In September of 1966, the depraved Wilson Pickett might have been shaking up the soul scene along with his “Land Of 1,000 Dances.” However the mighty Motown was nonetheless in all places, and so had been the temptin’ Temptations.
What a yr the group had been having: high of the R&B charts in April with “Get Ready,” then in June with “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg,” then once more on the September 24 countdown with “Beauty Is Only Skin Deep.” The Tempts’ Christmas reward was a fourth R&B No.1 in a row, finishing the very best sequence of their profession, with “(I Know) I’m Losing You.”
Whereas “Get Ready” was a Smokey Robinson composition and manufacturing, each “Beg” 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 means of the Motown ranks as a songwriter first, with Marvin Gaye’s “Pride and Joy,” earlier than successful his manufacturing spurs on the Tempts’ “The Further You Look, The Less You See,” in addition to Kim Weston’s “Love Me All The Way.”
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The massive success of “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg” — additionally a Prime 15 pop single and the Temptations’ largest 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 Losing You.”
“Beauty Is Only Skin Deep” was a music 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 Prime 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 “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.
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