What is the Temptation without Eddie Kendricks? Or David Ruffins? I guess they are Otis Williams and the correct voices and I guess that will have tio be enough because, well, because Eddie and David have been dead since the early 1990s and, really, if they own the Temptations name, you know you are gonna wanna check em out.
Especially if the opening band is… the Four Tops!! Now if the Temptations still has Otis and Duke Fakir is the only name I recognize in the Four Tops, but then again after Levi Stubbs it’s a little hard to care and since Levi has left the building, here we are now with two original member between two groups who are playing a week at the Palace on Broadway, and I got a ticket, following up Skrillex on New Year’s Eve/Day with Saturday January 3, at 2pm…
Here is the PR release:
“Two legendary Motown groups will join forces on Broadway for one week only. The Temptations and The Four Tops will play the Palace Theatre from December 29 through January 4, 2015 for seven performances, celebrating their 50-year career of classic hits.
The Temptations started in the early ‘60s in Detroit and rose to fame in 1964 with “The Way You Do The Things You Do.” They became the first Motown group to win a Grammy—for “Cloud Nine” in 1969. They won again in 1973 for “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” and in 2001 for the album Ear-Resistable. Last year, they were honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The Temptations singers currently consist of founding member Otis Williams, as well as Ron Tyson, Terry Weeks, Joe Herndon and Bruce Williamson.
The Four Tops began as Four Aims in 1956 under Chess Records, singing everything from pop, to blues, to Broadway and jazz. The quartet’s “Baby I Need Your Loving” marked their first Motown hit in 1964; it was soon followed by such chart-toppers as “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch),” “It’s The Same Old Song” and “”Reach Out I’ll Be There.” They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and received the 2009 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Original member Abdul “Duke” Fakir is joined by Ronnie McNeir, Harold Bonhart and Lawrence Payton, Jr”.
No, not better than the real thing, but not bad.
