Rather its sister class action The Supremes, The Temptations' lineup has changed oft across a years. A original class action involved members of 2 local Detroit vocal groups: 2nd tenor/baritone Otis Williams, first tenor Elbridge "Al" Bryant and bass Melvin Franklin from The Distants; and first tenor/falsetto Eddie Kendricks and second tenor Paul Williams (no relation to Otis) from The Primes. Among a virtually all notable first Temptations were lead singers David Ruffin and Dennis Edwards (both of whom became successful Motown solo creative person when allowing a class action), Richard Street (another previous Distant), Damon Harris, Ron Tyson, Ali-Ollie Woodson, Theo Peoples, and G.C. Cameron.

All over a course of their career, A Temptations develop freed quartet #1 popular hit singles & Fourteen #1 R&B hit singles. Their poop has earned the babies iii Grammy Awards, while deuce supplementary awards were conferred upon a songwriters and producers who crafted their germinal 1972 hit "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone".

History
The Primes and The Distants
The Primes
Birmingham, Alabama teenagers Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, Kel Osbourne, and Wiley Waller, world health organization altogether shared the love of singing, formed the doo-wop group called A Caviliers inside 1955. Decreased to a trio when Waller left the class action around 1957, Kendricks, Williams, and Osbourne left Birmingham sequentially to break into a music business. Fallowing 1st moving to Cleveland, Ohio, they settled in Detroit. A Primes, when a doo-wop trio was now known as, were easily-known as much as Detroit for their meticulous performances. Class action manager Milton Jenkins potentially created A sister class action for The Primes known as The Primettes, recruiting junior high schoolers Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diane Ross, and Betty McGlown for the spin-off work.

The Distants
Otis Williams had moved from Texarkana, Texas, to Detroit as a young son. By 1958, he was the leader of Otis Williams & the Siberians, a doo-wop group that included Williams, his friend Elbridge "Al" Bryant, James "Pee-Wee" Crawford, Vernard Plain, and Arthur Walton. This quintet recorded a individual "Pecos Kid" backed by owning "All of My Life" for the label start by local dee-jay Senator Bristol Bryant. A lone never took off outside a local Detroit market, & a Siberians changed their title to The El Domingoes shortly after.

At this instance, additional changes took place. Montgomery, Alabama native Melvin Franklin replaced Arthur Walton as a bass singer, & Franklin's first cousin Richard Street replaced Vernard Plain as lead singer. A class action shortly signed sustaining Northern Records, dog by Jonnie Mae Matthews, world health organization renamed a class action A Distants. A Distants recorded 2 singles for Northern, "Come On" (1959, featuring additional background vocals by The Andantes), and "Alright" (1960). Between these deuce releases, Albert "Mooch" Harrell replaced Pee-Wee Crawford. "Come On" was a local hit for a Distants, & the Warwick label picked the record higher for national distribution. When a release of "Alright", Matthews appointed Williams a class action leader, & a class action was renamed Otis Williams & the Distants.

Influences and colleagues
A Primes & A Distants were however 2 of twelve of local male vocal acts, a best known of which was The Miracles, led by Smokey Robinson. A Miracles were known for their first-class stage indicate, & their popular profits was something for which each groups strived. More significant inspirations involved The Cadillacs, Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, The Drifters, and the Isley Brothers.

the various members of A Primes & The Distants world health organization would late turn into section of The Temptations met a total of their late Motown bandmates, labelmates, and producers when you took a early a share of their careers. Melvin Franklin got been A member of the recording class action The Voice Masters, which likewise involved among its ranks Lamont Dozier and David Ruffin. A musicians at a recording session for the Distants' "Come On" involved James Jamerson on bass; The Andantes in background vocals; and, on tambourine, Norman Whitfield.

Forming The Temptations
Although "Come On" sold decently in a Detroit locality, a Distants never saw good deal of their part from either a record sales, & the 2nd individual wwhen non as successful. Fallowing getting an offer from either Berry Gordy of Motown Records, the class action had away from its locate Matthews & left Northern. At a equivalent period, it misused Mooch Harrell, Richard Street, & a rights to apply its title. Street would front a newly class action of Distants for the local Thelma label in the period of the early 1960s.

