Motown Archives - Page 4 of 6 - Ramblin' with Roger

W is for Junior Walker and the All-Stars

Among the wealth of artists that performed on the Motown labels in 1960s, I probably know about Junior Walker the least. He was born Autry DeWalt-Mixom, Jr. in Blythesville, Arkansas on 14 June 1931. He grew up in South Bend, Indiana.

He started his band, the Jumping Jacks, and his good friend, drummer Billy Nicks, had a group, the Rhythm Rockers, but the two would play on each other’s gigs. Since Nicks had a local TV show in South Bend, he asked Walker to join his band.

When Nicks got drafted, Walker convinced the group to move to Battle Creek, Michigan. After some personnel and name changes, the All Stars were signed by Harvey Fuqua to his Harvey records. “Fuqua’s labels were taken over by Motown’s Berry Gordy, and Jr. Walker & the All Stars [the usual spelling] became members of the Motown family, recording for their Soul imprint in 1964.”

The group’s first big hit was “Shotgun” in 1965, which “uses only one chord throughout the entire song — A-flat seventh. Other songs featuring this same structure (or non-structure) are Chain of Fools and Land of 1000 Dances.” The song is in the Grammy and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame. The All Stars were in a particular groove. The song appeared in several movies, including Malcolm X.

I have this Motown LP box set that explains that there was a songwriter – it doesn’t identify who, but it was either Johnny Bristol, who discovered the group; Fuqua, who took Bristol’s suggestion; or a guy named Vernon Bullock. The songwriter pitched the song to Junior, but he said it wasn’t his thing.

The next year, the songwriter said he still had that song, and Walker reluctantly agreed to record “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)” in 1969. “A Motown quality control meeting rejected this song for single release, but radio station DJs made the track popular, resulting in Motown releasing it as a single.”

Junior Walker died of cancer on 23 November 1995 at the age of 64 in Battle Creek.

Listen to:

Shotgun, #4 pop, #1 rhythm & blues for four weeks in 1965 here or here

(I’m A) Road Runner, #20 pop, #4 r&b in 1966 here or here

How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You), #18 pop, #3 r&b in 1966 here or here

What Does It Take (To Win Your Love), #4 pop, #1 r&b for two weeks in 1969 here or here

These Eyes, #16 pop, # r&b for two weeks in 1969 here or here

Urgent (Foreigner, with Jr. Walker on sax solo), #3 pop in 1981, here or here

Urgent, 1983, appears in 1985 movie Desperately Seeking Susan, here or here

Round 20 of ABC Wednesday.

Otis Williams of the Temptations is 75

The group once known as the Primes did some albums with the trio formerly known as the Primettes.

There are lots of groups out there that have the name of an old-time group, but with Otis Williams in the Temptations, the link to the original group is sustained.

“Williams was born Otis Miles, Jr. in Texarkana, Texas to Otis Miles and Hazel Louise Williams… While he was still a toddler, his mother married and moved to Detroit, Michigan, leaving the younger Otis Miles to be raised by both of his grandmothers in Texarkana. Hazel Williams moved her son to Detroit when he was ten years old, where he lived with his mother and his stepfather.”

The history of The Temptations is way too complicated to go through here, but Otis was in several groups, honing his craft. The original lineup of the group called The Temptations was Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Elbridge “Al” Bryant, Eddie Kendricks, and Paul Williams (no relation).

But “Al Bryant had grown frustrated with the group’s lack of success and became restless and uncooperative, preferring the mundane routine of his day job as a milkman over the rigors of rehearsal and performing.” He was replaced by David Ruffin who had already “joined the group onstage and impressed the group with his vocal talent and dancing skills.”

The group then had several hits, most notably My Girl, but eventually, Ruffin left the group. He was replaced by Dennis Edwards, who was the lead vocal in the wah-wah period of the late producer/songwriter Norman Whitfield. It is Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, David Ruffin, and Dennis Edwards who are represented in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when the group was inducted way back in 1989.

These are some songs I was feeling when I made the list. I could easily switch out half of them for others. The top 7, in some order, would stay.

