*This year marks the 60th anniversary of The Temptations‘ iconic hit “My Girl,” a song that catapulted the group to fame.
Released by Motown Records on December 21, 1964, and written by Smokey Robinson and Ronnie White, “My Girl” reached No. 1 on both the pop and R&B charts by March 1965, earning the group their first chart-topping hit. Featuring David Ruffin as lead vocalist, the track solidified the group’s place in music history. Now, Otis Williams, the group’s co-founder and last surviving original member, celebrates the enduring legacy of the track, which has surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify.
“I don’t think it gets any greater than that,” Williams tells Billboard.
Speaking about the legacy of “My Girl” during an episode of his SiriusXM show, Robinson said he was inspired to write the song because of the group.
“I wanted to write something sweet for David Ruffin to sing,” Smokey recalled.
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“David had that great voice. I used to tell him that he demanded the girls to love him because he had that oh, come on, baby kind of voice. But I want him to sing something … that the girls could just swoon over,” he continued. “So I wrote ‘My Girl’ for his voice and for The Temptations to sing. And it has done what I set out to do when I wrote the song or what I set out to do anytime I write a song: it has stood the test of time.”
Williams told Billboard that he sensed the record would be special during the recording process.
“When we finished putting the vocals down on the song, I said to Smokey in the control room, ‘Man, I don’t know how big a record this is going to be. But this is going to be a record,” he said.
“I still can’t believe that here we are, some 60 years later and we’re still going strong,” Williams added. “Most groups don’t get that kind of break. It was God’s timing for Motown to start when it did. And here we are a part of something that will outlive all of us.”
READ MORE FROM EURWEB.COM: EUR Black History Flashback: The Temptations’ David Ruffin Discography | WATCH