A Distants were acquainted using A Primes, when each groups mass produced a equivalent cycles to local record hops, talent shows, & concerts. Them groups were friendly challenger. Kel Osbourne left a Primes & moved to California, & Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams returned to Alabama. When around Detroit camping relatives, Eddie Kendricks known as Otis Williams, world health organization, looking for 2 additional members for an audition for Gordy, offered Kendricks the place in the Distants. Kendricks agreed, by owning a single affliction — that he can bring Paul Williams by using him. Otis Williams agreed, & Kendricks & Paul Williams retreat to Detroit to join a class action.

A recently lineup of Otis Williams, Franklin, Bryant, Kendricks, & Paul Williams took on the title A Elgins & auditioned for Motown within March 1961. Gordy agreed to sign A class action to his Miracle Records imprint, however found upright prior to sign language that there was already a cantabile class action known as The Elgins. the quintet quickly began tossing all about ideas for a recently title on the steps of Motown's Hitsville U.S.A. headquarters with Miracle Records employee Billy Mitchell, and Otis Williams' suggestion of The Temptations became the group's new moniker.

Early years
A Temptations freed 2 singles in Miracle, "Oh Mother of Mine" & "Check Yourself", prior to it was closed & merged using a Gordy label (to keep away from confusion by owning The Miracles singing group). Everthing vii of The Temptations' singles freed between 1961 and 1963 failed to make it onto a United states pop singles stock and index charts; a 1962 single "Dream Come True" mass produced it to #22 on the R&B chart. Paul Williams & Eddie Kendricks split virtually all of the leads in the period of time of this period, using Al Bryant, Otis Williams, & Melvin Franklin from time to time singing lead.

Numerous songwriter and producer teams had been trying to craft the hit for The Temptations, including Berry Gordy, Mickey Stevenson, Clarence Paul, and Norman Whitfield. Gordy experienced around fact written a sure-fire hit "Do You Love Me" for The Temptations inside 1961, but whenever he was unable for a hang on to of the class action, he recorded the song by using The Contours instead. Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson produced his first Temptations lone, a Paul Williams-led "I Want a Love I Can See", inside 1963, and proven to get a best resonance by using the class action.

Bryant, world health organization favorite his day job as a milkman to performing, soon became restless & that much. When a performance at the 1963 Motown company Christmas party, Bryant was fired from a class action. His replacement was Whynot, Mississippi native David Ruffin, younger brother of Motown creative person Jimmy Ruffin.

Around January 1964, Robinson co-wrote and produced "The Way You Do the Things You Do" with Kendricks on lead; a lone became A Temptations' foremost Top 20 hit that April. When traveling when a portion of Motown's Motortown Revue later that year, Robinsin & fellow Miracle Ronald White wrote A song for the affectional Ruffin to sing lead on, which The Temptations recorded in the fall of 1964. That song, "My Girl," became The Temptations’ number 1 #1 popular hit within March 1965, and is now their signature song. Ruffin besides sung lead on the next ternary Temptations singles, "It's Growing", "Since I Lost My Baby" and "My Baby", all of which processed it to the Top 20 within 1965. A b-side to "My Baby", "Don’t Look Back", featured the lead from either Paul Williams, & was a sleeper hit on the R&B charts.

Enter Norman Whitfield
Inside 1966, Norman Whitfield became The Temptations' freshly independent producer, when his "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" performed better than Smokey Robinson's "Get Ready" on the US pop charts.

100% of the pre-1968 Whitfield-produced Temptations singles featured David Ruffin on lead vocals, including a R&B #1/pop Top 10 hits "Beauty is Only Skin Deep" and "(I Know) I'm Losing You". More singles from either this prolific time period involved "You're My Everything", in which Ruffin & Kendricks part lead vocals, & "All I Need", by Whitfield's protégé Frank Wilson. Whitfield's writing partners in the cycle of this period involved Roger Penzabene, Cornelius Grant, and Edward Holland, Jr.. Barrett Strong, the singer in Motown's foremost hit, "Money (That's What I Want)", had first worked with Whitfield on "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby", from the 1966 ''Gettin' Ready album. Heavy would collaborate by having Whitfield in each Temptations hit from either "I Wish It Would Rain" in December 1967 on through the end of 1972.

