It might be hard for today’s pop music fans to imagine, but not that long ago, Black American popular music — though a fountain of inspiration for musicians everywhere — ran on a separate “race” track from music aimed at white audiences.
All that began to change in the 1950s, as music labels found success marketing Black American stars to white audiences, and the civil rights era began to bridge the racial divide.
A big catalyst for that change was a small independent record label founded in Detroit in 1959. Motown Records introduced the nation to the Four Tops, the Supremes and the Temptations, the group that may have provided the biggest cultural punch.
Their breakthrough hit was “The Way You Do The Things You Do,” in 1964, with Eddie Kendricks on lead vocals — a song written by Miracles members Smokey Robinson and Bobby Rogers.
What seems so natural today — five young Black men delivering soulful harmonies and sharp dance moves to multiracial audiences — was groundbreaking back then.
And now, Palm Beach-area audiences are getting a glimpse at the stories behind that cultural shift, with the Tony-winning “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations” playing June 24-29 at Kravis Center’s Dreyfoos Hall.
“Ain’t Too Proud” tells the story of young Black men from Detroit who came of age during that volatile time in U.S. history, and how their struggle for success and inclusion created a lasting musical legacy. The Broadway jukebox musical includes many hits — from “My Girl” to “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” “Just My Imagination” and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone.”
“The Temptations are such an integral part of the Motown sound,” said Rudy Foster, who plays Otis Williams, the sole surviving original member of the group. “It’s not just the story of Detroit and of Black America. It became the story of America — the sound of America.”
The birth of the Temptations
Based on the 1988 book by Williams, the musical recounts how the group started as The Distants before forming the classic 1960s group of Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams. They quickly drew attention for their harmony, style and dancing.
For Foster, 35, portraying Williams brings a chance to remind audiences of an important part of U.S. history, when the civil rights and feminist movements propelled young people into action and the war in Vietnam was a flashpoint.
The Temptations released a string of successful albums from the mid- to late 1960s and the themes of those recordings changed with the times, from songs of love to “Ball of Confusion” in 1970, when protests against the Vietnam War reached a fever pitch.
“A lot of the songs are sort of a soundtrack for what was going on at the time and what was going on in the country,” Foster said.
The Temptations celebrated their 60th anniversary in 2022, and the current version of the band is still touring worldwide, performing for fans of multiple generations who remember the group’s music as an integral part of their lives.
The rise of Black music
The Motown sound is ubiquitous today. From political campaigns to movie soundtracks, commercials and society events, the hits from Detroit are a common frame of reference.
But in the 1950s, Black American music was not mainstream music for much of the country.
The music industry didn’t promote the music to the broader, mostly white, audience. Instead, white musicians would perform acceptable covers of songs by Black musicians. That explains The Kingsmen singing Richard Berry’s “Louie Louie” and Pat Boone singing Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti.”
Things began to change starting in the mid-1950s, when Chess Records, considered a blues label, recorded Muddy Waters, Etta James, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. As soul and rock captured the imagination of young people, Atlantic Records cashed in on Black American music with hits by Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin.
In Detroit, Berry Gordy, a former boxer who had worked on the Lincoln-Mercury assembly line, recognized the success of those labels and saw music as a ticket to the mainstream. After founding Motown in 1959, he sought to market Black music to the widest audience possible with songs and an image that were palatable to white audiences, said Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of African and African American studies at Duke University.
At Motown, Neal said, Gordy envisioned the performers as “the sound of young America” and put artists through an etiquette school that would prepare them for international stardom. “The idea was at some point the Supremes were going to meet the queen of England. … At some point they were going to be on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show,'” Neal said.
The Supremes were the flagship Motown act, and the Four Tops a marquee group, but the Temptations were perhaps a far more important cultural force — in large part because of the way they looked and carried themselves onstage. The group helped Motown to establish itself as cutting-edge Black style, Neal said.
“The Temptations set a standard in terms of how folks wanted to carry themselves, how Black men wanted to carry themselves,” Neal said. “They moved with a certain kind of synchronicity and unison that was important to draw attention to the performance and not necessarily the bodies behind the performance.”
For Foster, who saw “Ain’t Too Proud” five years ago on Broadway, the show is moving because it reveals the relationship between young Black men, their joys and struggles. He’s enjoyed watching how people of different backgrounds respond to the music, each thinking of their own experiences.
“Ain’t Too Proud” features a five-piece band recreating the music that the Funk Brothers performed to back most Motown recordings. Besides singing Temptations’ hits, the biggest challenge for the cast was mastering the dance moves.
“It’s honestly a beautiful and stressful process all in one,” said Reyanna Edwards, who plays singer and record producer Johnnie Mae Matthews, who helped launch the Temptations, and singer Mary Wilson in the production.
“We’re dancing to award-winning choreography and wanted to keep the high standards just like it was done on Broadway,” Edwards said. “We put a lot of pressure on ourselves and we worked our butts off.”
The roots of Motown
Motown wasn’t just one label, but an umbrella of labels to suit different tastes. The Temptations long recorded on the Gordy label while Gladys Knight and Pips were on the Soul label.
That could owe to Motown’s efforts to vie with competitors like Stax Records, which fused rhythm and blues styles into its “Memphis sound” and was the musical home of Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes. It might also have been a response to critiques from some that Motown didn’t represent the fullness of the Black experience.
But the label’s handling of such tensions, and its innovations, paved the way for one of its biggest successes in the Jackson Five.
Edwards, 23, who first heard Motown’s music while watching the BET Awards as a child, agrees that the music of the Temptations was the blueprint.
“Without the Temptations we wouldn’t have Michael Jackson,” she said. “Without Michael Jackson we wouldn’t have all of the performers we have today. It’s really part of the foundation of Black music that we hear today. They’re all stapled to this.”
If You Go
What: “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations”
When: June 24-29
Where: Kravis Center for the Performing Arts
Tickets: $40.25 and up
Info: 561-832-7469; kravis.org.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Catch a glimpse on Kravis stage of what made Temptations integral to Motown sound
Reporting by David Cazares, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