24. It’s Summer (B-side of Ball of Confusion) – this is the version on the 1970 album Psychedelic Shack, NOT the single that appears on Solid Rock in 1972. It’s corny, but I like hearing Melvin’s voice.
23. Love Can Be Anything (Can’t Nothing Be Love But Love) – this song, with thin lyrics, is more a feeling. Appears on Sky’s the Limit in 1971
22. Please Return Your Love to Me, #26 pop, #4 soul in 1968 – Eddie on lead vocal, but it’s the harmonies I love
21. Standing at the Top, #66 pop, #6 soul in 1982. From that great reunion tour when Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin briefly return to join Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Dennis Edwards, Richard Street, and Glenn Leonard. This song also features Rick James.

20. Try It Baby – the group once known as the Primes did some albums with the trio formerly known as the Primettes. This is from the first one, Diana Ross and the Supremes Join the Temptations from 1968
19. Beauty’s Only Skin Deep, #3 pop, #1 for five weeks soul in 1966. Ain’t it the truth?
18. Get Ready, #29 pop, #1 soul in 1966. Ofttimes covered, including by the Motown group Rare Earth
17. War – from the Psychedelic Shack album. From memory: Berry Gordy didn’t want the Temps to get any pushback for releasing this as a single, but he let the less prominent Edwin Starr put it out, and, of course, it was massively successful

**Richard, Otis, Eddie, Melvin, Glenn, David, Dennis**

16. The Girl’s Alright with Me #102 pop, #39 soul in 1964 – this is the B-side of I’ll Be in Trouble, so a respectable showing
15. (Loneliness Made Me Realize) It’s You That I Need, #14 pop, #3 for two weeks soul in 1967 – there’s an album called With a Lot O’ Soul, a transition from the mostly Smokey Robinson production, to the Norman Whitfield period that’s arguably my favorite LP of the group
14. Don’t Look Back, #83 pop, #15 soul in 1966
13. I’ll Be in Trouble, #33 pop, #22 soul in 1964

12. Don’t Let the Joneses Get You Down, #20 pop, #2 soul in 1969 – a great attribute of the Whitfield period was shared lead vocals
11. Psychedelic Shack, #7 pop, #2 for 3 weeks soul in 1970 – this must be from the album cut because it starts off with the same party noise previously used in I Can’t Get Next To You
10. Ball of Confusion, #3 for three weeks pop, #2 for 5 weeks soul in 1970. “The Beatles’ new records a gas” just as the Fab Four were breaking up
9. Just My Imagination, #1 for two weeks pop, #1 for 3 weeks soul in 1971 – pretty much Eddie Kendricks’ swan song

8. (I Know) I’m Losing You, #8 pop, #1 for two weeks soul in 1966
7. No More Water In The Well – another cut from With a Lot O’ Soul
6. My Girl #1 pop, #1 for five weeks soul in 1965. On the Temptations anthology, there’s an a capella version that’s quite fine
5. Ain’t Too Proud to Beg, #13 pop, #1 for eight weeks soul – appeared on The Big Chill soundtrack in 1983

4. I Wish It Would Rain, #4 pop, #1 for three weeks soul in 1968. Sometimes I wish it would…
3. Papa Was A Rolling Stone, #1 pop, #5 soul in 1972 – as I recall, Dennis Edwards was getting really irritable in the studio about the length of the intro before he got to sing, which may have been the producer’s intent, to get the snarl in “It was the third of September…”
2. The Way You Do The Things You Do, #11 pop, #1 soul – their first real hit, with that Smokey Robinson poetry
1. I Can’t Get Next To You, #1 for two weeks pop, #1 for 5 weeks soul. The best use of that five lead vocalist thing that Whitfield stole from Sly Stone

Otis Williams in the center; — Otis Williams in the center

The other members – Ron Tyson (thick mustache), Terry Weeks, Joe Herndon, Bruce Williamson

Music Throwback Saturday: Rare Earth

Motown did not have a name for the new division, so jokingly, the band suggested the name Rare Earth.

Rare Earth was NOT the first all-white group signed by Motown. Wikipedia cites The Rustix, The Dalton Boys, and The Underdogs as predecessors on the label; I actually have a couple of Underdogs tracks on some compilations.

But the group, which had started up in high school as “The Sunliners”, decided, after seven years to change the name of the band to “Rare Earth”, and ended up as clearly the most successful white band on the label.

Motown Record Corporation approached Rare Earth in the latter part of 1968 to sign a recording contract. At first the group was reluctant to sign because of knowing of other white groups and artists before them that had not had any success… It was when Motown decided they wanted to launch a new division of Motown to cater to white artists that Rare Earth started to seriously consider signing.

