Smokey Robinson Heard Something Special in David Ruffin — Then He Wrote “My Girl” for His Voice
Before “My Girl,” The Temptations were already beginning to make noise at Motown.
But they had never reached No. 1 on the American pop chart.
Then David Ruffin stepped to the microphone.
Ruffin had joined The Temptations after replacing Al Bryant, adding a voice that immediately stood apart from the group’s smoother harmonies.
It was rougher.
More urgent.
There was a rasp in it that made even a simple lyric sound as though something important was happening.
Smokey Robinson noticed.
Smokey was not only the leader of The Miracles. Inside Motown, he was one of Berry Gordy’s most trusted songwriters and producers, responsible for helping shape records for artists across the label.
He had already worked successfully with The Temptations.
But Ruffin gave him a new idea.
Smokey later joked that Ruffin’s gruff voice sounded as though it could frighten a girl into going out with him.
What he really meant was that the voice had extraordinary character.
So instead of giving Ruffin something hard or aggressive, Smokey decided to do the opposite.
He wanted him to sing a beautiful love song.
Together with fellow Miracle Ronnie White, Robinson wrote “My Girl.”
The opening could hardly be simpler.
James Jamerson’s bass begins underneath Robert White’s instantly recognizable guitar figure, and then Ruffin enters.
There is no shouting.
No vocal acrobatics.
Just a man explaining why the woman he loves makes everything around him seem brighter.
That restraint was part of the magic.
Ruffin’s voice contained enough emotion on its own.
Behind him, Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, Melvin Franklin and Otis Williams created the polished harmonies that had become the Temptations’ trademark, while Motown’s Funk Brothers supplied the instrumental backing.
The record was released near the end of 1964.
Then something happened that The Temptations had never experienced before.
“My Girl” climbed all the way to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965.
It was their first No. 1 pop single.
And David Ruffin suddenly became one of Motown’s most recognizable lead voices.
More Ruffin-led classics followed, including “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” “I Wish It Would Rain” and “(I Know) I’m Losing You.”
But “My Girl” was the moment the door opened.
Smokey Robinson later admitted he had no idea the song would become what it eventually became.
People even asked why he had given such a great song to The Temptations instead of recording it with The Miracles himself.
Smokey never regretted it.
Because great songwriting is sometimes about more than writing the right melody.
It is about recognizing the right voice.
Smokey Robinson heard something in David Ruffin that needed the right song to reveal it.
He gave him “My Girl.”
And within a few months, The Temptations had their first pop No. 1 — while David Ruffin had the performance that would follow him for the rest of his life.
Barbara Mandrell Retired From Music at 18 — One Night at the Grand Ole Opry Changed Her Mind
Long before Barbara Mandrell became one of the biggest stars in country music, she had already decided her music career was over.
She was only 18.
That decision sounds almost impossible in hindsight.
Because Barbara Mandrell had been preparing for the stage practically since childhood.
Born in Houston on Christmas Day in 1948, she learned accordion and how to read music before entering first grade. After her family moved to California, she began studying steel guitar at about ten years old while also learning saxophone at school.
Then someone important noticed her.
Country guitarist Joe Maphis saw the young Mandrell performing at a music trade convention in 1960.
He was impressed enough to bring her into his Las Vegas act.
Barbara was still a child, yet she was already sharing a musical world populated by professional country performers.
Before long, she appeared on the Los Angeles television program Town Hall Party and joined a national package tour headlined by Johnny Cash.
By 14, she was performing with her family band at military bases in the United States and Asia. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
It looked as though music had already chosen her.
Then Barbara walked away.
She had fallen in love with Ken Dudney, the drummer in the Mandrell family band.
Dudney eventually joined the Navy and trained as a pilot.
The couple married in 1967.
Barbara decided that was enough.
At 18, she retired from music.
For someone who had spent much of her childhood performing, it was an extraordinary choice.
But the retirement did not last.
When Dudney was away with the Navy, Barbara visited her family in Tennessee.
One evening, she attended a taping of The Porter Wagoner Show before the Grand Ole Opry.
As Barbara watched the performers, something came back.
She leaned toward her father, Irby Mandrell.
She told him she could do what she was watching onstage.
More importantly, she wanted to do it again.
She asked whether he would manage her.
Her father believed in her.
The decision made that night changed everything. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Barbara soon signed with Columbia Records.
In 1969, she entered the Billboard country chart with her version of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.”
More hits followed.
By 1972, she had joined the Grand Ole Opry — the same institution connected to the night that helped convince her to return.
Then the career accelerated.
“Sleeping Single in a Double Bed” reached No. 1.
Her version of “If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don’t Want to Be Right)” also topped the country chart.
But Mandrell was becoming more than a recording artist.
She could sing.
She could dance.
She could play multiple instruments.
And onstage, she could move between traditional country, pop, soul, gospel, and show-business spectacle without losing her identity.
By the beginning of the 1980s, Barbara Mandrell was everywhere.
From 1980 to 1982, she starred with her sisters Louise and Irlene on NBC’s Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters, bringing country music into millions of American homes every week.
And the industry recognized what was happening.
The Country Music Association named Mandrell Entertainer of the Year in 1980.
Then she won again in 1981.
She became the first artist in CMA history to win the award in consecutive years. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
That same period produced the song that would become inseparable from her name.
“I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool.”
The song looked back at a time when openly loving country music was not always fashionable.
Then country culture exploded into the American mainstream.
George Jones appeared on the recording, and the song became another No. 1 country hit for Mandrell
The title almost seemed to describe Barbara herself.
She had been playing steel guitar as a child long before television superstardom.
She had toured before she was old enough to drive.
She had quit.
She had started again.
And she had reached the top.
Her life would still bring serious challenges.
In 1984, a devastating automobile accident left Mandrell with multiple injuries and required a long recovery.
Yet she returned again, continuing to record, tour, and act before eventually retiring from performing in 1997. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
In 2009, Barbara Mandrell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
It was a remarkable ending to a story that could easily have stopped decades earlier.
At 18, Barbara Mandrell thought she was finished with music.
Then she sat in an audience in Nashville and watched other performers doing what she had once done.
Something inside her changed.
She told her father she wanted another chance.
He believed her.
And the young woman who had retired before her career truly began eventually became one of country music’s defining entertainers.
