Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, David Ruffin Melvin Franklin and Otis Williams make up the five members of the temptations during the year 1964.
Otis Williams one of the original members of the Legendary Temptations group, recently posted a video on his YouTube channel. The video shows Otis sitting comfortably in his home, recalling the making of the groups smash hit “The Way You Do The Things You Do”. He starts off saying that Smoking Robinson, of Motown called him asking, “Can you bring the Temps to the studio? I have a song for you guys.” He continues on by mentioning that it was a “cold winter January night“ when they arrived at the studio. At this point I almost felt like I was watching the movie all over again. Only through Otis himself!
He later follow up with remarks of his initial thoughts of the lyrics, calling it a terminology that shall not repeated.lol Although Otis seemed indifferent towards the lyrics, The Temptations continued on to record the track. He praised songwriter and producer Smokey Robinson, saying he could “take nonsense and make it sense.” He later admitted that he told Smokey he laughed at the lyrics because he thought it was funny, but he did think it was “A hell of a song”.
By the second half of the video Otis explains that even when the Temptations didn’t have hits, that they were always a working group! Around the time “The Way You Do The Things You Do” started climbing the charts, The group was in my home town Muskegon,MI for an entire month! Wow right!! I been a Temptations fan my entire life and never knew this. Nor did my grandparents told me, (were the Temptations really laying that low? I wonder, I wonder! )
He later expressed during their stay that they were out of the loop and no one could get a hold of them till they went back to Detroit. That’s when he and David Ruffin went up to Motown where they discovered the group charted #76 with their new song! For some, it’s easy to think nothing of this ranking, what we must always remember is the fact the m music industry wasn’t easy on black entertainers during this time. This was a really BIG deal for African Americans all over the world! Otis himself wraps up by sayings he and David cried tears of joy because of the news, “The Way You Do The Things You Do“ was the breakout single that carried them 60+ years later! Wow!
Check out video here: https://youtu.be/bEDak72WEAY
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