, and it’s a responsibility I cherish. I tell each one of them the philosophy of what I’ve been taught and that they are standing on the shoulders of greatness.
“The one thing that’s constant in life is change. I’ve learned to adapt and I’m grateful I get to carry on.”
Over the decades The Temptations racked up 16 No. 1 R&B albums and 43 top 10 R&B singles. We doubt the album or any of the singles from their new album, “All the Time,” released May 4, will garner any awards. While it sticks to the group’s traditional sounds and harmonies, it does so in a mediocre manner. While their old fans – who are dying off in big numbers – may accept the mediocre album, it will do little to win over new fans.
The album of 10 songs, has just three original cuts, the rest are reworks of hits by contemporary artists. There’s “Pretty Wings” by Maxwell, “When I Was Your Man” by Bruno Mars, “Remember the Time” by Michael Jackson, and The Weeknd’s “Earned It,” just to name a few.
Williams says he was particularly drawn to Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” after hearing him sing it with Mary J. Blige.
“She added another flavor to it,” he says. “And we added a gospel flavor.”
The album contains three originals, the funky “Move Them Britches,” a slow but smooth “Waitin’ On You” and “Be My Wife.” If one of them has any potential to make it onto the charts, it’s probably “Waitin’ On You.” It has the most current feel, so much so that I actually thought it was a reboot of a current hit, even though I couldn’t just pin down the source.
What does have potential as a hit for the Temptations is their new musical “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations,” which just ended a one-month run at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and is heading to Los Angeles in August, Toronto in October and finally to Broadway. The show had its world premiere last fall at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where it was the highest-grossing production in the theater’s 50-year history.