I love Motown and in particular I love this song! The opening guitar riff is one of the greatest hooks of all time! It instantly captures your attention and tells you what song it is. I use this song with my guitar classes all the time because it is a relatively easy riff to learn and the kids love doing it. The song itself uses a very simple chord progression that students can play once they have learned their primary chords in G with a couple of additional minor chords thrown in for flavor. The vocals are upbeat and happy and everybody knows them and can sing along. My guitar class played this at a concert in the park last Spring and without being told, the whole crowd of 150 spontaneously sang with us.
The Temptations were one of the top groups at Motown and this is a great example of the reason why. I have seen footage of them performing this song many times and it is clear that they really enjoy themselves on this one. I particularly remember Eddie Kendrick on the lead vocal adding "I've got all the riches, baby, one skinny man can claim." Some of their other songs (ie: "Just my imagination" and "Papa was a rolling stone") have a more bittersweet quality to them, but this one is just fun.
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