Sunshine on a cloudy day: a Valentine to “My Girl”

The Temptations in the 1960s

Usually when I write about a song, I type a few words about it, and then play the YouTube video.  Not this time.  Why wait?  Let’s go ahead and enjoy one of the greatest love songs ever, on Valentine’s weekend, and on its 50th anniversary as a #1 song:

I’ll play it again at the end, with a much different look, but another very enjoyable performance.  What makes this song so special, so enduring, fifty years later?  For starters, that bass.  Four quiet little riffs from James Jamerson of the legendary Motown Funk Brothers.  We knew what was coming next. The guitar, drums and strings leading into one of the best vocal performances ever.  Nobody sounded like David Ruffin, then or now.  “I’ve got sunshine,” he sang, “on a cloudy day….When it’s cold outside….I’ve got the month of May.”  He hooked us in, and we wouldn’t dare push that button until the ride was over.

If you watched the Grammys recently, you probably saw Smokey Robinson, still youthful and handsome (he turns 75 a few days after Valentine’s Day, on February 19).  In late 1964, Smokey was enjoying success writing and singing for his own group, The Miracles.  The Temptations, a struggling quintet also on the Motown label, were looking for a hit.  Its members were mostly Southerners (from Alabama, Mississippi and Texas), and they weren’t having much luck finding a hit song in Detroit.  Smokey befriended the bespectacled David Ruffin, who was primarily a background singer for the Tempts.  Smokey had written “My Girl” with Ruffin in mind.  Ruffin had a rawer sounding voice (a rough baritone tenor, Smokey told “Rolling Stone”), and Smokey convinced the group to give Ruffin a shot at singing lead on “My Girl.”  With Smokey at the piano, David singing lead, and the other group members in the background, rehearsals were underway, and soon a classic was born.

“I’ve got so much honey the bees envy me.
I’ve got a sweeter song than the birds in the trees.”

A fellow songwriter named Bob Dylan let America in on a little secret.  This “Smokey” guy, who blended in among all those big-name Motown artists of the 60s?  The one who was often overshadowed by Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and the rest?  He was America’s best living poet, according to Dylan, who knew a thing or two about poetry.

“I don’t need no money, fortune or fame.
I’ve got all the riches, baby, one man can claim.”

On Valentine’s Day 1965, “My Girl” was all over the radio, soon to become the most-played song in the nation.  The Temptations were on “The Ed Sullivan Show” helping launch their mainstream music career.  There would be many more #1 and top-10 records, but “My Girl” seems to have endured longer than their other songs.  Many oldies stations that have now dropped most 1960s songs as “too old,” still have “My Girl” on their playlists.  It’s a classic.  Kids have grown up listening to it with their parents and grandparents.  Everybody knows Smokey’s memorable lyrics.  Unlike many hits of that era, the words to “My Girl” were sung clearly, and they were easy to understand, even through the static of our AM radios.  Today, many of us are also familiar with those dance moves, although some of Ruffin’s steps are impossible to replicate.

“Well, I guess you’d say
What can make me feel this way?
My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin’ ’bout my girl”

Last year, Smokey told “Rolling Stone” that the song was not written with any particular girl in mind.  “It was written with all of the women in the world in mind.  It has become an international anthem.  We play in countries where the people don’t speak English, but they know all the words to ‘My Girl,” Smokey said.

The group still performs today, with its one surviving original member, Otis Williams.  In 1998, NBC filmed a four-hour Temptations movie, that depicted the group’s ups and downs, its triumphs and tragedies.  It included a re-creation of the group performing “My Girl” on TV, as friends and family members react at home.  The actors who played the parts have the choreography down perfectly.  It’s a joy to watch, and to sing along with.  As you click the link, Happy Valentine’s Day to you, and to “My Girl.”