pplpod2 Marras

David Ruffin: Building Hitsville With Pops Gordy to a Painted Limousine

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David Ruffin was born Davis Eli Ruffin in 1941 in Whynot, Mississippi. His mother died 10 months after his birth, and his father, a strict and reportedly violent Baptist minister, took the family on the road as a gospel group opening for acts like Mahalia Jackson and the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. At 14 he left for Memphis, and at 16 he reached Detroit, where in 1957 he met Berry Gordy, lived with Gordy's father, Pops Gordy, and helped him with the construction work on the building that became Hitsville USA. He beat his brother Jimmy for a Temptations spot at Motown's New Year's Eve party in 1963, and Smokey Robinson's My Girl made him the group's front man in 1965.

Cocaine addiction and ego followed. Ruffin traveled apart from the group, demanded billing as David Ruffin and the Temptations and pushed for financial audits. After he skipped a June 1968 Cleveland show to see Dean Martin's daughter perform, he was fired and replaced by Dennis Edwards, then sued Motown and was held to a solo contract. Solo hits, tax prison, reunion tours and repeated firings followed until his death from an overdose in Philadelphia in June 1991 at 50.

He designed a four-headed microphone stand so the other four Temptations could dance around it while he roamed with a handheld mic.
His limousine had his trademark thick-rimmed glasses painted on the doors.
Tammi Terrell ended their relationship in 1967 after he struck her with a motorcycle helmet; he was already married when he proposed.
In 1982 he served time in a low-security prison for failing to pay over $300,000 in taxes.
A money belt said to hold $40,000 from his last tour was missing when he died, and Michael Jackson paid for the funeral.

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Jaksot(16184)

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Discovering Ireland: A Journey Through History, Culture, and the Wild Atlantic Way

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore Ireland through the philosophy of slow travel: go slower, ...

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Willie Hutch: An Overnight I'll Be There Lyric and The Mack's Soundtrack

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!William McKinley Hutchins was born in Los Angeles in December 1944 and raised in Dallas, where h...

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