In September of 1966, the depraved Wilson Pickett might have been shaking up the soul scene together with his “Land Of 1,000 Dances.” However the mighty Motown was nonetheless in every single place, and so had been the temptin’ Temptations.
What a yr the group had been having: prime of the R&B charts in April with “Get Prepared,” then in June with “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg,” then once more on the September 24 countdown with “Magnificence Is Solely Pores and skin Deep.” The Tempts’ Christmas present was a fourth R&B No.1 in a row, finishing the very best sequence of their profession, with “(I Know) I’m Dropping You.”
Whereas “Get Prepared” was a Smokey Robinson composition and manufacturing, each “Beg” and “Pores and skin Deep” had been songs written by the rising Norman Whitfield with Eddie Holland of the H-D-H triumvirate. Whitfield got here by way of the Motown ranks as a songwriter first, with Marvin Gaye’s “Pleasure and Pleasure,” earlier than successful his manufacturing spurs on the Tempts’ “The Additional You Look, The Much less You See,” in addition to Kim Weston’s “Love Me All The Method.”
Hearken to uDiscover Music’s Temptations Finest Of playlist.
The large success of “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg” — additionally a High 15 pop single and the Temptations’ greatest UK hit to that time, at No.21 — elevated Whitfield’s inventory as a producer and landed him the dignity once more. He was additionally within the chair for that subsequent No.1 triumph, “(I Know) I’m Dropping You.”
“Magnificence Is Solely Pores and skin Deep” was a track that already had Motown historical past. Norman had began work on it two years earlier, intending it for the Tempts earlier than the Miracles recorded it. That model was unreleased when the Temptations’ interpretation got here out in early August, 1966. However, simply after theirs hit the highest (and gave them their first UK High 20 hit, at No.18), the Miracles’ recording made it out, on their Away We A Go-Go album in November.
Jimmy Ruffin, too, recorded a swinging “Pores and skin Deep” earlier than his brother David’s lead vocal helped to make the Tempts’ model definitive. Jimmy’s minimize took one other 17 years to emerge, on the album Motown Superstars Sing Motown Superstars.
Purchase or stream “Magnificence Is Solely Pores and skin Deep” on the album My Woman: The Very Better of the Temptations.