Initial impact
Between 1964 and 1968, The Temptations went from either unknown hopefuls to international stars. A class actiin appeared ofttimes on tv show like American Bandstand and The Ed Sullivan Show, and catered to middle Americthe by using a popular standards album (The Temptations in a Mellow Mood'', 1967) and performances at a Copacabana in New York City and other such supper clubs.

A Temptations' sophisticated soul, by using their tailored lawsuits & pinching choreography, placed a bar for male soul & R&B groups. Prior to A Temptations became popular, virtually all melanise vocal groups were rough out, high-energy acts using rawer vocals & supplementary improvisational dance movements. Sole two or three performing artist, including coeval Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke, showed the refined style that would become popularized per Temptations.

Berry Gordy insisted his acts become equally appealing to white & nigrify audiences, & listed the originative team to help sartor Motown talent for crossover profits. Paul Williams & Motown choreographer Cholly Atkins created The Temptation's trademark precise & gumptious, however refined, step. A best known one, a "Temptation Walk", or even "Temptation Strut", was altered from either similar moves by the 1950s act called The Flamingos and a 1960s act called The Vibrations. From either victims 2 sources, Paul Williams crafted a class action's signature dance routine.

Several soul & R&B vocal groups, including 1970s Motown act The Jackson 5, the Johnny Gill-led version of New Edition, Jodeci, Blackstreet, Dru Hill, and, perhaps most notably, 1990s Motown act Boyz II Men showed significant influence from The Temptations.

Exit David Ruffin
David Ruffin felt that he was nearly only-single-handed responsible the class action's profits. He demanded favorite coarse of action, riding to & from either gigs around the personal mink-lined limousine with his then-girlfriend, singer Tammi Terrell (well-known for her duets using Marvin Gaye), instead of in a group limo the more quadruplet Temptations utilized. There were problems that affected class action morale & performances, too. He missed the total of rehearsals, concerts, & meeting; & began regularly applying cocaine. Additionally, Ruffin wanted top billing. Fallowing seeing how else Motown experienced manufactured Diana Ross the focus of The Supremes by renaming the class action "Diana Ross & the Supremes", Ruffin demanded that his group be renamed, as well — to "David Ruffin & the Temptations."

There was general agreement among a rest of The Temptations that Ruffin required to exist as replaced. Whilst Ruffin missed the June 1968 engagment at a Cleveland, Ohio supper club to instead attend a indicate performed by his freshly girlfriend (one of Dean Martin's daughters), it was decided that he experienced crossed a line. A more quatern Temptations drew higher legal documentation firing Ruffin from either a class action, & Dennis Edwards, formerly of The Contours, wwhen brought in as a newly lead singer. Edwards & Ruffin were serious friends, & Ruffin initially went along sustaining a changing of the guard. Shortly after, but, Ruffin began turning higher at A Temptations' shows, jumping onstage when you took performances of a songs he when sang lead in & stealing the spotlight. A audiences were delighted, however A Temptations & Motown were frustrated & embarrassed. Additional watchman were hired to check Ruffin from either attending A Temptations' performances. Ruffwithin sued Motown in 1969, and Motown settled by using Ruffin by offering him the solo recording contract.

Beginning around 1968, Berry Gordy commissioned the total of collaborations for The Temptations sustaining their old colleagues Diana Ross & the Supremes, including a joint tour, two studio albums (Diana Ross & the Supremes Join the Temptations, which featured the #2 hit single "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me", and Together), and two NBC television specials, TCB (aired December 9, 1968) and G.I.T. on Broadway (aired November 12 1969).

Psychedelic soul
Around late 1968, Norman Whitfield began producing psychedelic-based lesson for a Temptations, according to the healthy of funk band Sly & the Family Stone. This just released style, which debuted sustaining "Cloud Nine" in fall 1968, was a marked departure from either a David Ruffin-era ballads. A instrumentation was funkier, the beat was tough-camping, & completely 5 Temptations traded lead vocals à la a Personal Stone. "Cloud Nine", a centerpiece of the class action's landmark Cloud Nine LP, was a Top 10 hit & won Motown its number 1 Grammy Award, for Best R&B Vocal Group Performance of 1969. the blending of the Motown healthy & acid rock healthy resulted within a newly subgenre of music known as "psychedelic soul", also evident in the function of Diana Ross & the Supremes ("Reflections", "Love Child"), Marvin Gaye ("I Heard It Through The Grapevine"), and the music of The Fifth Dimension and War. Further Temptations psychedelic soul singles would watch across a next 2 years, including "Run Away Child, Running Wild" the #1 pop hit "I Can't Get Next to You", and "Psychedelic Shack" in 1969, followed by "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World is Today)" and "Ungena Za Ulimwengu (Unite the World)" (with "Hum Along and Dance" as a b-side) in 1970.

