House Party (The Temptations album)

Overview

This album is made up of vaulted songs recorded both prior to and following the sessions for A Song for You. House Party contains the final sessions recorded by falsetto Damon Harris as a member of the group, as well as the first for his replacement, Glenn Leonard. The sessions featured a slew of producers and composers from both within and outside of the Motown stable. The completed project was overseen by Jeffrey Bowen, who produced A Song for You and the subsequent album, Wings of Love.

The Temptations were not given creative input on the final release, to which Otis Williams referred in his autobiography Temptations as a "mismatched collection of, pardon my French, shit." Despite Williams' reservations regarding the circumstances surrounding the compilation and release of these tracks, as well as the album's perceived lack of commercial appeal, fans of the group have given House Party favorable reviews in the years since its release.

Brothers Brian and Eddie Holland, collectively two-thirds of the Holland–Dozier–Holland hit-making stable, worked on the first track and only single, "Keep Holdin' On", while Stax Records stalwart Steve Cropper contributed to three songs as producer and/or writer. Vocal highlights include a rare lead performance by Otis Williams on his own composition, "Darling, Stand by Me (Song for My Woman)", the Richard Street-led ballad, "If I Don't Love You This Way" (a cover of a song by the Jackson 5 originally featured on their Dancing Machine album); Glenn Leonard's debut in the ensemble vocal of "What You Need Most (I Do Best of All)"; and fan-favorite bass singer Melvin Franklin's lead vocals on "Ways of a Grown-Up Man."

Personnel