(thing) by aneurin Wed Oct 03 2001 at 18:25:24

The Temptations' first album released on 20 March 1964, as Gordy 911 an imprint of Motown Records.

The group line up was,

Original track listing

  1. The Way You Do The Things You Do
  2. I Want A Love I Can See
  3. Dream Come True
  4. Paradise
  5. May I Have This Dance
  6. Isn't She Pretty
  7. Just Let Me Know
  8. Your Wonderful Love
  9. The Further You Look, The Less You See
  10. Check Yourself
  11. Slow Down Heart
  12. Farewell My Love

The currently available CD issue also contains the following additional bonus tracks

  1. Oh, Mother Of Mine
  2. Romance Without Finance
being both sides of the Temptations' debut single released in 1961.

William (Smokey) Robinson produced the first two tracks, the remainder by Berry Gordy Jr. with the exception of track 9 which is Norman Whitfield. The bonus tracks were produced by the "Dre-Mic" team of Andre Williams and William (Mickey) Stevenson.

For all but one of the tracks feature the original lineup with Elbridge Bryant and basically consists of the singles previously released by the group. Bryant's replacement, David Ruffin features only on the Smokey Robinson produced (and co-written) The Way You Do The Things You Do, which of course, was the big hit that broke the group. That made No 11 in the Billboard charts, and Meet the Temptations was put together to capitalise on that success.

The album therefore mainly features the early blues driven style of Motown, it is only with The Way You Do The Things You Do that you find an example of the flash of inspiration that helped light the fire that became the Motown sound.

You got a smile so bright You know could have been a candle I'm holding you so tight You know could have been a handle The way you swept me off my feet You know could have been a broom The way you smell so sweet You know could have been some perfume Well you could have been anything that you wanted to And I could tell The way you do the things you do

I like it!