Exit Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams
Paul Williams experienced sickle-cell disease and frequently was around unfortunate health. Per late-1960s, he experienced developed alcoholism, which, when combined by having complications from either sickle-cell, processed it arduous for him to prove my point by having a class action. Oxygen tanks were kept in a wings of performance venue stages for Williams, & the more little joe Temptations mass produced valorous efforts to raid his alcohol hoard & drain his cognac bottles. By 1969, former Distant Richard Street, at present lead singer of Motown work A Monitors, was itinerant sustaining a class action as a backup replacement for Williams. For virtually all shows, Street would sing Williams' arethe (save for his solo amounts) from either backstage behind a curtain, spell Williams danced & lip-synced onstage. At more shows, & when you took virtually all of the 2nd half of 1970, Street took Williams' place onstage.

When Paul Williams' health failed, Eddie Kendricks became detached from either a class action. He regularly picked fights using Otis Wlliams & Melvin Franklin above a class action's leadership, & was pinching using a psychedelic soul lesson a class action was nowatimes performing, preferring a material from either the earliest days. Kendricks began an association using David Ruffin, world health organization convinced him to quit A Temptations & last solo. Fallowing an additional confrontation between himself, Williams, & Franklin when you took the November 1970 Copacabana engagement, Kendricks walked out in-mediate shows & did non go to, & it was reciprocally decided that he would leave a class action.

Prior to Kendricks officially left a Temptations, he & Paul Williams recorded a lead vocals for "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)", a alky, whistfull ballad that became each Kendricks' & Williams' Temptations swan-songs. Discharged as a lone within January 1971, "Just My Imagination" began steadily climbing a United states popular singles chart. Per instance "Just My Imagination" hit #1 within March, Kendricks had negotiated his release from either the class action & signed a solo treat using Motown's Tamla imprint.

Around April 1971, Paul Williams quit The Temptations, when the doctor declared that he was unable to continue performing. Richard Street officially took his place at that instance, & Williams remained on The Temptations' payroll as an adviser & choreographer. When Williams got recovered plenty to perform once again, Motown processed plans for the Paul Williams solo career, however Williams committed suicide on August 17, 1973.

Kendricks' original replacement was to exist as Ricky Owens from either either A Vibrations, a equivalent work from which a Temptations experienced adapted their signature Temptation Hike. Yet, Owens gave badly standard performances when you took a pack shows he performed by using a class action, & he was dropped fallowing sole two or three weeks. When you took virtually all of the spring of 1971, the Temptations remained a quartet. Dennis Edwards, Melvin Franklin, Otis Williams, & Richard Street recorded a individual "It's Summer" while forgoing the fifth member. By Might, it experienced detected the lasting replacement number one tenor within twenty-season-old Damon Harris.

The Temptations in the early 1970s
Otis Williams, Dennis Edwards, Melvin Franklin, Richard Street, & Damon Harris continued recording & performing, & Norman Whitfield continued producing hits for the children. Among these were Top 40 hits like "Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are)" (1971), a message from either A Temptations to the alienated David Ruffin & Eddie Kendricks, & "Take A Look Around" (1972).

1972 saw the release of Norman Whitfield's magnum opus, "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone". Originally the triplet-microscopic record Whitfield experienced written & produced for The Undisputed Truth, Whitfield took the somber tune & created the straggling, striking 12-microscopic version for The Temptations. An emended vii-microscopic version was freed as a individual around September 1972, hitting #1 on the pop stock & index charts and #5 on the R&B charts. Inside 1973, "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" won A Temptations their 2nd Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Group. Whitfield & arranger/conductor Paul Riser won for Best R&B Instrumental Performance with the instrumental version of "Papa" on the single's b-side, and Whitfield and Barrett Strong won the songwriters' Grammy for Best R&B Song.

