David Ruffin

David Ruffin ranked among Motown’s most commanding lead vocalists and quickly became a creative anchor for the Temptations once his performance on the 1965 single “My Girl” opened the door to further successes such as “Since I Lost My Baby” later that year, “Beauty Is Only Skin Deep” in 1966, “All I Need” in 1967, and “I Wish It Would Rain” in 1968. Rising frictions inside the group, together with his growing self-regard, brought about his departure from the lineup in late 1968. He began his solo work on a strong note with the intense ballad “My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me),” which reached the upper tiers of both the pop and soul charts in early 1969. The dance ballad “Walk Away From Love,” produced by Van McCoy and released in 1976, proved to be his last Top Ten entry. After exiting Motown in 1977, Ruffin recorded for Warner Brothers and subsequently for RCA in tandem with Eddie Kendricks. Prolonged struggles with substance abuse and creative disengagement defined the remainder of his path, which closed with his death from a drug overdose in 1991.