The Temptations - Don't Look Back [[Youtube)

[motown01]

[woodward]

Thanks for finding this and posting it. Absolutely fabulous, one of my all time favorite Temptations songs. They surely don't make music like these days, do they?

[DWSheffer]

Same as with Woodward, this is one of my all time favorite Temptations songs. Nice TV appearance here!
Darin

[soulwally]

This has been out there for quite a while. I have an officially released DVD with this on. Great song

[woodward]

I believe that Don't Look Back was the very last lead song by Paul. Just think how much greater he could have become had he not suffered his demise. I consider this his masterpiece.

[Graham Jarvis]

Paul Williams record both of the tracks that he wrote in 1971, his last record finally "Gordy 7125 in Mar 1973" was due just before the single was scheduled to be released, sadly Paul commited suicide.

However after he passed away the record was due, quickly the record was then pulled. The unissued two songs being written by Paul [both 1971] "Feel Like Givin' Up" & Once You Had A Heart" . It was later issued around the 1990's.

Two great songs!

Maybe "Don't Look Back" was the last lead?

[mysterysinger]

"Feel Like Giving Up" is a fantastic recording by Paul Williams. The song was written by Ronald Matlock and Eddie Kendricks. It was also previously recorded by Posse of course and both versions were produced by Eddie Kendricks. Paul's version was released on "Motown Year By Year 1973" in 1995 and "One By One - The Best Of The Solo Years" in 1996.

Three solo songs are listed on DFTMC for Paul Williams, so in addition to "Feel Like Giving Up" we have "I Need You More Now Than Ever" [[on "A Cellarful Of Motown 4") and "Once You Had A Heart" [["One By One - The Best Of The Solo Years"). None of the songs were written by Paul Williams.

Paul had a great voice and the songs he leads on are very memorable like "Don't Look Back" and "For Once In My Life" etc.

[tjl]

What about "No Man Can Love Her Like I Do" from the "I Wish It Would Rain LP? Kind of a cousin to "Mickey's Monkey" o r"Too Many Fish In The Sea"?

[WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance]

What about "No Man Can Love Her Like I Do" from the "I Wish It Would Rain LP? Kind of a cousin to "Mickey's Monkey" o r"Too Many Fish In The Sea"?

It's a cousin to "Too Many Fish In The Sea". When I was 16 and first heard this, I thought it sounded so much like "Too Many", especially the sax solo. At one point I even joined both songs together using my cassette tape deck and both songs flowed together almost seamlessly. I also noticed that sound-wise, the music track sounded as if it had been recorded at the same time as "Too Many." It didn't sound like a 1968 recording at all and I wondered if Norman Whitfield was planning to use this song on the Marvelettes as a follow-up for "Too Many". Decades later, I found out my hunch was pretty much right; the DFTMC site states that the song was originally titled "No Girl [[Can Love Him Like I Do)" and lists Paul's vocal as "odb on the Marvelettes". That's all I need to see.

[Motown Eddie]

Maybe "Don't Look Back" was the last lead?

No; Paul Williams also sang lead vocals on tracks from The Tempts albums. There's "Just Another Lonely Night" [from Temptin' Temptations], "Who You Gonna Run To" [from Gettin' Ready], "No More Water In The Well" [from With A Lot 'O Soul], "Hey Girl' [from Cloud Nine] & "Runnin' Away Ain't Gonna Help You" [from Puzzle People].

[reese]

No; Paul Williams also sang lead vocals on tracks from The Tempts albums. There's "Just Another Lonely Night" [from Temptin' Temptations], "Who You Gonna Run To" [from Gettin' Ready], "No More Water In The Well" [from With A Lot 'O Soul], "Hey Girl' [from Cloud Nine] & "Runnin' Away Ain't Gonna Help You" [from Puzzle People].

He also had many leads on the Supremes/Tempts duets.

[woodward]

There are some additional songs that Paul was the lead singer [source Emporers of Soul] box set released by Motown.