When "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", Whitfield stopped working by using Barrett Heavy, & began writing A Temptations' material on his have. A profits of "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" led Whitfield to produce sir thomas more longer, operatic pieces, including a Top 40 hit "Masterpiece" (1973) and many of the tracks on the resultant Masterpiece album. Tensions developed between Whitfield & A Temptations, world health organization felt Whitfield was chesty & hard to operate by having. A class action cited his habitual tardiness, Whitfiled's emphasising his have talents on the Temptations' records like than a talents of a class action, & the declining singles & albums sales when more sources of conflict. Otis Williams complained just about Whitfield's actions & a Temptations' stagnant sales to Berry Gordy, world health organization intervened & reassigned the children to Jeffrey Bowen, co-producer of the 1967 In the Mellow Mood album.

A final Norman Whitfield-produced Temptations album, 1990, was released within late 1973, and involved a Top 30 lone "Let Your Hair Down". Whitfield left Motown shortly afterward, & inside 1975 established Whitfield Records, taking by owning him A Undisputed Truth, Willie Hutch, and Rose Royce, who performed a instrumental track for "Let Your Hair Down".

Dry spell
Bowen's number one LP by having A Temptations was 1975's A Song For You, which included the handle of the nominal Leon Russell tune (popularized with soul audiences by Donny Hathaway), along with a popular Top 40/R&B #1 hits "Happy People" (featuring The Commodores as the instrumentalists) and "Shakey Ground" (featuring instrumentation by P-Funk's Eddie Hazel and his band), and "Glasshouse", the group's final Top 40 Pop hit. Damon Harris was fired from either a class action in a period of the recording of The Song for Professional people, when his behavior & operate ethic were deemed unprofessional; his replacement was Toronto native Glenn Leonard.

The total of producers, including Bowen, Brian Holland, James Carmichael, and potentially A Temptations themselves tried producing hits for the next leash LP's, House Party, Wings of Love, and The Temptations Do the Temptations, but every only performed worse than a go.

Within 1977, The Temptations left Motown for Atlantic Records, citing Motown's inattention as a understanding for their declining sales & popularity. Shortly fallowing allowing Motown, Dennis Edwards left the class action to start out a Motown solo career, which did does'nt materialze at this period. A Atlantic Temptations releases, using Louis Price when a independent lead singer inside Edwards' place, did there is no better than their Motown releases. Berry Gordy fought to re-sign A Temptations to Motown, eventually next around 1980.

Return to Motown and Reunion
Upon a go to to Motown, Price departed from either a class action, & Dennis Edwards returned to the lineup. Berry Gordy co-wrote & produced A Temptations' number 1 lone under a newly contract, "Power", which missed a Top 40 however hit #11 on the R&B charts. Both years of underperforming singles & albums followed until Motown began making plans for the Temptations reunion tour around 1982.

Eddie Kendricks & David Ruffin, whose solo careers experienced by nowadays dog dry, agreed to re-join A Temptations for the Reunion album and tour. Melvin Franklin's nephew, Motown funk star Rick James, had antecedently utilized A Temptations when backup singer in his 1981 hit "Super Freak", & wrote, produced, and guest starred on the Reunion album's lead lone, "Standing on the Top".

"Standing on the Top", which featured Ruffin, Kendricks, & Dennis Edwards in lead, attend #6 on the R&B charts. A Reunion tour sustaining everthing sevener Temptations (Ruffin, Kendricks, Edwards, Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Richard Street, & Glenn Leonard) was financially successful, however ended higher the nerve-racking venture: Kendricks' voice got weakened fallowing decades of chain smoking, and Ruffin, however addicted to cocaine, missed a total of the performances. At a guide of the Reunion tour, Ruffin & Kendricks were fired, & it began touring & performing together as a duo. Glenn Leonard as well left at this instance, & was replaced by Ron Tyson.

From the 1980s to the 1990s
By this instance, A Temptations' releases were there is no protracted performing swell on a popular stock and index charts, though it occasionally mass produced the R&B Top 20. "Love on My Mind Tonight" manufactured it to #17, & "Sail Away", by the giving Norman Whitfield, manufactured it to #13. Within 1984, Edwards left the class action for another risk at the solo career, & was replaced by having Ali-Ollie Woodson. Woodson, world health organization experienced been the likely candidate to replenish Edwards back within 1977, sang lead on the #2 R&B hit "Treat Her Like A Lady", co-written by himself and Otis Williams. Woodson remained by owning A Temptations until 1987, when he was replaced by the giving (for the 2nd period) Dennis Edwards.

