Introduction
A moment of live-music legend has resurfaced in country-style storytelling circles this week: after Motown mega-group The Temptations fired their powerhouse lead David Ruffin in late June 1968, he reportedly slipped into an early-July show, rushed the stage, grabbed the mic, and sang a full number he once owned—sending a jolt through the band and the audience. Eyewitness accounts describe a split second of disbelief, then an eruption of cheers. It reads like a front-page bulletin from a more romantic era of American music, where a once-in-a-generation voice refuses to fade into the wings. 📻
Background
Ruffin’s dismissal came amid missed rehearsals, no-shows, and mounting tension as The Temptations were pivoting creatively. New lead Dennis Edwards had just begun fronting the group, while producer Norman Whitfield and writer Barrett Strong were steering the sound toward psychedelic soul—the harder, topical edge that would soon yield “Cloud Nine” (October 1968) and, a few years later, the panoramic sweep of “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone.” Yet to much of America, Ruffin’s tenor was still the living headline: the voice of “My Girl,” “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” and a string of charting singles that helped define mid-’60s pop-soul. Little-known detail: within Motown’s fabled discipline—tight suits, tighter choreography—Ruffin’s raw urgency often functioned as the spark plug, a contrast that gave the group both polish and fire.
Why This Moment Still Matters
What made that stage-crash unforgettable wasn’t scandal alone—it was symbolism. In a single unscripted performance, fans watched the handover between eras: Ruffin’s gospel-burn meets Edwards’s muscular, modern attack. For legacy listeners, it felt like the final echo of the “Classic Five” mystique; for younger ears, it was the opening scene in a new film—one that would carry The Temptations through late-’60s turbulence and into Grammy-winning heights. Another under-told angle: the group’s ability to absorb shock and still evolve. Many acts crumble under a personnel quake; the Tempts converted it into momentum, expanding their arrangements, trading leads, and building songs like mini-newscasts of American life. That adaptability is why the catalog still spikes after every documentary clip, tour date, or retold anecdote. And it’s why this story keeps trending across generations—because it’s more than gossip. It’s a reminder that great American music lives at the intersection of discipline and daring, of rehearsal rooms and bold, unpredictable nights.
Video
Lyrics
🎵 Let’s sing along with the lyrics! 🎤
[Instrumental Intro]
[Verse 1]
I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day
When it’s cold outside, I’ve got the month of May[Pre-Chorus]
I guess you’d say
What can make me feel this way?[Chorus]
My girl, my girl, my girl
Talkin’ ’bout my girl, my girl[Verse 2]
I’ve got so much honey, the bees envy me
I’ve got a sweeter song than the birds in the trees[Pre-Chorus]
Well, I guess you’d say
What can make me feel this way?[Chorus]
My girl, my girl, my girl
Talkin’ ’bout my girl, my girl