Motown did not have a name for the new division… so jokingly, the band suggested the name Rare Earth. Unbelievably they agreed.

On 20 Hard to Find Motown Classics, Volume 1 (1990), there appears Get Ready (pop #4, soul #20 in 1970) and (I Know) I’m Losing You (pop #7, soul #20 in 1970), both songs previously recorded by the Temptations. Both Rare Earth covers did better on the pop charts than did the Temps, whose pair of #1 soul hits only went to #29 and #8, respectively, on the pop charts in 1966.

20 Hard to Find Motown Classics, Volume 2 (1990) includes I Just Want To Celebrate (#7 pop, #30 soul in 1971) and Born To Wander (#17 pop, #48 soul) in 1971.

Get Ready was also the name of Rare Earth’s second album (#12 pop), with the title song, written by Smokey Robinson, taking up the whole second side. Ecology, the third album (#15 pop), featured Born To Wander and a nearly 11-minute version of I’m Losing You.

Many years later, Get Ready and Ecology were on a twofer CD, which I bought, but the Ecology songs were obviously shortened. They substituted the album version of I’m Losing You with the three-minute single version, and trimmed Eleanor Rigby and other songs, which really ticked me off.

I Just Want to Celebrate was on the fourth album, One World (#28 pop).

LISTEN TO
Get Ready – single version and album version and album version

I’m Losin’ You – single version and album version and album version

Born to Wander – the version here and here

I Just Want To Celebrate – the version here and here

Music Throwback Saturday: the Ruffin brothers

David Ruffin and Motown sued each other, the settlement of which meant Ruffin stayed with Motown to finish out his initial contract.

The Ruffin brothers show up on a collection called Motown 20 Hard-to-Find Classics. One of them also appeared on records that were quite easy to find.

Jimmy and David Ruffin were born in rural Mississippi, to Eli, a sharecropper/factor worker/miner/Baptist minister, depending on the source, and Ophelia Ruffin. “As children, the brothers began singing with a gospel group, the Dixie Nightingales.”

Jimmy Ruffin (born Jimmie Lee Ruffin) (May 7, 1936 – November 17, 2014) became a singer for Motown in 1961, but soon was drafted into the Army. He returned to the label, but had difficulty getting a hit.

“In 1966, he heard a song about unrequited love written for The Spinners, and persuaded the writers that he should record it himself. His recording of ‘What Becomes of the Brokenhearted’ became a major success,” and remains his best-known song. Follow-ups in the US were successful, with “I’ve Passed This Way Before” and “Gonna Give Her All the Love I’ve Got” reaching the US charts in late 1966 and early 1967. He also teamed up with brother David to record the album I Am My Brother’s Keeper, a modestly successful 1970 album for Motown.

“Jimmy Ruffin concentrated on the British market, had three UK top ten songs, and “he was voted the world’s top singer in one British poll.” He had later success working with the likes of Robin Gibb and Paul Weller.

Davis Eli “David” Ruffin (January 18, 1941 – June 1, 1991) grew up in the music business. He met future Motown founder Berry Gordy in 1957, and for a time, packed records for Gordy’s Anna Records with Marvin Gaye. Eventually, he started recording at the label with a group called the Voice Masters, which included future Motown producer/songwriter Lamont Dozier, and the four members of The Originals.

“Ruffin became a member of the Temptations after founding member Elbridge ‘Al’ Bryant was fired from the group. Ruffin’s first recording session with the group was January 9, 1964. Though both David and Jimmy were considered, David was given the edge, thanks to his performance skills.”

Ruffin went from being a background singer, the lead singer after Smokey Robinson, the group’s primary producer/songwriter, created “My Girl”, which became the Temptations’ first #1 song in early 1965. “Ruffin’s most notable non-vocal contribution to the Temptations was the masterminding of their trademark four-headed microphone stand. This enabled the other members to sing and do their dances without having to crowd around one microphone while the lead singer would sing into a separate microphone.”

By 1967, however, difficulties with Ruffin became an issue for the group. He became addicted to cocaine and began missing rehearsals and performances… After the Supremes had their name changed to Diana Ross & the Supremes in early 1967, Ruffin felt that he should become the focal point of the Temptations, just as Diana Ross was for her group, and began demanding that the group name be changed to David Ruffin & the Temptations. This led to a number of disagreements between Ruffin and the group’s de facto leader, Otis Williams.