Dennis Edwards left A Temptations for a third & final instance around late 1989, sustaining Ali-Ollie Woodson re-joining the lineup. A as a result month, Otis Williams published his autobiography, Temptations, which he co-authored by using Patricia Romanowski. A book chronicled a careers of a Temptations from either the Primes/Distants times to the present, focusing on the shacks of Williams & his right friend Melvin Franklin. An updated version of the book was published inside 2002.

Within 1989, a Temptations were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, honoring Edwards, Franklin, Otis Williams, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendrick, and, posthumously, Paul Williams. Fallowing reuniting at a induction ceremony, Edwards, Ruffin, & Kendrick mass produced plans to tour & record when "Ruffin/Kendrick/Edwards, Former Leads of The Temptations". A tour was carried out, lot to the humiliatiin of Otis Williams & Motown, however production on the album was cut short whilst Ruffin, age L, died on June 1, 1991 after overdosing on cocain. Kendrick was diagnosed by using lung cancer but continued to perform; he died on October 5, 1992 at the age of 52 around his native Birmingham.

Richard Street left A Temptations within 1992 after a twenty-season association by owning a class action, using Theo Peoples taking his place. Both years late, Melvin Franklin was forced to leave a class actiin because of failing health; he died on February 23, 1995 at age 52 after suffering the brain seizure. Ray Davis from Parliament - Funkadelic assumed the bass role for the 1995 pop standards album For Lovers Only, and Harry McGilberry became a lasting bass.

Inside 1998, The Temptations freed Phoenix Rising, their first million-selling album within ended twenty years. A album was anchored per only "Stay", the #1 hit on the adult contemporary stock and index charts that featured the sample from The Temptations' "My Girl". By this instance, Ali-Ollie Woodson & Theo Peoples experienced departed a class action, replaced using Barrington "Bo" Henderson and Terry Weeks, respectively.

The Temptations mini-series
Main entry: The Temptations (miniseries).

1998 too saw a debut of The Temptations, a quartet-hour television miniseries based on Otis Williams' Temptations autobiography. It was broadcast within both area in NBC on November 1 and November 2, 1998. the miniseries was a ratings profits & won an Emmy award for Best Counsel; it was later run on the VH-1 cable television network and freed to VHS and DVD.

Otis Williams' ex-ex Josephine, Melvin Franklin's mother Rose Franklin, &, in David Ruffin's behalf, his personal, filed suit against Williams, Motown, De Passe Amusement, Hallmark Entertainment, and NBC for the total of charges, including defamation of character. A judges ruled in favour of a suspect, & a opinion was upheld once the complainant appealed in 2001.

From the 1990s to the present day

A Temptations were inducted into a Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999. Inside 2001, their 2000 album Ear-Resistible won the class action its third Grammy, this a single for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance. 3 classic Temptations songs, "My Girl", "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", & "Papa Was a Rolling Stone", come among The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

A todays Temptations lineup of Otis Williams, Ron Tyson, Terry Weeks, recently lead singer G.C. Cameron from The Spinners, and new bass Joe Herndon continue to record and perform on tour. Their latest album, Legacy, was released within 2004. Within late 2004, A Temptations asked to exist as freed from either their Motown contrwork, & come okay, presently an independent act.

The total of ex-Temptations prove my point to perform outside of the class action. Dennis Edwards tours often using his have work; at the start billing himself when Dennis Edwards & The Temptations, Edwards drew the legal wrath of Otis Williams and Motown, and the group is today known as Dennis Edwards & the Temptations Review. Ali-Ollie Woodson fronts an work known as Ali-Ollie Woodson & the Emperors of Soul--Emperors of Soul being the name of the 1994 Temptations box set. Richard Street & Damon Harris another time perform together too; by having Harris besides performing by having his have Temptations Read.

Personnel
For the elaborated list of the various versions of The Temptations, view: Temptations chronology.

