The Temptations & The Four Tops Bring Motown Back to Broadway Tonight

Motown legends, THE TEMPTATIONS and THE FOUR TOPS, begin their special one-week engagement on Broadway from tonight, December 29, 2014. The show runs through January 4, 2015.

This special limited engagement is presented by Robert Ahrens, Eva Price, Manny Kladitis, A Broadway Concert Event and Live Nation Entertainment.

Both a career retrospective as well as a celebration of the hit songs that defined a generation, this special one-week Broadway engagement of THE TEMPTATIONS and THE FOUR TOPS will feature the legendary Hall of Fame artists performing all their classic Top 10 Billboard hits, including "My Girl," "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," "Reach Out I'll Be There," "Bernadette," "Get Ready," "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I Got)," "Baby I Need Your Lovin'," "It's the Same Old Song (But With a Different Meaning Since You've Been Gone)," "The Way You Do the Things You Do," and "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)," in a once-in-a-lifetime Broadway event.

For more than fifty years, The Temptations have propelled popular music with a series of smash hits, and sold-out performances throughout the world. The history of The Temptations is the history of contemporary American pop. An essential component of the original Motown machine, that amazing engine invented by Berry Gordy, The Temps began their musical life in Detroit in the early sixties. It wasn't until 1964, however, that the Smokey Robinson written-and-produced "The Way You Do The Things You Do" turned the guys into stars. An avalanche of hits followed, many of which-"My Girl," for instance-attained immortality. "It's Growing," "Since I Lost My Baby," "Get Ready," "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep," "I Wish It Would Rain"...the hits kept coming. The classic lineup was Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin. Beyond the fabulous singing, The Temps became known for smooth stepping and flawless presentations. The Temptations Walk became a staple of American style. When the sixties and seventies turned political, The Temps got serious. They changed their tone, dress and music. Producer Norman Whitfield led the way. His Temptations hits, many featuring Dennis Edwards who had replaced David Ruffin, burned with intensity. "Runaway Child," "Cloud Nine," "I Can't Get Next to You," "Papa Was a Rolling Stone," and "Psychedelic Shack" still smolder. Other stellar singers-Richard Street and Ali-Ollie Woodson-joined, adding their luster to the groups' growing fame. No matter the change in personnel, The Temptations remained true to The Temptations tradition. They survived the whims of fashion, whether disco or techno, and stuck to their guns. In the eighties, The Temps prevailed with smashes like the Otis Williams' penned "Treat Her Like A Lady." Then in the nineties, another Temptation explosion. It began with their appearance on "Motown 25" in 1983; it continued with the NBC mini-series that chronicled the group's history, a ratings triumph over two nights in prime time. An Emmy Award followed. Then came a series of acclaimed records: For Lovers Only, a collection of love standards, termed an instant classic by critics, remains among the most cherished of all Temptations recordings; Phoenix Rising, went through the roof, a platinum-plus mega-hit featuring "Stay," the Narada Michael Walden-produced song that topped the charts; Ear Resistible, nailed a Grammy and a legion of new fans; Awesome, released in 2001 is The Temptations at their freshest, strongest, and most appealing; Reflections was released in 2005, nominated for a Grammy and brought to the world The Temptations versions of some of Motown's greatest songs; Get Ready, this DVD was released in 2006 and was one of the largest selling music DVDs in the Motown catalog; and in 2016 The Temptations Musical, based on Otis Williams's book and mini-series. In 1989, with 35 Top 40 pop hits to their credit, The Temptations were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The quartet, originally called the Four Aims, made their first single for Chess in 1956, and spent seven years on the road and in nightclubs, singing pop, blues, Broadway, but mostly jazz-four-part harmony jazz. When Motown's Berry Gordy Jr. found out they had hustled a national "Tonight Show" appearance, he signed them without an audition to be the marquee act for the company's Workshop Jazz label. That proved short-lived, and Stubbs' powerhouse baritone lead and the exquisite harmonies of Fakir, Benson, and Payton started making one smash after another with the writing-producing trio Holland-Dozier-Holland. Their first Motown hit, "Baby I Need Your Loving" in 1964, made them stars and their sixties track record on the label is indispensable to any retrospective of the decade. Their songs, soulful and bittersweet, were across-the-board successes. "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)," a no. 1 R&B and Pop smash in 1965, is one of Motown's longest-running chart toppers; it was quickly followed by a longtime favorite, "It's The Same Old Song" (no. 2 R&B/no. 5 pop). Their commercial peak was highlighted by a romantic trilogy: the no. 1 "Reach Out I'll Be There," "Standing In The Shadows Of Love" (no. 2 R&B/no. 6 pop) and "Bernadette" (no. 3 R&B/no. 4 pop)-an extraordinary run of instant H-D-H classics. Other Tops hits from the decade included "Ask The Lonely," "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)," "Something About You," "You Keep Running Away," "7-Rooms Of Gloom" and their covers of "Walk Away Renee" and "If I Were A Carpenter." After H-D-H split from Motown, producer Frank Wilson supervised the R&B Top 10 hits "It's All In The Game" and "Still Water (Love)" at the start of the seventies. The Tops also teamed with Motown's top girl group, the Supremes, post-Diana Ross. Billing themselves The Magnificent Seven for a series of albums, they hit with a cover of "River Deep - Mountain High." When Motown left Detroit in 1972 to move to Los Angeles, the steadfast Tops decided to stay at home, and with another label. They kept up a string of hits with ABC-Dunhill for the next few years: "Ain't No Woman (Like The One I've Got)," a Top 5 hit; the Top 10 "Keeper Of The Castle"; and the R&B Top 10's "Are You Man Enough (from the movie Shaft In Africa)," "Sweet Understanding Love," "One Chain Don't Make No Prison" (later covered by Santana), "Midnight Flower" and the disco perennial "Catfish." In 1980 the group moved to Casablanca Records. The following year they were at no. 1 again, with "When She Was My Girl," making them one of the few groups to have hits in three consecutive decades. They also scored R&B Top 40s with the ballads "Tonight I'm Gonna Love You All Over" and "I Believe In You And Me," the original version of the 1996 Whitney Houston smash. And the Tops were heard in the film Grease 2 with "Back To School Again." By 1983, riding the wave of the company's 25th anniversary celebration, the Tops were back with Motown and H-D-H. The reunion resulted in the R&B Top 40 hits "I Just Can't Walk Away" and "Sexy Ways." They signed with Arista later in the decade, and there they racked up their final solo Top 40 hit, "Indestructible," which was the theme of the 1988 Summer Olympics. That year they also partnered with Aretha Franklin, a longtime friend from Detroit, for the Top 40 R&B "If Ever A Love There Was." In 1990, with 24 Top 40 pop hits to their credit, the Four Tops were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.

Photo by Andrew Benge