Sunday, April 15, 2007

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST song of the day


Artist:Eddie Kendricks

Song:Keep On Truckin'

Album:The Ultimate Collection





Eddie Kendricks will forever be identified as the falsetto voice on 1960s Temptations hits like The Way You Do The Things You Do. But he also had a significant solo career in the 70s. He was born Dec. 17, 1939 in Birmingham, AL. In the late 50s, he was a member of The Primes along with Paul Williams. He moved to Detroit and The Primes merged with The Distants and became The Temptations. Of course The Temptations had many hits on Motown. Eddie Kendricks left to go solo in 1971. Eddie wisely asked to work with veteran Motown producer Frank Wilson. Wilson encountered former Chess songwriter Leonard Caston who was looking for work at Motown. Along with guitarist Greg Poree's wife Anita, the two wrote and produced the hard driving dance number Keep On Truckin'. It was a number one hit in 1973. Kendricks had several more hits in the 70s but left Motown in 1979 for Arista. This comp has all his Motown hits. Things petered out for Kendricks and he rejoined The Temptations briefly in 1982. He also toured with David Ruffin and became more of a nostalgia act. Eddie Kendricks died of lung cancer on Oct. 5, 1992 at age 51. Here's Eddie Kendricks performing Keep On Truckin' with the 1982 version of The Temptations.

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