The Primes
aka A Cavaliers Paul Williams (1955 – 1960) Eddie Kendricks (1955 – 1960) Kel Osbourne (1955 – 1960) Wiley Waller (1955 – 1957)

The Distants
aka Otis Williams & the Distants, Otis Williams & the Siberians and The El Domingoes Otis Williams (1958 – 1960) Elbridge "Al" Bryant (1958 – 1960) James "Pee-Wee" Crawford (1958 – 1959) Vernard Plain (1958 – 1959) Athrur Walton (1958 – 1959) Melvin Franklin (1959 – 1960) Richard Street (1959 – 1960) Albert "Mooch" Harrell (1959 – 1960)

The Temptations
aka A Elgins Otis Williams (1960 – present) Elbridge "Al" Bryant (1960 – 1963) Melvin Franklin (1960 – 1994) Eddie Kendricks (1960 – 1971, 1982 reunion) Paul Williams (1960 – 1971) David Ruffin (1964 – 1968, 1982 reunion) Dennis Edwards (1968 – 1977, 1980 – 1984, 1987 - 1989) Ricky Owens (1971) Richard Street (1971 – 1992) Damon Harris (1971 – 1975) Glenn Leonard (1975 – 1982) Louis Price (1977 – 1980) Ron Tyson (1983 – present) Ali-Ollie Woodson (1984 – 1987, 1989 -1998) Theo Peoples (1992 – 1998) Ray Davis (1994 - 1995) Harry McGilberry (1995 - 2003) Barrington "Bo" Henderson (1998 - 2003) Terry Weeks (1998 - present) G.C. Cameron (2003 – present) Joe Herndon (2003 – present)

Discography
For the elaborate list of albums & singles, understand: Temptations discography''.

US and UK Top Ten Singles
A as a consequence singles reached a Top Ten of either a United States pop singles chart or a United Kingdom pop singles chart. Besides involved come a singles that hit #1 on the U.s. R&B charts.

|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" !Month || Song title || Me Top 10 chart || R&B No. 1 |- | 1965: || "My Girl" || One || 1 |- | 1966: || "Get Ready" || - || 1 |- | 1966: || "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" || - || 1 |- | 1966: || "Beauty is Only Skin Deep" || Leash || 1 |- | 1967: || "(I Know) I'm Losing You" || 8 || 1 |- | 1967: || "All I Need" || Octad || - |- | 1967: || "You're My Everything" || Sextuplet || - |- | 1968: || "I Wish It Would Rain" || 4 || 1 |- | 1968: || "I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)" || - || 1 |- | 1968: || "Cloud Nine" || 6 || - |- | 1968: || "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me"
(Diana Ross & the Supremes and the Temptations) || 2 || - |- | 1969: || "Run Away Child, Running Wild" || 6 || 1 |- | 1969: || "I Can't Get Next to You" || 1 || 1 |- | 1970: || "Psychedelic Shack" || 7 || - |- | 1970: || "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World is Today)" || 3 || - |- | 1971: || "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)" || One || 1 |- | 1972: || "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" || 1 || - |- | 1973: || "Masterpiece" || 7 || 1 |- | 1973: || "Let Your Hair Down" || - || 1 |- | 1974: || "Happy People" || - || 1 |- | 1975: || "Shakey Ground" || - || 1 |- | 1981: || "Super Freak (Part I)"
(Rick James featuring The Temptations) || Sestet || - |}

Other samples
1959: "Come On" per Distants (1st recording) * 1964: "The Way You Do the Things You Do" (first Top 40 & Top 20 hit) * 1982: "Standing on the Top" (1982 Reunion single, featuring Rick James) * 1984: "Treat Her Like a Lady" (#2 R&B hit) * 1998: "Stay" (#1 adult coeval hit)

Top Ten Albums

A as a result albums reached a Top Ten in either a United States popular albums chart or even a United Kingdom popular albums chart.

1966: Greatest Hits (US #5) 1967: Temptations Live! (US #10) 1967: ''The Temptations with a Lot o' Soul (US #7) 1968: Diana Ross & the Supremes Join the Temptations (with Diana Ross & The Supremes) (US #2) 1968: TCB (with Diana Ross & The Supremes) (US #1) 1969: Cloud Nine (US #4) 1969: Puzzle People (US #5) 1970: Psychedelic Shack'' (US #9)