Line Up Changes

[Guest WPaulVanDyk]

Having seen a thread about the four tops made me wonder about 3 bands who if today was seen live could you have at least a line up or popular or original members

1. The Four Tops - does anyone who is still alive and if so why they not perform as the Four tops

2. The Temptations - i believe many of these members have passed away

3. The Drifters - I know it's hard to place a line up that changed so much back then but surely Ben E King, Bill Pinkey is still a round and whoever from the 60's period and surely 70's could fill up the Drifters as we know there at least 2 doing the rounds and 1 says it has Ray Lewis in it as if that's a big member yet he wasn't exactly on any of there hits from the 50's - 1976.

[Rob Wigley]

Are the Four vandals still the original line up ??

[night nurse]

you are right all the temptations are dead god rest there souls in my oppiuion probley the best group to come out of the motown sound

[pikeys dog]

1. The Four Tops - does anyone who is still alive and if so why they not perform as the Four tops

2. The Temptations - i believe many of these members have passed away

When these were doing concerts together a couple of years ago, a wag commented to me that they ought to dub the tour "3 Tops and a Temptation"

[Guest]

Are the Four vandals still the original line up ??

Any info on Paper Lace still being in their original line up would be appreciated .....

I really like their " Billy Storm Don't Be A Hero " 45 .....

Malc Burton

[night nurse]

WELL AS I SAID TEMPTATION WERE THE BEST TO ME I ALSO THINK THE TOPS WERE GREAT

[Bazza]

you are right all the temptations are dead god rest there souls in my oppiuion probley the best group to come out of the motown sound

Otis Williams is still alive aint he ???

Bazza

[Guest TONY ROUNCE]

Otis Williams is still alive aint he ???

Bazza

Yes, he is. There are still two original members of Four Tops, too. Duke Fakir is the only one well enough to perform with the group, unfortunately Levis Stubbs' health is very poor these days.

The best Temptations to see nowadays are Dennis Edwards' Temptations, which - last time I saw them, at least - also contained Damon Harris who, of course, replaced Eddie Kendricks.

I also had the good fortune to see Four Tops with Duke and the late Obie Benson joined by Obie's best pal Ronnie McNeir and a lead singer whose name temporarily escapes me but who I thought was extremely good (and who had the good sense not to try to sound like Levi).

On this sort of subject, there are two groups of Manhattans these days, each led be a founder member. Blue Lovett's Manhattans have Gerald Alston in the group. They basically work the west coast and Vegas. The other line up of the Manhattans is led by Sonny Bivins and may be of even more interest to Sourcers as one of ther lead singers is Lee Williams of LW and the Cymbals fame. They cover the east coast and Jersey, Philly etc. Both groups are 'official' and neither claims to be the only 'real' Manhattans line up.

[Bazza]

The best Temptations to see nowadays are Dennis Edwards' Temptations, which - last time I saw them, at least - also contained Damon Harris who, of course, replaced Eddie Kendricks.

What a shame Dennis ,Damon ,and Otis,could not be together,they would be the closest thing to the original temptations we could hope for, very sad I think .I would love to shake Otis's hand

Bazza

[Soundsokeh]

obviously there are inevitable line up changes especially when members pass away , but some of the disinformation in this thread beggars belief ( they havent all passed away although some are in very poor health like levi stubbs for instance )

the four tops are in manchester in november ( M.E.N Arena on Sat 10 November. ) with this line up :- Abdul 'Duke' Fakir (from the original Four Tops line-up), Theo Peoples and Lewise McNeir will be joined on stage by Lawrence Payton Jr. son of founder member Lawrence Payton.

and the temptations are on the same billing although I cannot see the current line-up , but they are not all dead as some ppl seem to think. ( but there are several groups playing and using the name temptations , including otis williams and dennis edwards )

https://www.thetemptations.com/ has a lot of the info on various members past and present

the plain fact is that they are usually past retirement age and could have health problems too , so its not always possible to tour anymore , but to say they are dead when some clearly are not dead is a ridiculous thing to say and a simple search on google or similar search engine would have answered some of the questions and may have stopped bad replies from being posted.

I hope to be there in november and would hope that at least some of the regular members will still be in these groups

Edited May 22, 2007 by soundsOKEH

[Guest TONY ROUNCE]

obviously there are inevitable line up changes especially when members pass away , but some of the disinformation in this thread beggars belief ( they havent all passed away although some are in very poor health like levi stubbs for instance )

the four tops are in manchester in november ( M.E.N Arena on Sat 10 November. ) with this line up :- Abdul 'Duke' Fakir (from the original Four Tops line-up), Theo Peoples and Lewise McNeir will be joined on stage by Lawrence Payton Jr. son of founder member Lawrence Payton.

and the temptations are on the same billing although I cannot see the current line-up , but they are not all dead as some ppl seem to think. ( but there are several groups playing and using the name temptations , including otis williams and dennis edwards )

the plain fact is that they are usually past retirement age and could have health problems too , so its not always possible to tour anymore , but to say they are dead when some clearly are not dead is a ridiculous thing to say and a simple search on google or similar search engine would have answered some of the questions and may have stopped bad replies from being posted.

