Name: The Temptations & The Four Tops
Start: 2025-01-11T19:30:00-08:00
Location: The Smith Center

The Temptations:
The Temptations, often referred to as American music royalty, are world-renowned superstars of entertainment, revered for their phenomenal catalog of music and prolific career. They are one of the most iconic, bestselling brands in the entertainment world today. While the group has evolved over the years, Dr. Otis Williams has continued to lead the group and carry the torch forward for the next generation of Temptations’ fans. Their concerts include fan favorites such as “My Girl,” “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me),” “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” and more.
Throughout the group’s evolution, The Temptations have released more than 50 Gold, Platinum, and Multi-Platinum awards all combined, many of which are considered American masterpieces. The Temptations are the recipients of numerous awards and honors. They have been awarded five Grammy® Awards, including the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Grammy® Award. The Temptations delivered Motown’s and their first-ever, GRAMMY® for their song, “Cloud Nine.” “My Girl,” what many call their magnum opus, was inducted into the Grammy® Hall of Fame in 1998, followed by “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” a year later in 1999. In 1989, The Temptations were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Blockbuster #1 chart hits “Just My Imagination,” “Papa was a Rollin’ Stone,” and “My Girl” are among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.”
The Temptations have 16 No. 1 R&B chart albums, 44 Top 10 R&B chart hits, including, 14 No. 1 R&B singles, plus four No. 1 Hot 100 singles. The band’s heritage, influence, and contributions to, not only American culture and African American communities but also to the global music landscape are monumental. Their presence in the world today has never been more vivid, and their popularity is ever-increasing.
The Four Tops:
The quartet, originally called the Four Aims, started making one smash hit after another going back to the 1950s. Their first Motown hit, “Baby I Need Your Loving” in 1964, made them stars and their sixties track record on the label is indispensable to any retrospective of the decade. Their songs, soulful and bittersweet, were across-the-board successes. “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch),” a no. 1 R&B and Pop smash in 1965, is one of Motown’s longest-running chart toppers; it was quickly followed by a longtime favorite, “It’s The Same Old Song” (no. 2 R&B/no. 5 pop).
Their commercial peak was highlighted by a romantic trilogy: the no. 1 “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “Standing In The Shadows Of Love” (no. 2 R&B/no. 6 pop) and “Bernadette” (no. 3 R&B/no. 4 pop)—an extraordinary run of instant H-D-H classics. Other Tops hits from the decade included “Ask The Lonely,” “Shake Me, Wake Me (When It’s Over),” “Something About You,” “You Keep Running Away,” “7-Rooms Of Gloom” and their covers of “Walk Away Renee” and “If I Were A Carpenter.” The group was also extraordinarily popular in the U.K.
In 1990, with 24 Top 40 pop hits to their credit, the Four Tops were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Though they would no longer have hits on record, the group continued to be a hit in concert, touring incessantly, a towering testament to the enduring legacy of the Motown Sound they helped shape and define.