Don't Look Back (Temptations song)

Infobox Single
Name = Don't Look Back
Artist = The Temptations
from Album = The Temptin' Temptations
A-side = "My Baby"
Released = September 30 1965
(1st pressing)
October 30 1965
(2nd pressing)
Format = 7" single
Recorded = Hitsville USA (Studio A); May 5, May 10, & May 12, 1965
Genre = Soul
Length = 2:50
Label = Gordy
G 7047
Writer = Smokey Robinson
Ronald White
Producer = Smokey Robinson
Last single = "Since I Lost My Baby"
(1965)
This single = "My Baby" / "Don't Look Back"
(1965)
Next single = "Get Ready"
(1966)

"Don't Look Back" is a 1965 song recorded by The Temptations for the Gordy (Motown) label. The b-side to their Top 20 hit "My Baby", "Don't Look back" broke out and became a hit among the R&B audience on its own, reaching #14 on the R&B charts. Considered one of original lead singer Paul Williams' showcases, "Don't Look Back" was regularly employed as the closing number for Temptations live performances. Although the original flip side, "My Baby", was initially more popular with pop audiences at the time, over the years, "Don't Look Back " has proven to be the far more popular and enduring tune, having inspired cover versions by Al Green, Bobby Womack, Peter Tosh & Mick Jagger, The Persuasions, and Teena Marie. It was also performed by the group on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Written by Miracles members Smokey Robinson and Ronald White, the authors of the #1 Temptations hit "My Girl", "Don't Look Back" is a reassurance to the tentative that finding true love is worth the heartbreak and failed relationships it takes to reach it. As the song's narrator, Paul Williams promises his lover, in his trademark gritty tone::"If you just put your hand in mine":"We're gonna leave all your troubles behind":"keep on walkin' and don't look back."

Smokey Robinson, the song's producer, specifically assigned Paul Williams to sing lead on the song. Although Williams had been the group's original lead singer during its formative years, his role had by 1965 been eclipsed by David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks, who had both sung lead on Temptations hit singles. As such, Williams was often overlooked for leads, even on album tracks and b-sides, prompting him to complain, "shit, y'know, "I" sing too!"

Interestingly, although the song's relatively modest initial chart success prevented Paul from getting any more leads on Temptations singles releases, the fact is that "Don't Look Back" actually became a huge belated hit, because his dynamic performance of the song on the "Temptations Live!" lp received huge airplay by R&B DeeJays nationwide, and propelled sales of the "album" to the Top 10 of the Billboard Pop album chart.

"Don't Look Back" was more often performed at Temptations live shows than its original a-side. In fact, on the 1967 "Temptations Live!" album, the women in the audience can be heard demanding that the group perform the song, which they preceded to do. Paul Williams, who developed many of The Temptations's dance steps, developed a routine for the live shows that had him following the song's advice to "keep on walkin'" and performing a strut across the stage, to the delight of the audience.

As Paul Williams' specialty number, "Don't Look Back" was retired from The Temptations' repertoire after Williams, suffering from complications of sickle-cell disease and alcoholism, was forced to leave the group in 1971. The group did perform the song at their induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a tribute to Williams.

Peter Tosh scored a minor hit in 1978 with a reggae version of the song, sharing vocals Mick Jagger on the song. This version bore the modified title "(You Got To Walk And) Don't Look Back". [Joel Whitburn, Top Pop Singles 1955-1999 (Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research, 2000), 658.]

Credits

* Lead vocals by Paul Williams
* Background vocals by Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, David Ruffin, and Otis Williams
* Written by William "Smokey" Robinson and Ronald White
*Produced by Smokey Robinson
* Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers.

References

* Williams, Otis and Romanowski, Patricia (1988, updated 2002). Temptations. Lanham, MD: Cooper Square. ISBN 081-541218-5.
* Williams, Otis and Weigner, Harry (2002). My Girl: The Very Best of the Temptations (Compact disc liner notes). New York: Motown/Universal Records.