Today (March 6) marks the 60th anniversary of The Temptations scoring their first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. The song in question was “My Girl,” which became the legendary Motown vocal quintet’s signature tune.
Videos by American Songwriter
“My Girl” knocked Gary Lewis & the Playboys’ “This Diamond Ring” from the top spot of the Hot 100. It spent one week at No. 1 before being replaced by The Beatles’ “Eight Days a Week.”
“My Girl” was co-written by Smokey Robinson and his Miracles bandmate Ronald White. The tune was the first Temptations single to feature lead vocals by Daivd Ruffin. Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams were the lead singers on most of the group’s previous songs. After the success of “My Girl,” Ruffin became The Temptations’ main lead vocalist.
Initially released as a single in December 196“My Girl” later appeared on The Temptations’ second album, The Temptations Sing Smokey. The studio effort, which was released in March 1965, featured 12 songs written or co-written by Robinson. Smokey also produced the album, which peaked at No. 35 on the Billboard 200 and topped Billboard’s R&B albums chart.
Motown’s famous collective of session musicians The Funk Brothers recorded the music for “My Girl.” The unforgettable opening bass line was played by James Jamerson, while Robert White played the memorable guitar riff.
The Inspiration for “My Girl”
Robinson conceived “My Girl” as a follow-up to Mary Wells’ chart-topping 1964 single “My Guy,” which he also wrote.
It’s believed Robinson used as inspiration for the song’s lyrics his first wife, fellow Miracles member Claudette Robinson. Later on, though, Smokey claimed that the tune wasn’t inspired by a specific girl, but was “written with all the women in the world in mind.”
Robinson also said he wrote “My Girl” with Ruffin’s voice in mind.
He explained in a 2024 video feature, “I wanted to write something sweet for David Ruffin to sing. David Ruffin had that great voice. … I used to tell him he demanded the girls to love him, because he had that [gruff,] ‘come on, baby’ kind of voice, but I wanted him to sing something sweet, something that the girls could just swoon over. And so, I wrote ‘My Girl’ for his voice and for The Temptations to sing.”
The Legacy of “My Girl”
“My Girl” has gone of to be certified seven-times platinum by the RIAA for equivalent sales of 7 million copies in the U.S.
The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2017, it was chosen for preservation by the Library of Congress for its National Recording Registry.
“My Girl” was ranked No. 43 on Rolling Stone’s 2024 list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”
In the aforementioned video feature, Robinson noted, “‘My Girl’ has actually become probably my international anthem as a songwriter. It’s probably my … most well-known song around the world.”
The Temptations had three other songs that hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. They were “I Can’t Get Next to You” in 1969, “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)” in 1971, and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” in 1972.
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