In addition to the group’s problems with Ruffin’s ego, he began inquiring into the Temptations’ financial records, demanding an accounting of the group’s money. This caused friction between Ruffin and Gordy.

He was fired on June 27, 1968 when he missed a show to watch his girlfriend perform, and was “replaced with Dennis Edwards, a former member of The Contours.” But then, “Ruffin began turning up unannounced at Temptations concerts during Edwards’ first few dates with the group,” which the audience loved but the group did not.

Ruffin and Motown sued each other, the settlement of which meant Ruffin stayed with Motown to finish out his initial contract. “Ruffin joined Motown as a solo artist and always had a separate contract from the other Temptations, which some felt caused a lot of the in-fighting within the group.”

His first solo single was a song originally intended for the Temptations, “My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)”. The single (from the album also entitled My Whole World Ended) was released in 1969. His final Top Ten hit was 1975’s “Walk Away from Love”, produced by Van McCoy. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in February 1976.

As I have mentioned, in 1982, Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks re-joined the Temptations for the recording of their album Reunion and toured to promote the album. I saw them perform at the Colonie Coliseum near Albany. My recollection is that it was one of the greatest pop musical performances I’ve ever seen.

Apparently, I caught them on a good day, because the reunion tour was short lived, “as Ruffin started to miss shows as a result of his cocaine addiction, leading the group to be fined thousands of dollars. Otis Williams fired Ruffin from the group for the second and final time (along with Kendricks, whose voice was weakened due to heavy smoking) by Christmas 1982.”

David Ruffin would die from that cocaine addiction, and his brother Jimmy would become an anti-drug advocate.

Links

What Becomes of the Broken Hearted — Jimmy Ruffin. Background vocals by the Originals and the Andantes 3:03. #7 Hot 100, #6 on the R&B Chart in 1966. It also initially reached #10 in the UK singles chart, rising to #4 when it was reissued in the UK in 1974. Listen HERE or HERE.
I’ve Passed This Way Before — Jimmy Ruffin. #17 pop, #10 soul in 1967. Listen HERE or HERE.

Walk Away From Love — David Ruffin. #1 US R&B, #9 pop in early 1976. Listen HERE. Extended version HERE or HERE.
My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me) — David Ruffin. #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, #2 on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. Listen HERE or HERE.

Music Throwback Saturday: Baby, I’m For Real

Marvin Gaye and this then-wife, Anna Gordy Gaye, wrote Baby, I’m for Real

Back in 1990, there were three Motown compilations, now out of print, that I bought. 20 Hard to Find Motown Classics, Volume 1, like its two successors, featured songs by Motown singers who didn’t have enough hits to have their own “Greatest Hits” CDs. But most of the songs were hardly “hard to find.” Many had appeared in other Motown collections.

The three CDs were reissued together in 2001 in the UK as Tamla Motown: Big Hits & Hard to Find Classics, Vols. 1-3. A half dozen songs were dropped.

The first two songs on the first album were by a group called the Originals. The lead singer was Freddie Gorman, who was an early, and sometimes uncredited, songwriter for Motown. He also co-wrote (Just Like) Romeo and Juliet, which was recorded by another Detroit-based group, the Reflections.

Gorman joined The Originals, which was also comprised of lead tenor C.P. Spencer, second tenor Hank Dixon, and baritone Walter Gaines. Despite the talent, was long unable to get a hit, and ended up doing backing vocals for folks such as Stevie Wonder and David Ruffin.

Marvin Gaye took a shine to the group who had also backed him. He and this then-wife, Anna Gordy Gaye, wrote Baby, I’m for Real. Marvin “had protested to Motown CEO Berry Gordy that he wanted to produce his own material and he used the Originals to help get his point across that he can provide a hit.” The song reached number one on the Billboard Top Black Singles chart for five weeks, and reached number fourteen on the Pop Singles chart, eventually selling over a million copies.

The follow-up, The Bells, was also produced by Marvin Gaye and was co-written by Gaye, Anna Gordy Gaye, Iris Gordy, and Elgie Stover. It featured the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, with Marvin on drums. The song went to #4 soul, #12 pop.

LISTEN to
Baby, I’m for Real: HERE or HERE
The Bells: HERE or HERE