Eddie Kendricks

Eddie Kendricks earned recognition both through his long association with the Temptations and through his major solo successes during the 1970s, helping establish Motown as a dominant force in soul music. Born Edward James Kendrick, the expressive vocalist who frequently employed falsetto grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, yet achieved stardom after relocating to Detroit and joining the Motown roster. While still based in Alabama during the late 1950s, he co-founded the Primes alongside Kell Osborne and future Temptation Paul Williams. Following the move to Detroit, the Primes drew interest from the Distants, a local ensemble that featured future Temptations Otis Williams, Elbridge Bryant, and Melvin Franklin. The Primes disbanded after only a few years, prompting the 1961 formation of the Temptations—initially called the Elgins—through the merger of remaining Primes members and the Distants.

Featuring former Primes Kendricks and Paul Williams together with former Distants Otis Williams (no relation to Paul), Melvin Franklin, and Elbridge Bryant, the group signed to Motown’s then-obscure Miracle imprint. Although the Temptations experienced frequent lineup shifts and initially struggled for traction, they achieved massive popularity by the mid-1960s via Kendricks-fronted smashes such as “The Way You Do the Things You Do” and “My Girl.” Further chart-topping releases followed throughout the mid- to late 1960s, among them “The Girl’s Alright with Me” and “Get Ready.” Kendricks also contributed songwriting and devised numerous vocal arrangements for the ensemble.

After the Temptations reached their eleventh number-one R&B single with “Just My Imagination,” Kendricks departed to launch a solo career. While many observers doubted the move from an established act, he quickly demonstrated viability on his own through early-1970s singles including the R&B chart-topper “Keep on Truckin’” and “Boogie Down,” which peaked at number two on the R&B chart. Subsequent notable solo releases encompassed “Shoeshine Boy,” “Get the Cream Off the Top,” 1975’s “Happy,” and 1976’s “He’s a Friend.” Although the bulk of his solo catalog appeared on Motown, he recorded for Arista and Atlantic in the late 1970s and early 1980s, by which point his commercial momentum had waned markedly. He remained largely out of the spotlight during the 1980s, aside from contributing to the Artists United Against Apartheid Sun City project in 1985 and appearing on Live at the Apollo with Daryl Hall, John Oates, and fellow former Temptation David Ruffin. Two years afterward, he and Ruffin issued a joint album on RCA.

The 1990s brought the untimely loss of three former Temptations: Ruffin succumbed to a cocaine overdose in 1991, Kendricks died in 1992, and Melvin Franklin passed away from a brain seizure in 1995. Earlier tragedy had already struck the group when Paul Williams took his own life in 1973. Kendricks was 52 at the time of his death from lung cancer in his hometown of Birmingham on October 5, 1992.