How was it covered? I know it wasn't like the Victory coverage as they had a special on every news station in the city they were visiting. I do know like the Victory Tour, it was slammed based on the film.

You had Dennis and David Ruffin, two dynamic leads joining together for the furst time. Eddie Kendricks was back joining the other remainibg Tempts.

Among Tempts fans, R&B fans in general, Motown lovers, etc., yeah it was a big deal. I wasn't around either so I like to know how big but I think it was a big deal considering who you were asking in the R&B field of things.

I felt that the "Rick James" angle kinda overshadowed the significance of the reunion.

From what I can recall it wasn't that huge or groundbreaking. I think it fell apart before it could even get off the ground. The R&B stations that played that song said it was "Rick James" and

'sometimes' mentioned The Temps.

Rick James, Micheal Jackson, Prince and hip hop (Grandmaster Flash) were really starting to

rule the radio airwaves in 82 and The Temps were kind of a "dinosaur act" by then.

There was just no way for The Temps to truly reunite by 1982. Eddie couldn't sing, David had one foot in the streets and Otis had too much to lose to trust those guys completely again. The reunion would have been more magical if they were able to leave the substitue guys out of the situation.

For the most part, this album wasn't much different than the ones previous to it. Dennis is doing 95% of the lead vocals.

JamFanHot said:

I felt that the "Rick James" angle kinda overshadowed the significance of the reunion.

True...

I don't know why they even called it a reunion. It's not like they had been broke up for years. They had released "Power" in 1980 and the "Reunion" album was only two years later. Maybe it was because David Ruffin was back with them but we were a new generation so we didn't know anything about the members of the group at the time. All we knew was it was The Temptations which we had heard of from out parents' generation and we knew they were with Rick James who was hot with our generation. A lot of us just considered it as a Rick James side project.

To be blunt... no one cared.

TD3 said:

To be blunt... no one cared.

YEah, I checked the charts, barley made a dent.

37 Pop and 6 Black. Of course it did much better than there previous album, 119 Pop and 36 black.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

TD3 said:

To be blunt... no one cared.

YEah, I checked the charts, barley made a dent.

37 Pop and 6 Black. Of course it did much better than there previous album, 119 Pop and 36 black.

Hell, number 6 on the Black Charts was pretty good. As for the Pop Charts, fuck 'em. All that crossing over and trying to cross over by artists is what eventually killed funk and turned R&B into the rediculous, rythmless joke that it is today.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

TD3 said:

To be blunt... no one cared.

YEah, I checked the charts, barley made a dent.

37 Pop and 6 Black. Of course it did much better than there previous album, 119 Pop and 36 black.

I don't even think that number 6 R&B was good at all especially if the only reason they reached that position is if young motherfuckers then were looking to see if Rick James was on some more tracks. People were ignorant to their history back then too.

Timmy84 said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

YEah, I checked the charts, barley made a dent.

37 Pop and 6 Black. Of course it did much better than there previous album, 119 Pop and 36 black.

I don't even think that number 6 R&B was good at all especially if the only reason they reached that position is if young motherfuckers then were looking to see if Rick James was on some more tracks. People were ignorant to their history back then too.

How long did Reunion album and/or their single stay on the charts? I vaguely remember it shooting onto R&B charts in the top ten and then sinking like a stone. The Renion Tour was a disaster and drama filled, Mr. Ruffin was a no show and Mr. Kendricks' didn't appear for the 2nd part of a show, in Chicago. You definitly had a core of die-heart Temp's fans supported "The Reunion" but it appeared to me you had just an equally core of fans who didn't give a damn; as a whole music fans (Motown Sound music fans) weren't waiting around for a reunion of the Temp's like they were for The Supremes.

=======================================================

[Edited 7/17/11 9:01am]

I remember this back in the day. I used to hear them hyping the Reunion on the radio a lot and then when the singe ("Standing On the Top") dropped, it was hot for a moment and then fell off fast. First thing was that Motown wasn't too thrilled about the idea of Ruffin and Kendricks coming back and then Ruff was unreliable. It was doomed from jump. Mind you, I was a kid but I recall that no one really cared much and as someone mentioned, Rick James totally overshadowed the project. Trying to listen to that album now and it's like... ehh.

TD3 said:

Timmy84 said:

I don't even think that number 6 R&B was good at all especially if the only reason they reached that position is if young motherfuckers then were looking to see if Rick James was on some more tracks. People were ignorant to their history back then too.

How long did Reunion album and/or their single stay on the charts? I vaguely remember it shooting onto R&B charts in the top ten and then sinking like a stone. The Renion Tour was a disaster and drama filled, Mr. Ruffin was a no show and Mr. Kendricks' didn't appear for the 2nd part of a show, in Chicago. You definitly had a core of die-heart Temp's fans supported "The Reunion" but it appeared to me you had just an equally core of fans who didn't give a damn; as a whole music fans (Motown Sound music fans) weren't waiting around for a reunion of the Temp's like they were for The Supremes.

=======================================================

[Edited 7/17/11 9:01am]

Mr. Ruffin was on his crack binge anyways, don't know about Eddie but he could've been on the snow, and we know about Dennis' ass being on crack. Yeah the Tempts' reunion had disaster written all over it.

Is this how they ended up on Teena's Square Biz?

sosgemini said:

Is this how they ended up on Teena's Square Biz?

I think they were only on Street Songs, I don't recall them on "Square Biz", sounds like Teena (and Rick at times) doing background vocals.

The then-current Tempts sung background on "Superfreak" and "Ghetto Life" I think.

Timmy84 said:

sosgemini said:

Is this how they ended up on Teena's Square Biz?

I think they were only on Street Songs, I don't recall them on "Square Biz", sounds like Teena (and Rick at times) doing background vocals.

