The Temptations and The Funk Brothers

Notes from YouTube;

Given the fact that Motown had not been conducting Live sessions with the vocalists and instrumentalists recording at the same time since at least 1963, this session was clearly staged for the CBS News cameras that were doing a brief piece called The Motown Sound. Pictured in the studio are songwriters Lamont Dozier (Standing on the steps at the back of the studio), Brian Holland (The guy who cuts in on the band), Ivy Jo Hunter (Does the countdown), Russ Terrana (The engineer standing up), James Jamerson on Bass, Earl Van Dyke on piano, Bobbye Hall on congas, and from left to right on guitars Robert White, Joe Messina and Eddie Willis. The arranger, wearing headphones and conducting the band, is William Witherspoon. To the best of my knowledge this incredibly rare piece of film is the only one of two pieces of footage ever shot at a session inside the studio known as the Snakepit.

Thanks to their fine-tuned choreography — and even finer harmonies — the Temptations became the definitive male vocal group of the 1960s; one of Motown's most elastic acts, they tackled both lush pop and politically charged funk with equal flair, and weathered a steady stream of changes in personnel and consumer tastes with rare dignity and grace. The Temptations' initial five-man lineup formed in Detroit in 1961 as a merger of two local vocal groups, the Primes and the Distants. Baritone Otis Williams, Elbridge (aka El, or Al) Bryant, and bass vocalist Melvin Franklin were longtime veterans of the Detroit music scene when they joined together in the Distants, who in 1959 recorded the single "Come On" for the local Northern label. Around the same time, the Primes, a trio comprised of tenor Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams (no relation to Otis), and Kell Osborne, relocated to the Motor City from their native Alabama; they quickly found success locally, and their manager even put together a girl group counterpart dubbed the Primettes. (Later, three of the Primettes — Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard — formed the Supremes).

The Temptations @Amazon.com

The Funk Brothers @Amazon.com