Temptations Docuseries Explores Motown’s Early Days And Gospel Influences
The three-part series promises to offer fans new and old unprecedented insight into the formation, creative process, and brilliance of The Temptations.
To celebrate The Temptations’ 60th anniversary and their new album, Temptations 60, the legendary group is presenting a three-chapter YouTube documentary series.
Chapter 1: The Beginning, is out now. It serves to celebrate the band’s legacy and Temptations 60, a brand new album of new songs from the No.1 R&B group of all time. The album features tracks written and produced by Narada Michael Walden, hip-hop producer K. Sparks, longtime group member Ron Tyson, founding member Otis Williams, and the equally legendary Smokey Robinson, whose classic songs launched the group’s original hit streak. Temptations 60, which features the single “Is It Gonna Be Yes Or No,” is available to pre-order and will be released on January 28, 2022.
The documentary offers brilliant insight into the group and the history of Motown Records. In Chapter 1: The Beginning, Smokey Robinson remembers the early days.
“At that time, nobody was paying us. I mean, all the other record companies, the national record companies, they paid you if they wanted to. And if they didn’t want to, they didn’t, especially if you were Black,” he explains.
“I mean, whatever they felt like giving you, they may give you a car rather than giving you your royalty money. So anyway, everybody was doing just like that. So, Berry borrowed $800 from his family to start Motown. And that was how I came to be hooked up with Motown because I was hooked up with him before he started Motown.”
Otis Williams also recalled how his childhood informed the music of The Temptations. He says, “When you are raised by two wonderful grandmothers down South, all I would listen to was gospel. When The Temps first got together, we would open up our rehearsals singing gospel because when you sang gospel, you better know what you’re doing or leave it alone. Because those brothers and sisters that were singing gospel when I was growing up listening, they hit the spirit.”
The three-part YouTube documentary series on the group promises to offer fans new and old unprecedented insight into the formation, creative process, and brilliance of The Temptations.
