The Monitors

Formed briefly as the Monitors, the ensemble issued just a single Motown single across its entire existence, spanning November 1965 through August 1968. Richard Street, Warren Harris, Sandra Fagin, and John Fagin made up the lineup, though their exact relationship—whether siblings or spouses—remains unclear. Warren Harris had studied alongside future Temptations Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, and Street at Detroit’s Northwestern High School; he performed with Williams and Franklin in the Distants before departing, after which that outfit combined with the Primes and entered Motown’s roster as the Temptations.

Street promptly revived the Distants name and cut “Answer Me” for Thelma Records under the billing Richard Street & the Distants, with a youthful Norman Whitfield handling production duties on both sides. He also contributed material to Thelma, the company run by Berry Gordy’s first wife; once the label shuttered, he moved on to the Peps alongside Joe Harris, who would later perform with the Ohio Players and the Undisputed Truth and had earlier sung as a teenager with Little Joe & the Moroccos. Like the Monitors, the Peps delivered dynamic, visually striking stage shows yet failed to achieve comparable recording success.

After Street assembled the Monitors with Harris and the Fagins, the group launched on the VIP imprint with the coy, gentle ballad “Say You,” which received scant promotional support. The Temptations later covered the track for their Gettin’ Ready album. Subsequent Monitor releases—“Greetings This Is Uncle Sam” and “Since I Lost You Girl”—followed within months but produced no forward momentum for the act. Motown shelved the group until April 1968, when it finally issued “Bring Back the Love.” The label then moved the Monitors to its Soul imprint for their last single, “Step by Step,” issued in August 1968. Three months afterward, the album Greetings! We’re the Monitors—originally slated for VIP—appeared on Soul; the collection proved underwhelming because it omitted several B-sides from the group’s five singles and featured material below Motown’s customary level.

In the late ’80s British producer Ian Levine revived the Monitors, cutting numerous sides with a reconstituted lineup that featured Darrell Littlejohn on lead, Herschel Hunter, Leah Harris, and original members Warren Harris and Maurice Fagin. Street could not participate, having joined the Temptations in the ’70s as Paul Williams’s replacement. The new configuration evoked the style of the Miracles; Littlejohn, Smokey Robinson’s nephew, had previously recorded with his cousin Keith Burston as Keith & Darrell on Tamla and under the name Second Generation.