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Temptations

otis williams patricia romanowski

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The Temptations were the most commercially successful and critically lauded male vocal group of the Sixties and early Seventies. Through the years, the group's trademark razor-sharp choreography, finely tuned harmonies, and compelling vocals made them the exemplars of the Motown style. This is the frank, revealing story of the legendary supergroup, told by its founder.

304 pages, Paperback

First published September 1,1988

This edition

Format
304 pages, Paperback
Published
June 25, 2002 by Cooper Square Press
ISBN
9780815412182
ASIN
0815412185
Language
English

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About the author

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otis williams

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Otis Williams is an American second tenor/baritone singer. He is occasionally also a songwriter and a record producer. Williams is the founder and last surviving original member of the Motown vocal group The Temptations, a group in which he continues to perform; he also owns the rights to the Temptations name.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 37 votes)
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37 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
441red
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Being a huge Temptations fan, this book was an essential read. Otis just tells it like he sees it, although in the updated version he explains how he held back to spare the others. I would love to see individual bios on all the guys. I am also very fortunate to have a signed copy!
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MFNick
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I have a kind of obsession with that late 80’s period of time when nostalgia for 60’s music kind of seeped into popular culture. I remember very well the mayonnaise and Hi-C commercials that reworked songs by Gene Chandler and The Four Tops, and the “Mac Tonight” McDonald’s mascot. At the height of that mania Otis Williams released this memoir about his time as a member and founder of The Temptations.

I enjoyed it, though it got a little repetitive toward the end - that guy was replaced by this guy, who was replaced by that guy, who was replaced by this other guy, almost like a genealogy in the Bible. But there were a lot of great insights into the Motown era.

Even in a book written by Williams, David Ruffin is the fascinating star of the story. As usual with this kind of book, I spent a lot of time watching moments mentioned in the book on YouTube and the coolest thing I found was this video - https://youtu.be/N0268Le2mBA - of Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks on stage at the Apollo in 1985 with Hall and Oates (during a time when Ruffin and Kendricks were on the outs with the Temps), and Ruffin - emaciated from cocaine abuse - absolutely slaying “My Girl.” He was such a talent.

But Otis is the Temptation you’d want to be lifelong friends with, and it was great to go along with him for a while as he told his story.

Thanks Courtney for the recommendation.

I will update this review after I watch the 1998 movie based on this book.

UPDATE: The 1998 miniseries is amazing. I highly recommend it, and it may be one of my favorite movies ever.
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Leedle_Lee
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This was a heartwarming book about a music powerhouse. Williams definitely wallpapered over some really difficult moments in his career, but I very much appreciated this in-depth, easy-to-digest memoir.
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Gertwor
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This autobiography of the only member of the Temptations to have been in the group from its beginning days until now was written 35 years ago, when he was one of two original members left. The thing is, as much as Williams and Melvin Franklin contributed to the Temptations, it's their classic lead singers David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, occasionally Paul Williams, and later Dennis Edwards that define their sound.

But Williams was there all along, and he was the de facto leader of the group from its earliest days. He had plenty of interesting anecdotes, and the simple documentation of how they changed members throughout the years makes for an interesting read. I'm always more interested in details about how records came to be than he is interested in telling, but heck, the fact that Smokey Robinson just told them one day he'd written "The Way You Do the Things You Do" and wanted them to record it with him is pretty cool. Eventually, they thought Robinson's songs weren't deep enough for them, and Norman Whitfield took over the production and co-wrote many classics with Barrett Strong.

Paul Williams died young. First Ruffin, then Kendricks left the group at the top of their game. Dennis Edwards came in then left then came back then left. A reunion album brought everybody back for one year, but that couldn't hold. These men all loved each other, and very much respected their skills, but some were less capable of subsuming their interests to those of the group than others.

It's a breezy read, if not particularly insightful into the magic of the music. And why aren't there any mentions of their two classic Christmas albums? Surely there would have been interesting discussions about those.
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xcider22
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Fantastic and historical book about one of the best vocal groups ever, The Temptations. Otis Williams (with Patricia Romanowski) shares their ups and downs and stories about the group that only he is left to tell. For anyone who loves their music, this book is a must read!
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browgoro
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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A fun quick run down of story of The Temptations by the founder of the group, Otis Williams. Very light.
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Darconic
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Firth, I watch "Temptation's" movie (1989) again and then I read both the 1988 and 2002 versions of this book. I had to know what the difference was between all three. In my opinion, the 1988 copy of the book the authors jump around, a lot. The movie is written more chronology in order of some main events. And the 2002 updated book just adds an addition chapter and other information that happened between 1988 and 2002. As usual the book has more details about the Temptations (all 12 of them) and other information that's not in the movie. I would say about 55% of what's the books is in the movie. Recommend the 2002 book to Temptations fans. Loved it!!
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purple_neko
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Amazing Book

I didn’t see the Temptations mini series until a month or 2 ago at the age of 27, but The Temptations music had always been played in my household. From My Girl to Papa Was A Rolling Stone, The Temptations voices were always around. This book was wonderful and gave so much depth and honesty to the The Temptations as well as the mini series. I’m so glad I was able to read it.
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