The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (150 page)

See also
Robert White (
October 1994). Occasional Funk Brothers Eddie ‘Bongo’ Brown (1984), Richard ‘Pistol’ Allen and Johnny Griffith (both 2002) have also since passed on, while sometime bandleader Joe Hunter died in 2007.

OCTOBER

Thursday 1

Harry Ray

(Hackensack, New Jersey, 15 December 1946)

The Moments

(Ray, Goodman & Brown)

(The Voltaires)

During the sixties, bass baritone Harry Ray was regularly spotted singing at the corner for a few pennies, but his hit-making status as lead with soul/R & B act The Moments only began
after
they’d hit with 1970’s ‘Love on a Two-Way Street’. At this stage, Ray was singing with The Voltaires, an also-ran vocal group that lacked his ambition. It was Moments singer William Brown’s throat disorder that opened the door for Ray, The Moments – now Ray, Brown, Al Goodman and distinctive falsetto Mark Greene – running off a series of major hits, particularly in Britain, where ‘Girls’ (1975, with The Whatnauts), ‘Dolly My Love’ (1975) and ‘Jack in the Box’ (1977) all achieved Top Ten status. The most sublime cut, ‘Look At Me (I’m in Love)’ (1975), surprisingly fared indifferently. In the US, a further big hit – ‘Special Lady’ (1980) – was secured as the group trimmed down to become Ray, Goodman & Brown. Harry Ray’s attempted solo career was largely scuppered by a return of his lifelong problem with hypertension – resulting in the stroke that cost the singer his life just short of his forty-sixth birthday.

Moments bass Al Goodman died in July 2010, while sometime members John Morgan, Johnny Moore and Eric Olfus Sr have also passed on.

Monday 5

Eddie Kendrick(s)

(Union Springs, Alabama, 17 December 1939)

The Temptations

The life of young Edward James Kendrick was changed for ever by a move to Birmingham, Alabama, which put him in contact with Paul Williams, a fellow singer who was also to become his best friend. The pair enthralled audiences with their choir performances, and in 1955 formed a doo-wop trio with Kell Osbourne and relocated to Ohio. Kendrick earned a pittance by day as a dishwasher, drifting between an assortment of nighttime vocal duties until he and Williams reunited as The Primes (originally The Cavaliers) – the group that caught the attention of manager Milton Jenkins. The latter had a second band under his wing – The Distants – with whom Kendrick and Williams amalgamated to form The Elgins, later The Temptations. Under Berry Gordy’s guidance, The Temptations eventually became Motown’s – and soul music’s – biggest act. The gentle, considered manner of Kendricks (now with added ‘s’) balanced well with Williams’s earthier appeal and the voices of Elbridge ‘Al’ Bryant, Melvin Franklin and Otis Williams, but the group proved hard to break until a significant change in 1964. Issues between Bryant and Paul Williams saw the former sacked as lead and the latter shifted back, with new boy David Ruffin drafted to the fore: the substitution was inspired, elevating The Temps to superstardom. A series of massive US pop hits ensued – including the number ones ‘My Girl’ (1965) and ‘I Can’t Get Next to You’ (1969) – with Kendricks adding his light falsetto and smoothly executed dance moves to the mix. The encompassing of pop-psychedelia to keep The Temps in synch with the zeitgeist was less to Kendricks’s taste, though, and this – along with the dismissal of his friend Williams (whose health problems worsened throughout his life) – prompted him to leave the group behind in 1971. Ironically, just weeks before, the Kendricks-led ‘Just My Imagination’ had given The Temptations a third American number one.

As a solo commodity, Kendricks surpassed even his own expectations. After a number of flops, among the hit records he scored on his own were the tremendous ‘Keep On Truckin’’ (1973), a US chart-topper that became a funk classic, and another strong dancefloor filler, ‘Boogie Down’ (1974). This success was tempered somewhat by the suicide of his lifelong friend Williams
(
August 1973),
and he could not sustain the standard of his output. Kendrick, who reverted to his birth spelling to overcome Motown’s ownership of his name, was, following litigation with his former employers, to fade from the public gaze by the end of the seventies. In 1982, he rejoined Ruffin and another onoff Temptations lead, Dennis Edwards, for revival slots, but within a decade his performing career was ended by cancer. Eddie Kendrick – who had a lung removed in 1991 – was unable to defeat the disease he attributed to a lifetime of smoking, and passed away in Birmingham the following year. Like many of his former colleagues, he died in poor health and relative poverty.

See also
Elbridge Al’ Bryant (
October 1975); David Ruffin (
June 1991); Melvin Franklin (
February 1995); Ali ‘Ollie’ Woodson (
May 2010). Three later Temptations have since died.

Saturday 10

Lennie Peters

(Leonard Sergeant, London, 1933)

Peters & Lee

The Migil Five