Surface Thrills

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

Surface Thrills
Studio album by
The Temptations
ReleasedFebruary 18, 1983
Recorded1982
GenreRock/soul
Length37:20
LabelGordy
ProducerDennis Lambert, Steve Barri
The Temptations chronology
Reunion
(1982)		 Surface Thrills
(1983)		 Back to Basics
(1983)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]

Overview

In this album the group attempts 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[2] 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.

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

Musicians

Charts
Year Album Chart positions[3]
US US
R&B
1983 Surface Thrills 159 19

Singles
Year Single Chart positions[3]
US US
R&B		 US
AC		 UK
1983 "Love on My Mind Tonight" 88 17 — —
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

References
  1. Allmusic review
  2. The Temptations- Surface Thrills vinyl LP (1983) back cover. Accessed 8-24-2010.
  3. "The Temptations US albums/singles chart history". allmusic.com. Retrieved 2012-07-11.
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