Pirates - Melody 105 I'll Love You 'Til I Die

Miracle 5 - Romance Without Finance
Miracle 12 - Check Yourself
Gordy 7010 - Slow Down Heart
Gordy 7015 - The Further You Look, the Less You See AND I Want a Love I Can See
Gordy 7057 - I Couldn't Cry If I Wanted To
Gordy 7074 - How Can I Forget

Also on the Temptations Lost and Found
Unreleased - Last One Out Is Broken Hearted

All the ones that I just listed above are verified that Paul was the LEAD SINGER ONLY.

Paul had quite a legacy. He surely made his mark with the Temptations but unfortunately he has never gotten the amount of credit he deserves as a singer.

[Spreadinglove21]

And Paul Williams made her presence felt on lead lines he sang his lead parts on the more ensemble oriented shared lead Temptations songs such as Cloud Nine and Just My Imagination [[I know one line, but he sang the hell out of it).

[Motown Eddie]

Also on the Temptations Lost and Found
Unreleased - Last One Out Is Broken Hearted

All the ones that I just listed above are verified that Paul was the LEAD SINGER ONLY.

Paul had quite a legacy. He surely made his mark with the Temptations but unfortunately he has never gotten the amount of credit he deserves as a singer.

And there's two more cuts on The Temptations Lost And Found set featuring Paul singing lead; "I Can't Think Of A Thing At All" & "I Now See You Clear Through My Tears". Also on "We'll Be Satisfied", Paul, Eddie Kendricks & David Ruffin take turns singing lead vocals.

It's true that Paul Williams didn't get the amount of credit he deserved as a singer [perhaps due to being somewhat overshadowed by David Ruffin & Eddie Kendricks during the mid '60 years with The Tempts].

[mysterysinger]

Also the Marv Johnson song "The Man Who Don't Believe In Love".

[Motown Eddie]

Miracle 5 - Romance Without Finance

And don't forget about the A-side of "Romance Without Finance", "Oh Mother Of Mine" [The Temptations debut on Motown's Miracle label] also features Paul Williams sharing the lead vocal with Eddie Kendricks [just like they do on the B-side "Romance Without Finance"].

[woodward]

Also the Marv Johnson song "The Man Who Don't Believe In Love".

Kudos to mysterysinger. He is surely our Motown expert in discovering that Marv Johnson wrote and produced "Man Who Don't Believe in Love" which featured Paul as lead.

So I just happened to have the CD Gettin' Ready by the Temptations. Mine was released in 1966 and included 12 singles period. I did a little research and I discovered that the 1999 release had the 12 tracks from the 1966 issuance PLUS 2 bonus tracks, both of which featured Paul as lead. The two bonus tracks were Give It Up and Man Who Don't Believe in Love.

I don't recall other CDs which were released and the original included only the standard 12 songs and the reissuance later included BONUS TRACKs.

Thanks to mysterysinger for this discovery. Marv Johnson really deserves more recognition than he receives. His footprint exists everywhere.

Thanks to mysterysinger. As a long time member of the SDF, I always considered Marv2 as our expert, but mysterysinger surely deserves recognition for his expertise. He is truly an asset to this forum. Keep up the good work, you are truly appreciated. He is surely a wealth of information and knowledge.

[mysterysinger]

Good of you to say that Bill, there are plenty of Motown experts here with a ton of in-depth knowledge to learn from, including yourself - which is why I keep coming back. I just contribute what I can so I'm happy if it's of good use to anyone.

Just a small point re those Temptations CDs, the 1998 remasters [[31453 seres) such as "In A Mellow Mood", "Temptin' Temptations", "With A Lot O' Soul" and "Sing Smokey" didn't include any bonus tracks whereas the 1999 remasters did [[31454 series) viz:

"Gettin' Ready" - "Give It Up" / "The Man Who Don't Believe In Love"
"Live!" - "The Way You Do The Things You Do"
"Meet The Temptations" - "Oh, Mother Of Mine" / "Romance Without Finance"

"Live!" and "Meet" with the bonus tracks were further re-issued as part of The Temptations 5 CD USA box set B0019369-02 "The Temptations - 5 Classic Albums" which also repeated the aforesaid remasters of "In A Mellow Mood", "Temptin' Temptations" and "Sing Smokey" - all 5 in mini-LP CD format with card covers - I love this format. See here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookep...jaHUNY-2jEzoLk

Curiously, the later UK 5 album mini LP CD set which included "Sing Smokey", "Temptin' Temptations", "Gettin' Ready", "With A Lot O' Soul" and "Join" [[with DRATS) included no bonus tracks at all. See here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookep...jaHUNY-2jEzoLk

[woodward]

I found mysterysingers #18 response to this thread very interesting.

