(From 6/15/2019) I was listening to the Soul Town channel on Sirius last night and heard one of the great and under-rated soul groups. The Originals started as backup singers on 2 of my favorite Motown songs — Jimmy Ruffin’s “What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted” and his brother David’s “My Whole World Ended (The Day That You Left Me)” along with many other hits out of Detroit.
But they found their biggest commercial success under the guidance of Marvin Gaye, who co-wrote and produced two of the group’s biggest singles, the doo-wop influenced ballads “Baby, I’m For Real” and “The Bells“. Below are music videos of both.
I was thinking as I watched them sing these hits…this is the only 4-man group that I can think of that has 4 lead singers. Groups like the 4 Tops, Temptations – even The Beatles – all had 1 or 2 leads with the others mainly singing harmonies. Let me know if you can think of one and in the meantime…ENJOY!!
The original – no pun intended – live video I had of them singing “The Bells” got taken down so here’s one that will have to do…
Reminder… You can click in the lower right of a YouTube video to make it full screen. Also, you can use the Posts menu item to filter news posts to a specific category – e.g. Music Videos – to just show those. Enjoy!