The then-current Tempts sung background on "Superfreak" and "Ghetto Life" I think.

Uhh, isn't it during the song Square Biz where she sings, "Temptations sing"? And they sing backing?

sosgemini said:

Timmy84 said:

I think they were only on Street Songs, I don't recall them on "Square Biz", sounds like Teena (and Rick at times) doing background vocals.

The then-current Tempts sung background on "Superfreak" and "Ghetto Life" I think.

Uhh, isn't it during the song Square Biz where she sings, "Temptations sing"? And they sing backing?

NO that was "Superfreak"!

Rick didn't say that shit in Square Biz and Teena was rapping in that mothafucka. That's when Rick brought his "Slick Rick" monologue lol

Timmy84 said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

YEah, I checked the charts, barley made a dent.

37 Pop and 6 Black. Of course it did much better than there previous album, 119 Pop and 36 black.

I don't even think that number 6 R&B was good at all especially if the only reason they reached that position is if young motherfuckers then were looking to see if Rick James was on some more tracks. People were ignorant to their history back then too.

That's definitely the only reason I bought the album. To see if there were any more Rick James tracks and to also get the long version of "Standing On The Top" that was only available on that album. I was disappointed with the album except for their remake of Charlene's "I've Never Been To Me" which I loved.

sosgemini said:

Timmy84 said:

I think they were only on Street Songs, I don't recall them on "Square Biz", sounds like Teena (and Rick at times) doing background vocals.

The then-current Tempts sung background on "Superfreak" and "Ghetto Life" I think.

Uhh, isn't it during the song Square Biz where she sings, "Temptations sing"? And they sing backing?

That was her song "It Must Be Magic". I'm sure The Temptations probably came about on her album due to them being on Rick's "Super Freak" at the time.

vainandy said:

Timmy84 said:

I don't even think that number 6 R&B was good at all especially if the only reason they reached that position is if young motherfuckers then were looking to see if Rick James was on some more tracks. People were ignorant to their history back then too.

That's definitely the only reason I bought the album. To see if there were any more Rick James tracks and to also get the long version of "Standing On The Top" that was only available on that album. I was disappointed with the album except for their remake of Charlene's "I've Never Been To Me" which I loved.

The Tempts shouldn't have reunited with David & Eddie anyways, they hardly was on that album except for "Standing on the Top" and a couple of other songs that David was on but Eddie was hardly featured. Otis wrote he was disappointed with Eddie's "weak" voice and David being a no-show.

Timmy84 said:

I think they were only on Street Songs, I don't recall them on "Square Biz", sounds like Teena (and Rick at times) doing background vocals.

The then-current Tempts sung background on "Superfreak" and "Ghetto Life" I think.

Some of the Temptations sing on this song, but not on Square Biz.

vainandy said:

sosgemini said:

Uhh, isn't it during the song Square Biz where she sings, "Temptations sing"? And they sing backing?

That was her song "It Must Be Magic". I'm sure The Temptations probably came about on her album due to them being on Rick's "Super Freak" at the time.

Exactly. The Tempts was on Teena's album and yeah I think it was "It Must Be Magic" but surely not on "Square Biz" lmao

[Edited 7/17/11 13:22pm]

Timmy84 said:

vainandy said:

That was her song "It Must Be Magic". I'm sure The Temptations probably came about on her album due to them being on Rick's "Super Freak" at the time.

Exactly. The Tempts was on Teena's album and yeah I think it was "It Must Be Magic" but surely not on "Square Biz" lmao

[Edited 7/17/11 13:22pm]

Timmy, stop backtracking. You said no! You are dismissed.

I qualified my ish with the "uhh". I knew they did backing vocals---just couldn't remember which song.

sosgemini said:

Timmy84 said:

Exactly. The Tempts was on Teena's album and yeah I think it was "It Must Be Magic" but surely not on "Square Biz" lmao

[Edited 7/17/11 13:22pm]

Timmy, stop backtracking. You said no! You are dismissed.

I qualified my ish with the "uhh". I knew they did backing vocals---just couldn't remember which song.

Whatever man. You were dismissed for thinking they were on Square Biz.

Timmy84 said:

sosgemini said:

Timmy, stop backtracking. You said no! You are dismissed.

I qualified my ish with the "uhh". I knew they did backing vocals---just couldn't remember which song.

Whatever man. You were dismissed for thinking they were on Square Biz.

Music snob alert!!!

sosgemini said:

Timmy84 said:

Whatever man. You were dismissed for thinking they were on Square Biz.

Music snob alert!!!

I know you are but what am I?

The reunion idea was cool, but first and foremost the songs on the album were all wrong given that it was 1982 and Motown had long lost it's magic for making hit songs.

S.O.T.T. is a killa song, but Rick's vocals took away form the magic of Dennis and David being on wax together. Other than that, the rest of the album is Berry should have hired Stevie and the DeBarge family to qwrite and produce. Or sought some outside producers to give the Temps something tio what Kool and The Gang were doing around that era.

Adisa said:

The reunion idea was cool, but first and foremost the songs on the album were all wrong given that it was 1982 and Motown had long lost it's magic for making hit songs.

S.O.T.T. is a killa song, but Rick's vocals took away form the magic of Dennis and David being on wax together. Other than that, the rest of the album is Berry should have hired Stevie and the DeBarge family to qwrite and produce. Or sought some outside producers to give the Temps something tio what Kool and The Gang were doing around that era.

You have to remember at this time in his life, Berry wasn't really all about the creativity in the music so much since he became corporate, which he really was all along but I think he was interesting during Motown's early years with his own contributions. He was looking for a quick buck. I don't think the Reunion album went gold, did it?