He mentions the mini-LP CD formats that exist which I was unaware of.

The Spectrum 2017 release containing the last five albums "Sing Smokey", Temptin' Temptations", "Gettin' Ready", "With a Lot O' Soul", and "Join" with DR&S". This is really a great way to cover several albums in one release. Everyone remembers the 2 Classic Albums on 1 CD series from the past. I always assumed that this was the only format in which more than one album was in a release. But living in the US, I was never aware of them being released. Basic point I never knew of these Motown mini LP CDs. Were there any others that never got any publicity?

I have a similar format on the Detroit Spinners. Back in 2009 the release designated Original Album Series was released through a joint effort of Atlantic/Rhino. There were 5 albums included each with one CD in a exact replica of the front and back of the album cover. The 5 albums that were included were "Spinners", "Mighty Love", "New and Improved", "Live!", and "Pick of the Litter". The release number was 8122798378.

Wouldn't it be nice to have mini-Lp CDs for all the Marvelettes albums? Who else would be a great candidate for release like this?

Some food for thought.

[daviddesper]

At first I did not understand your terminology "Mini LP CDs" but now I think I can picture what you mean and if so, I have owned perhaps 20 or 30 of them over the years by a variety of artists. But sadly almost none of them Motown.

So I "think" we are talking about the series that is sometimes titled Original Album Classics and sometimes Original Album Series. There may be even a third title used sometimes.

Anyway, you get five of the artist's albums on individual CDs with each one enclosed in a paper sleeve with its original front and rear artwork. They are then encased in an outer sleeve but the whole package ends up so thin that it is basically about the size of a jewel case.

These started to come out in the late 90s to early 2000s I would guess and were priced quite reasonably.....about $15-20 in most cases. Some artists actually received a Volume 2, meaning you could get TEN of their albums this way.

Of course as time has passed, these are getting harder to find. The featured artists that I can think of that might be of interest to our SDF family would include Dionne Warwick, Shirley Bassey, Margie Joseph, Bette Midler, Sheena Easton, and Roberta Flack. Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

As mentioned I don't think any of our Motown folks ever received this treatment. I think there may have actually been two separate 5-CD packages featuring the Temps but to the best of my recall, they were not part of this same series, even though they followed a similar concept.

Hope all of this rambling helps someone and sorry if I am wrong with any details. This all comes from memory, and as we say here in the US "this old gray mare ain't what she used to be", at least not in the memory department!

[Roger Polhill]

There are 3 Marvin Gaye box sets containing mini LPs.

[mysterysinger]

There are a whole host of Motown Mini-LPs - the Japanese being particularly fond of this format. Universal/Motown have issued several CD albums this way as have Motown USA and UK/EU with the 5 Classic albums formats. Unofficially [[?) Big Pink and Oldays also issue them [[including some Marvelettes albums - but Oldays are forced to use amended artwork for the albums sleeves due to copyright reasons).

Culture Factory are well known for their mini-LPs. Even Hip-O-Select have issued mini-LP CDs such as Blinky and Edwin Starr's "Just We Two" which was a numbered limited release as well as their Motortown Revue box set which contained 4 mini-LP CDs. Don't forget, also, the Marvin Gaye Universal / Motown 3 box sets of all his albums.

Typically, the CD will be housed in a cardboard album replica sleeve and in some cases include replicas of the original album inserts. Most of the individual Japanese CDs will come with an OBI strip - which itself seems to be of value.

Some examples from my collection can be seen here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookep...7720321952216/

[woodward]

In reading Detroit 67 The Year That Changed Soul by Stuart Cosgrove comes this comment.

There was a comparison with Stax Records federally funded campaign to prevent rioting. It further stated that Motown's efforts were local and small beer. General Motors in Detroit had signed on to the government's job creation scheme and struck a deal with Motown that a song by the Temptations, "DON'T LOOK BACK" could be used as a local campaign song.

An interesting situation that few know about today.

[mysterysinger]

But then this happened . . .