Released: July 1967
I won’t pretend to understand the mentality of record-buyers because With A Lot O’ Soul might be the best album the Temptations ever made — only two LPs compete with it, IMO — yet it spent a paltry ONE WEEK at the top of the R&B albums chart in 1967. Most other groups would be more than satisfied with that, but these are the Temptations! Every album they put out went to #1 R&B and spent considerable time at the top.
Just look at their releases through 1967!
The Temptations Sing Smokey - #1 for 18 weeks
Temptin’ Temptations - #1 for 14 weeks
Gettin’ Ready - #1 for six weeks
Greatest Hits - #1 for nine weeks
Live! - #1 for three weeks
In A Mellow Mood - #1 for seven weeks
With A Lot O’ Soul, probably the best of the bunch: ONE WEEK.
In A Mellow Mood, a piece of crap: SEVEN WEEKS.
Anyways, With A Lot O’ Soul did outshine all those other albums on the pop chart reaching #7. Well, except for Greatest Hits. As a compilation of the best Tempts songs to that point, it understandably rose a bit higher (#5).
Okay, enough griping about chart action let’s get to this awesome music.
SO MANY JAMS
This was the first Temptations album produced largely by Norman Whitfield and it’s the tail end of Motown’s Golden Age, so its a weird transition period for the Temptations as you still get some quintessentially classic Motown sounds while also hearing hints of their psychedelic soul future.
Two songs that exemplify this fault line are “Save My Love For A Rainy Day” and “Sorry Is A Sorry Word”.
“Rainy Day” was produced by Whitfield in a similar vein to Holland-Dozier-Holland’s foot-stomping classics for the Supremes (“Baby Love”; “I Hear A Symphony”). Meanwhile, “Sorry Is” has a fuzz guitar and somewhat psychedelic vocals, but still hews quite a bit to R&B of the period.
Speaking of R&B, Whitfield pushed the Temptations to record their most hard-edged R&B song yet: “(I Know) I'm Losing You”. It sounds more like Stax than Motown. So much so in fact, the raunchy opening guitar riff later showed up in Otis Redding’s and Carla Thomas’s hit “Tramp”. “Ain’t No Sun Since You’ve Been Gone” continues the gritty R&B in fine fashion.
Then the album shifts dramatically on “All I Need”. Produced by Frank Wilson, this song has shades of “You Can’t Hurry Love” in its bass line and is one of the Motown songs I peg as a precursor to disco music. In addition to that pumping bass guitar, you have lush strings and horns that also fade away at points shifting focus to just the rhythm section… just like the big breakdowns in disco songs a decade later.
Then the group drops in “(Loneliness Made Me Realize) It's You That I Need” the first song that de-emphasizes David Ruffin’s lead vocals. Ruffin is still on lead and the group’s vocals on the previous songs weren’t insubstantial, but on this ballad the group vocals take on prominence. Dare I say even preeminence?
Finally, after the first four songs on the LP a non-Ruffin Temptation gets a lead spotlight. The lucky Tempt is Paul Williams who gets his only feature with “No More Water in the Well”, another gritty R&B song. Afterwards comes the aforementioned “Save My Love For A Rainy Day” led by Eddie Kendricks’ sweet tenor/falsetto.
Side Two of the album opens with “Just One Last Look”, which is yet another spectacular ballad. The H-D-H team gifted this one to the Temptations.
And now we reach “Sorry Is a Sorry Word”, which is the first song on this album that isn’t amazing. Pretty good considering it’s the eighth track. And even if not amazing it is still good song.
Thinks go right back to amazing… and then some… on the mesmerizing “You're My Everything”. With Kendricks largely on lead plus some minor co-leading by Ruffin, this is a shimmering ballad that really allows Kendricks to shine. Plus the orchestra wasn’t holding back either. This thing is right up there with Phil Spector or the Beach Boys in terms of splendorous symphonic pop.
The Limping Conclusion
So after nine songs of fire, we get the final three tracks and this is where With A Lot O’ Soul slips from an A+ album. Now none of the final three songs are bad and one is even pretty darn good, but the album loses the juggernaut momentum it had thus far.
“Now That You've Won Me” and “Don’t Send Me Away” are the two culprits responsible for killing the momentum. Penned by Smokey Robinson, “Now That You've Won Me” is a slow filler tune. Meanwhile Otis Williams gets an incredibly rare lead vocal on “Don’t Send Me Away”. Otis easily had the blandest voice of the Temptations, so this song oddly does have a charm in that the group vocals play a big role here to make up for the lead vocalist not being a dynamite singer. Also, love Melvin Franklin’s little bum bum bums. And the song is nicely arranged. Still ends up being a slow filler tune.
Now the song that ain’t filler is “Two Sides To Love”. Kendricks again gets to shine on a slow ballad floating on a bed of strings. You can hear the hints of future hits produced by Norman Whitfield like “Just My Imagination” and “I’m Going Down”. Just mere hints at this point, but “Two Sides To Love” stands on its own merits as a good song.
ALBUM GRADE: A
Despite the finish, this album is superb and gave the Temptations four big hits. “Losing You” was #1 R&B and #8 pop; “All I Need” was #2 R&B and #8 pop; “You’re My Everything” was #3 R&B and #6 pop; and “It’s You That I Need” was #3 R&B and #14 pop.
They never before or since had a single LP produce that much chart damage. It would also be awhile before they had another LP this good, so savor this bad boy.
Song Scores
(I Know) I'm Losing You: 8.5/10
Ain't No Sun Since You've Been Gone: 8.5/10
All I Need: 9.5/10
(Loneliness Made Me Realize) It's You That I Need: 9/10
No More Water In the Well: 7.5/10
Save My Love For A Rainy Day: 8.5/10
Just One Last Look: 8/10
Sorry Is A Sorry Word: 6.5/10
You're My Everything: 10/10
Now That You've Won Me: 5/10
Two Sides To Love: 8/10
Don't Send Me Away: 5/10