Beej, talk to me, a couple of months ago somebody asked a question and you got all hot and bothered...
It was a stupid question.
...now I make a statement and you coming at me the same way,LOL,it's funny to me. The usual suspects.LOL I like that one.
The "usual suspects" was a reference to two posters who are no longer members here. Both caused a lot of grief by either misunderstanding or intentionally misrepresenting what people wrote in order to start arguments.
With regard to you, I simply challenged this assertion...
Of course Eddie peaked [with the Temptations].
...and the "evidence" you offered to support that claim.
So lets see, if your albums are topping the R&B charts and are making the POP top 20, whoever is singing most of those leads on the albums is peaking as a singer.
You seem to be confusing "excelled" with "peaked." Eddie Kendricks
excelled with the Temptations and the Temptations
excelled with Eddie Kendricks...no doubt about it. He did not, however, reach his career or vocal
peak with them.
Nobody is saying that his solo work is inferior.
You just did.
To "peak" is to reach the maximum point -- in this case, to reach one's absolute best vocally or commercially. By it's very definition, everything that
isn't at the "peak" must be something less. By saying that Eddie Kendricks peaked vocally and/or commercially during his years with the Temptations is not only an implied assertion that his solo work was inferior by comparison, but factually inaccurate.
Speaking of factually inaccurate...
The Girl's Alright With Me was a b-side...
It was the A-side. "I'll Be In Trouble" was the B-side of that release.
Name his solo hits and then name his hits while he was with The Tempts and lets see which ones are more famous.
If you polled the general public and asked people to name their favorite Eddie Kendricks vocal of all time, the response
"Eddie who?" would likely top the list.
I don't expect a
Temptations fan -- as opposed to an
Eddie Kendricks fan -- to be all that familiar with his solo material or view that work in an objective manner. That's why we rely on sales statistics and pop charts --
Billboard being the accepted standard -- to compare how singles and albums perform commercially.
"Keep On Truckin'" (1 Pop, 1 R&B) was the biggest song of Eddie's career...period. It outsold every single he ever released with the Temptations...including "Just My Imagination." Geez, even "Boogie Down" (2 Pop, 1 R&B) surpassed all but one of the songs you mentioned on the charts.
If you were at all familiar with Eddie's career, you wouldn't need me to rattle off his solo hits for you. He had a string of Platinum singles after leaving the Tempts. I can't believe you've never heard of (or have never seen others make mention of) songs like "Son Of Sagittarius," "Shoeshine Boy," "Happy," "Get The Cream Off the Top," "Tell Her Love Has Felt The Need" or "One Tear." All of them were Top 10 R&B/Soul hits for Eddie. One of his gospel-themed hits, "He's A Friend," went to #2 (R&B) in 1976...although, I think "Goin' Up In Smoke" is a better all around song.
"Darling Come Back Home," "Eddie's Love," "If You Let Me" and "Date With The Rain" are other brilliant songs from that era. Even one of his Arista releases, "Ain't No Smoke Without Fire" (13 R&B), outperformed a few of the songs you cited as evidence of Eddie reaching his "peak" with the Tempts...and that was on the
downside of his career.
He could've sang on more hits, but the bulk of the hits were given to Ruffin...
Correction...
melodies and
lyrics were given to David. His lead vocals are a big part of what made those songs hits...and those hits are a big reason why the bulk of the leads were shifted from Eddie and Paul to David as the Temptations' success grew.
Eddie Kendricks singing "(I Know) I'm Losing You" is not a hit. Paul Williams singing "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" is not a hit. I know how it pains you to give David Ruffin his due credit for putting the Temptations on the map, but the notion that *anybody* could've sung those songs and the Tempts would've still experienced the same chart success -- as you've contended in the past -- is beyond ridiculous.
Anyhow Just My Imagination will always be his signature song or any of the other hit songs he had as a Temptation.
It might be considered his best-known or biggest-selling song with the Temptations, but it is not the highlight of his career. "Keep On Truckin'" was and will always be Eddie Kendricks' signature song.
Crossover appeal ain't got nothing to do with it ... If it's number one on the R&b charts , or top 5 R&B it is still a hit. It doesn't have to crossover to be a hit.
No, it doesn't have to crossover to be a hit. As I stated, a Top 10 song in any particular subgroup is generally considered a hit. However, the songs that
do have the ability to crossover and draw a big audience from other genres are the ones that usually end up going to #1 across the board.
It's like the difference between being the biggest R&B group and being the biggest group, period. Either one is an accomplishment, but one is clearly a greater achievement than the other.
Eddie Kendricks still peaked as a singer with the Temptations, singing on many beautiful love songs, and on all of those early albums that he sang most of the leads on went to number 1 on the R&B album charts and two went to the POP top 15 and one went to POP #5.
Wait, so now you're giving Eddie credit for the success of the early albums...yet, completely ignoring the impact that
David's hit singles had on the sales of those albums?
Priceless.
The only Temptations albums from that era on which Eddie sang most of the leads were
The Temptations Sing Smokey (35 Pop, 1 R&B),
Temptin' Temptations (11 Pop, 1 R&B) and
Gettin' Ready (12 Pop, 1 R&B).
The success of
The Temptations Sing Smokey was driven almost entirely by "My Girl" (1 Pop, 1 R&B) and "It's Growing" (18 Pop, 3 R&B)...two David Ruffin leads...and the only two singles released from the album. Sure, it's possible people were buying the album to hear Eddie's forgettable version of "Way Over There," but I sincerely doubt it impacted sales that greatly.
The follow-up,
Temptin' Temptations, has one of my favorite C5 songs ("Born To Love You") on it. There were four singles released from that album..."The Girl's Alright With Me" (Did Not Chart), b/w "I'll Be In Trouble (33 Pop); "Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue) (26 Pop), b/w "Baby, Baby I Need You" (Did Not Chart); "Since I Lost My Baby" (17 Pop, 4 R&B), b/w "You've Got To Earn It" (22 R&B); and "Don't Look Back" (83 Pop, 15 R&B), b/w "My Baby" (13 Pop, 4 R&B). Again, the top two performing singles were David Ruffin leads...which is especially impressive considering "My Baby" was a B-side.
The last album,
Gettin' Ready, had two singles: "Get Ready" (29 Pop, 1 R&B), b/w "Fading Away" (Did Not Chart) and "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" (13 Pop, 1 R&B), b/w "You'll Lose A Precious Love" (Did Not Chart). Again, it's a big David Ruffin hit leading the way.
What's my point? Those were all great Temptations albums full of hidden gems that were held back in favor of other releases for one reason or another. Eddie had some incredible vocals on songs that either weren't released or just didn't perform as well on the charts as David's songs. The success of those albums wasn't squarely on the back of Eddie Kendricks' lead vocals, as you want to imply. It was a combination of things...David's hits, Eddie's lesser hits and the "Temptations sound"...that drove them up the charts.
If we follow your line of thinking, then we have to also point out that their two highest charting albums during the C5 era were
The Temptations Greatest Hits, volume 1 (5 Pop, 1 R&B) and
With A Lot O' Soul (7 Pop, 1 R&B)...two albums on which David Ruffin had the most leads.
Should we draw some conclusion from that?
Look, we all have our own opinions...but when you state something as
fact and question other people's knowledge or viewpoint on a particular topic, the onus is on you to back it up. Unfortunately, you usually have no idea what you're talking about and provide bogus information in the process.
It gets old after awhile.
