Temps Put Spin on Motown Classics

[tempfan]

TEMPTATIONS PUT THEIR OWN SPIN ON CLASSICS FROM MOTOWN CATALOG
Gary Graff
Cleveland.com & The Plain Dealer

As a legendary part of the even more legendary Motown, the Temptations not only loved the songs they recorded, but also those done by their friends and colleagues.

So for "Reflections" (New Door Records), their 47th album of newly recorded material, the Tempts decided to try their hands at some of the other Motown songs they liked best.

"The Tempts have always been experimental," says Otis Williams, the group leader and sole founding member left. "So this time we said, Let's go and do something out of the norm, but with contemporary tunes' and used some great songs from the famous Motown catalog.

"We put our spin on some perennial, evergreen, iconic kind of songs that have turned out to be such monster standards in their own right."

The list of songs considered, of course, was much longer than the 15 tracks that made the album -- and were made famous by the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, the Jackson 5, Gladys Knight & the Pips and others. But Williams says the pruning wasn't too hard because he had a feeling it wouldn't be the only time the Tempts take on the great Motown songbook. "If this album becomes successful, we'll do another one," he says. "We'll go back to that endless list and pick out 15 more of Motown's greatest hits."

And chances are, we'll like it a whole lot better than Rod Stewart's tiresome Great American Songbook exercises.

[janebse]

It's always fun to listen to different artists do the same song.

That's one reason why I have tried for years to get the film of the Bing Crosby (usually a Christmas appearance) hosting a Hollywood Palace where the Temptations appeared. "My Girl" was sung by the Tempts, and Bing joined in. I would loved to have heard how he handled it. Bing really enjoyed singing with other singers and, to my surprise, often sang backup to them.