I hope to be there in november and would hope that at least some of the regular members will still be in these groups

Where's the 'disinformation (sic) that beggars belief', then?

Of the original Temptations:

Melvin Franklin is dead (heart attack)

Eddie Kendricks is dead (cancer)

Paul Williams is dead (suicide)

David Ruffin - who replaced El Bryant, who is not dead, as far as I'm aware but who left the group in 1963, so doen't count really - is dead (a combination of 'mysterious circumstances' and too many drugs)

Otis Williams is, thankfully, still alive, as are plenty of later Tempts members (Dennis Edwards, Ollie Woodson, Richard Street, Ron Tyson etc.) but these are not original Temptations, no matter how many years they were group members.

So to reiterate, the original Temptations are all dead -except El Bryant (who doesn't count) and Otis Williams (who still leads the 'official' Temptations).

I've seen every line up of the Temptations that has ever toured the UK and I would have to say that, apart from the now mostly dead one of Kendricks/Williams/Williams/Franklin/Ruffin, Dennis Edwards' Temptation Review is easily the best (actually i saw that in Sacramento, CA, but that's splitting hairs...)

Of the original Four Tops, Obie Benson is dead. Larry Payton is dead and Levi Stubbs is too ill to perform. Duke Fakir leads the group I mentioned above, with Ronnie McNeir and Theo Peoples in place of Obie and Levi respectively, and - as you say - Larry Payton Jr. in place of his dad (it was Peoples - who was also the lead singer for the Temptations for a while, in the 1990s - who I saw singing lead, his name had just slipped my mind for a moment when I posted earlier).

This is 100% accurate information, that beggars nothing at all in the way of belief....

Edited May 22, 2007 by TONY ROUNCE

[Pete S]

I saw the original line up of the 4 Tops at Wolverhampton Gaumont in 1971 or 72, I was 11 anyway, my auntie gave me the tickets, I can't remember much about it apart from the fact that the bouncers made every single person sit down throughout the show and anyone who dared get up to dance was dragged away never to be seen again!

[Guest stash313]

Current line up of The Temptations

G.C CAMERON

RON TYSON

TERRY WEEKS

JOE HERNDON

OTIS WILLIAMS

Still by far legends in their lifetime and GC Cameron has added a new dimension to the group since he joined in 2003.

[Guest TONY ROUNCE]

Current line up of The Temptations

G.C CAMERON

RON TYSON

TERRY WEEKS

JOE HERNDON

OTIS WILLIAMS

Still by far legends in their lifetime and GC Cameron has added a new dimension to the group since he joined in 2003.

Yes, that's a good line-up by anyone's standards.

Could also make for a good thread, that - "Soul greats who've had a solo career but who have also sung lead for more than one group of soul greats". Besides GC and Theo Peoples, you've got Philippe Wynne (Spinners and Funkadelic) and Steve Mancha (100 Proof and Parliament - briefly). There must be loads more!

[Guest stash313]

Ron Tyson has sang lead for both the tempts and The Ethics, also of interest before he joined the group in 83 he produced on their Atlantic albums...

[Guest stash313]

Speaking of Ron Tyson his brother is a member of The Manhattans David Tyson...

[Guest stash313]

Yes, that's a good line-up by anyone's standards.

Could also make for a good thread, that - "Soul greats who've had a solo career but who have also sung lead for more than one group of soul greats". Besides GC and Theo Peoples, you've got Philippe Wynne (Spinners and Funkadelic) and Steve Mancha (100 Proof and Parliament - briefly). There must be loads more!

Anybody who knows me knows I live and breathe The Tempts Tony much to the frustration of people.

Although the line up isn't the so called classic line up and is no doubt in the same league as the days with Dennis Edwards etc its still a fantastic line up.

Performance wise they're still the optimum showmen and i think thats testament to the fact that they still perform sell out concerts for around 35 weeks of the year.

The albums released with this line up have been good Legacy was a big hit on the Nu Soul scene but sadly with little or no promotion from motown at the time it didn't get the sort of promotion it deserved, Reflections was a good album ableit generic but their version of Never Can Say Goodbye is awsome.

Anybody who hasn't seen them I urge them to get tickets for their UK tour in NOVEMBER you won't be dissapointed.

[Guest TONY ROUNCE]

Speaking of Ron Tyson his brother is a member of The Manhattans David Tyson...

Which line up? (see above) - Sonny Bivins' or Blue Lovett's?

[Guest TONY ROUNCE]

Anybody who knows me knows I live and breathe The Tempts Tony much to the frustration of people.

Although the line up isn't the so called classic line up and is no doubt in the same league as the days with Dennis Edwards etc its still a fantastic line up.

That's what makes them so good - they are always greater than the sum of their parts