Album: The Temptations, 50th Anniversary: The Singles Collection 1961-1971 (Hip-O Select)

The Temptations were the most significant '60s root of the close-harmony boy-band style that has come to dominate R&B, their voices combining with creamy smoothness, their intricately-choreographed steps the envy of less nimble outfits.

This lavishly-packaged 3CD set captures the "Classic Five" line-up in its pomp, when Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin swapped leads on songs like "Get Ready", "Beauty's Only Skin Deep", "I Wish It Would Rain" and the epochal "My Girl", up to the pair's final hit with the Tempts, "Just My Imagination". By that time, producer Norman Whitfield had steered them more in the direction of the Sly Stone-influenced psychedelic soul of "Ball Of Confusion" and "Cloud Nine"; so cutting off this account immediately before the monster success of "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" seems quixotic, to put it mildly.

Download this: My Girl; Get Ready; Beauty's Only Skin Deep; I Wish It Would Rain; Just My Imagination