How The Temptations Made “My Girl” One of Motown’s Most Timeless Love Songs

In the fall of 1964, backstage at New York’s Apollo Theater, Smokey Robinson sat down with five young singers from Detroit and began teaching them a new song.

The group was The Temptations. The song was “My Girl.”

At the time, there was no reason to believe it would become anything more than another Motown recording. The Temptations were still searching for their breakthrough, and “My Girl” had not even been written specifically for them.

But Robinson had something in mind.

He had begun to notice a new voice in the group — a voice that sounded different from anything The Temptations had featured before. That voice belonged to David Ruffin.

What happened next would change the group forever.

From Detroit to Motown

The Temptations emerged from two Detroit vocal groups, the Distants and the Primes. Their members gradually came together in the early 1960s, and the group signed with Berry Gordy’s Motown label in 1961.

The original lineup included Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams, alongside other early members before the classic lineup took shape.

They had the voices. They had the choreography. They had the look.

What they did not have was a major hit.

Their first several singles failed to make a significant impact. Then, in 1964, Smokey Robinson gave them “The Way You Do the Things You Do.” Eddie Kendricks took the lead, and the record finally broke through.

Suddenly, The Temptations were no longer just another promising Motown group.

But Robinson believed there was another voice in the group waiting to be heard.

The voice Smokey Robinson noticed

David Ruffin had joined The Temptations in 1964. His voice was different from the lighter, more delicate sound associated with Eddie Kendricks.

Ruffin could sound warm and vulnerable, but there was also something rougher and more commanding in his delivery.

Robinson heard it.

He began thinking about what might happen if he wrote a song specifically suited to that voice.

The result was “My Girl.”

But there was a problem.

It wasn't originally meant for The Temptations.

The song that wasn't theirs

Robinson wrote “My Girl” with fellow Motown songwriter Ronald White of The Miracles. The song was conceived as a kind of male counterpart to “My Guy,” the hit Robinson had written for Mary Wells earlier in 1964.

And initially, “My Girl” was associated with Robinson's own group, The Miracles.

Exactly how it moved to The Temptations has been remembered differently over the years.

Some accounts say members of The Temptations persuaded Robinson to give them the song. Otis Williams later recalled a more direct version of events: Robinson approached the group and indicated that he had a song specifically for David Ruffin.

The details may differ, but the important part is clear.

Robinson heard something in Ruffin's voice.

And “My Girl” gave him the perfect opportunity to bring it out.

Building the sound

The basic track for “My Girl” was recorded at Motown's Studio A at Hitsville U.S.A. in Detroit in September 1964.

The arrangement was deceptively simple.

It begins with one of the most recognizable bass lines in pop music. Then comes the guitar figure, followed by strings, horns and the unmistakable blend of The Temptations.

But the heart of the recording is Ruffin.

His voice does not sound like a singer trying to impress you. It sounds like someone who completely believes every word he is singing.

That was exactly what Robinson wanted.

The lyrics are almost startlingly simple: a man describing the happiness brought to him by the woman he loves. No heartbreak. No jealousy. No complicated story.

Just devotion.

And then Ruffin sings the opening line:

“I've got sunshine on a cloudy day.”

The song immediately establishes its world.

Everything is brighter because of her.

That famous opening

The bass line that introduces “My Girl” has become almost as famous as the song itself.

It was played by James Jamerson, one of the legendary musicians of Motown's Funk Brothers. The guitar figure was played by Robert White, another member of the Motown studio band.

The arrangement leaves plenty of space around Ruffin's voice, allowing the harmonies to answer and support him rather than compete with him.

It is one of the great examples of Motown's ability to make a recording sound effortless.

Nothing feels excessive.

Everything has a purpose.

Even the opening bass line became part of the song's identity.

Years later, Smokey Robinson would describe audiences recognizing the song from those first few notes — even in places where they did not necessarily understand the English lyrics.

They knew that bass line.

They knew what was coming.

“My Girl” becomes a hit

Before a Motown record could be released, it had to survive the label's famous Quality Control process.

“My Girl” passed.

Motown released the single in December 1964.

Then it began climbing.

On March 6, 1965, “My Girl” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

It was The Temptations' first No. 1 pop hit.

For David Ruffin, it was also a turning point.

The singer who had been waiting for his opportunity suddenly stood at the center of one of Motown's biggest records.

The Temptations had found their sound.

And Motown had found another star.

But who was “My Girl” really about?

There is another mystery surrounding the song.

Who was the “girl” in “My Girl”?

For years, the song has often been associated with Claudette Rogers Robinson, Smokey Robinson's wife and fellow member of The Miracles.

But Robinson's own comments over the years have complicated that story. He has indicated that the song was not necessarily written about one specific woman.

That may actually be part of its strength.

“My Girl” does not tell a detailed personal story. It creates a feeling almost anyone can recognize.

It is the feeling of having someone whose presence makes everything seem better.

That simplicity helped turn the song into something larger than its original circumstances.

The Temptations change

The success of “My Girl” established The Temptations as one of Motown's leading groups.

More hits followed, including “Ain't Too Proud to Beg” and “I Wish It Would Rain.”

But the group would not remain musically unchanged.

By the late 1960s, producer Norman Whitfield was pushing The Temptations toward a darker, more experimental sound. The group moved into psychedelic soul, producing records such as “Cloud Nine” and later “Papa Was a Rollin' Stone.”

David Ruffin, meanwhile, left The Temptations in 1968.

The group continued without him and went on to achieve more major successes, but Ruffin's voice remained inseparable from the group's classic recordings.

And “My Girl” remained at the center of their legacy.

The cost of a long career

The story of The Temptations is also a story of extraordinary loss.

Paul Williams died in 1973.

David Ruffin died in 1991.

Eddie Kendricks died in 1992.

Melvin Franklin died in 1995.

Otis Williams, one of the group's founding members, continued to carry The Temptations' legacy forward.

That history gives “My Girl” another dimension.

The recording captures a particular moment in time — five voices coming together in a Motown studio, before the changes, departures and losses that would reshape the group.

A song bigger than its owners

The Temptations were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. “My Girl” was later recognized by the Recording Academy's Grammy Hall of Fame and selected for preservation in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.

Its reach has gone far beyond the original 1964 recording.

It has been translated, covered, sampled and used in films and television. The title itself became the name of the 1991 film My Girl.

Yet none of that changes what makes the original recording special.

It still begins with that bass line.

Then the guitar.

Then David Ruffin:

“I've got sunshine…”

More than sixty years later, people still know exactly what comes next.

That is perhaps the most remarkable part of the story.

“My Girl” was not originally supposed to belong to The Temptations. But Smokey Robinson heard something in David Ruffin's voice, and the group took the opportunity when it came.

The song gave Ruffin his defining moment.

It gave The Temptations their signature record.

And it gave Motown one of the most enduring love songs in popular music.