The story of the Temptations is a great story and this book is well worth reading.

I love Motown and I love the Temptations. This book was such a real honest look into both. I’ll be recommending this to all the music lovers / autobiography readers I know.

Informative, Memorable, Page Turning Read! I Loved It!

A good, interesting book, but written in a rambling conversational style

Excellent expose on how partnerships work over time. Showcases the ups & downs of the Motown moments in Pop history.

I Love the Temptations.

First time reading a book about a musical group, and I really enjoyed it. Learned a lot. Enjoyed the lingo from the era.

Since I recently saw the musical “Ain’t too Proud” and with Otis being the author of this book I just had to buy it. Years ago I read the other book on the Temptations and enjoyed it also but had forgotten all of the details until the musical. The Temps are one of my favorite R & B groups and with Otis telling the life story of the Temps, both happy and tragic brought back all of the memories. This book is the updated version from the one published in 1988. Hopefully before he passes he can provide a new expanded version, given the popularity of the musical and his involvement in it. Definitely a great read, but biased because of the subject matter.

i read it fully !!!!

Although I'm not old enough to remember the Temptations during their heyday, I've always enjoyed their music. This was a definitive look at the group, provided by the founder and only surviving member, Otis Williams.

In many ways, this story is typical of the memoirs of many/most musicians: the record label ripped them off while they were naive and just trying to get noticed; they could have been more successful if the radio guys would have played their songs more; sex, drugs, and alcohol abuse derailed once-promising careers and lives; too much time on the road took away from enjoyment of family life; they kept touring long after their popularity waned and their families fell apart in order to satisfy the urge to have more control of their careers; and in the end they enjoyed fame and success, but at a steep personal price.

With that said, I was surprised and pleased to learn that a couple of the Temptations were from my home state of Alabama. But as a whole, the story of the Temptations was a sad one, and this book testifies to the struggles that each of them had in getting along with each other and with other members of their family throughout their careers. There was also quite a bit of turnover throughout the years, with over a dozen different singers coming in and going out from the mostly five-member group over the decades that they have performed, and during the time while the founding members were still alive. To a man, they each endured significant personal tragedy along the way.

But in spite of all that, I appreciated the optimistic outlook of Otis Williams and his consistent attempts at reconciliation and unity (granted that this book only provides his point of view of those events). I wish I had been able to catch the Temptations in concert. Not only did they have some legendary songs, but it sounds like they put a lot of time and effort into rehearsing and learning choreography to make sure that they always put on a good show for their fans.

With Romanowski, coauthor of Vanna Speaks , Williams, founder of the Temptations, a blues group that sang its way to the top of the charts in the 1960s, tells a vivid story of good times and bad: Motown's super group has been plagued by violent quarrels, drug and alcohol abuse, suicide.

The Temptations have often been on the verge of falling apart, but Williams, according to the authors, has always been able to pull them together again, even to pick up the pieces of their troubled relationship with Motown founder Berry Gordy. Among other tidbits, the book provides illuminating insights into the famous "Motown U," where singers were instructed in charm and deportment as well as musical skills. The group is still going strong, though membership has changed over the years, and Williams writes as a man who is proud of having kept it alive for so long.

I really enjoyed this book about the Temptations, one of my favorite musical groups and one of Motown's most successful groups.

Written by the last surviving original member of the Temptations, this book follows Otis Williams as a youngster and how as a teenager, he realized that he wanted to be a musician for a living. Starting with a few neighborhood friends, as well as recruiting other singers, such as Melvin Franklin slowly the right mix started to come together. After meeting Barry Gordy, they got an invitation to try out for Motown. A few member changes later, along with changing their name to The Temptations, and the group went to Motown to try out. A successful audition brought them into the Motown family.

Over the next couple of years, the group tried to cut various records but were not very successful. Frustration abounded, and one of the members, Al, was let go from the group and David Ruffin was brought in. This was the mix the group needed, and before they knew it, they had their first hit "The Way You Do the Thing You Do". Having started to make a name for themselves, "My Girl" was released, and the group became superstars.

The book follows the journey of the group during the highs and lows of their musical careers. Otis Williams brings the reader along backstage to show how much the group loved one another, as well as how much they disagreed and fought. The reader does find out about some of how Motown was run, as well as how the various groups interacted with one another. The tale goes from the early 60's, through changes in personnel, (for instance, David Ruffin was fired, and Dennis Edwards brought in), contract disagreements, fights with writers, though the 70's & 80's, (including the reunion tour), with the group entering the Music Hall of Fame.

While the book reads like a "tell all" book, it is not written in a bitter manner as other "tell all" books. As a reader, I felt for a little bit I was looking into a window of what it was like to be a Temptation. I would highly recommend this book to fans of The Temptations, to people interested in music history, especially Motown, and how African Americans dealt with both the overt and covert racism of the 60's & 70's. Overall it was a fun and worthwhile book to read. As with many, many books, I preferred the book over the mini-series that was made based off the book.