Surface Thrills Explained

Surface Thrills
Type:	studio
Artist:	The Temptations
Cover:	Surface Thrills (The Temptations album) cover art.jpg
Released:	February 18, 1983
Recorded:	November 1982–February 1983
Studio:	Bill Schnee's Studio, Hitsville Recording Studios, Artisan Sound Studios
Genre:	Rock/soul
Length:	37:20
Label:	Gordy
Producer:	Dennis Lambert, Steve Barri
Prev Title:	Reunion
Prev Year:	1982
Next Title:	Back to Basics
Next Year:	1983

Surface Thrills is the first of two 1983 albums released by the American R&B vocal group, the Temptations, on Motown Records' Gordy label.

Overview

In this album, the group attempted to fuse their vocal harmonies with rock music production, resulting in a radical departure from the Temptations' signature soul sound. It was produced by Dennis Lambert and Steve Barri^[1] and features musical contributions from Jeff Porcaro of Toto, Raymond Lee Brown of Earth, Wind & Fire, and longtime James Brown collaborator Fred Wesley.

Surface Thrills yielded two singles, the title track and "Love on My Mind Tonight", with only the latter being moderately successful. This is the last Temptations album to feature falsetto Glenn Leonard, who departed from the group after eight years. Leonard's replacement would be singer-songwriter Ron Tyson, who made his Temptations debut with the following album, Back to Basics, though the group had worked with Tyson when they were with Atlantic Records on the Hear to Tempt You album where Tyson co-wrote a majority of the songs.

Track listing

Superscripts denote lead singers for each track: (a) Dennis Edwards, (b) Glenn Leonard, (c) Richard Street, (d) Melvin Franklin, (e) Otis Williams.

All tracks produced by Dennis Lambert and Steve Barri except where noted.

Side one

1. "Surface Thrills" (Lambert, Harold Payne) – 4:30 ^a
2. "Love on My Mind Tonight" (Lambert, Peter Beckett) – 4:57 ^a
3. "One Man Woman" (Lambert, Beckett) – 5:13 ^{a, b, c, d, e}
4. "Show Me Your Love" (Terry Skinner, J.L. Wallace, Ken Bell) – 4:02 ^c

Side two

1. "The Seeker" (Lambert, Michael Price, Dan Walsh) – 4:30 ^a
2. "What a Way to Put It" (Steve Dees, Ron Kersey) – 4:37 ^a
   (produced by the Temptations and Benjamin Wright)
3. "Bringyourbodyhere (Exercise Chant)" (Otis Williams, David English, Benjamin Wright, Louis Price) – 5:13 ^{a, b, c, d, e}
   (co-produced by the Temptations and Benjamin Wright)
4. "Made in America" (M. Price, Walsh) – 3:58 ^a

Personnel

Performers

• Dennis Edwards - vocals (baritone/tenor)
• Melvin Franklin - vocals (bass)
• Glenn Leonard - vocals (first tenor/falsetto)
• Richard Street - vocals (tenor/baritone)
• Otis Williams - vocals (second tenor/baritone)
• Clydene Jackson, Julia Waters, Maxine Waters - background vocals ("Bringyourbodyhere")

Musicians

• Raymond Lee Brown, Nolan Smith - trumpet
• George Bohanon, Fred Wesley - trombone
• Robbie Buchanan - drums, Linn computer, Moog bass, synthesizer, Fender Rhodes synthesizer, percussion synthesizer
• Paulinho da Costa - percussion
• Richard Elliot - saxophone, lyricon
• Gary Herbig, Terry Harrington - saxophone, flute, piccolo
• Paul M. Jackson, Jr. - guitar, rhythm arranger
• Gabe Katona - synthesizer
• Dennis Lambert - vocal arranger, synthesizer, percussion synthesizer
• Roger Nichols - percussion synthesizer-Wendel
• Jeff Porcaro, John Robinson - drums
• Freddie Washington - bass
• Benjamin Wright - arranger

Charts

Singles

Year	Single	Chart positions
		US	US R&B	US AC	UK
1983	"Love on My Mind Tonight"	88	17	-	-
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

References

1. The Temptations- Surface Thrills vinyl LP (1983) back cover. Accessed 8-24-2010.
2. Web site: [{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=mn0000569685/awards|pure_url=yes}} The Temptations US albums/singles chart history]. allmusic.com. 2012-07-11.

External links

• Surface Thrills at Discogs
• Surface Thrills at Rate Your Music