Customer Reviews

The Best of David Ruffin: 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection

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With David you could hear the pain and anguish in this troubled souls voice everytime he sang a song. After he left the Temptations and started his solo career many thought he would disappear, but David managed to record some good material like "My Whole World Ended" and "Walk Away from Love." The real find here is the final track, the reunion of David and fellow Temptations' lead Eddie Kendricks (backed by Hall & Oates) live at the Apollo circa the mid 80's. This recording hasn't been available on a domestic CD before. Worth the price of the disc. Get this one today.

Things got off to a good start when David Ruffin left The Temptations. He had a smash hit with "My Whole World Ended(The Moment You Left Me)" and a decent hit with "I've Lost Everything". But then he did not have another hit until 1975, with "Walk Away From Love". Whats more interesting is what took place during the intervening years, such as his legendary unreleased album, recorded between 1970 and '71. Hardcore Ruffin fans maintain that this was his best solo material and would have taken him to another level of stardom, but strangely, Motown did not release it. Some of these songs have turned up over the years on compilations like this one,(Each Day Is A Lifetime) and his scorching version of The Jackson Five's "I Want You Back",(Motown's Greatest Rarities Vol. 1). Also of note was an album of duets with his brother Jimmy entitled "I Am My Brothers Keeper", which is very hard to come by, and featured a hit duet of "Stand By Me". Vocally, David was like the bridge between Ray Charles and Teddy Pendergrass. In fact he does Teddy P's "I Miss You" on here and the vocal resemblance is uncanny. I was very pleased to see the medley of "The Way You Do The Things You Do"/My Girl" with Eddie Kendricks and Hall and Oates on here, as it was a fluke top 20 hit in 1985. Hall and Oates also took David and Eddie with them to perform at the legendary Live Aid concert later that year. Sadly, David would die of a drug overdose several years later. You can almost hear this tortured man trying to exorcise his demons through his emotional vocals on songs like "Statue Of A Fool", which was a highlight of his live performances. As a solo act, David had trouble finding material that matched his talent, however, his magic, soulful vocals always shone through. Overall, one of the best soul singers of all time, though his best work was with the group he never should have left.

This album proves that David had the gift of being a solo artist. With hits like Walk a way from LOVE, I miss you, proves that he (David was more that a statue of a fool). Why would anyone not want to allow this much talent to flow? David will always live on in the HEARTS of his TRUE fans. Much love to this tall, talent, and handsome man, who could not rid his DEMONs. I'll bet Everythings comming up LOVE now!!

After a phenomenal but troubled run as co-lead singer of the Temptations, David Ruffin embarked on a solo career punctuated by success and by failure, both artistically and personally. His first release, "My Whole World Ended" reached the top-10 and seemed to portend a new beginning. Follow-ups did not carry through and Ruffin soon faded into the background until, four years later, he roared back into the limelight with "Walk Away From Love". But again, it was a fleeting revival and his chart successes dwindled. Finally, reuniting with Eddie Kendricks (a/k/a Kendrick) and teaming up with Hall and Oates, his last hurrah came with the top-20 "The Way You Do the Things You Do/My Girl" live performance at the reopening of the Apollo Theater.

This collection, one in Universal's massive 20th Century Millennium Collection series, gathers up all of Ruffin's solo pop-charting hits. It is a concise, nearly all-inclusive greatest hits piece that includes the afore-mentioned Ruffin/Ruffin/Hall/Oates track, which is something of a pleasant surprise in that it had to be licensed from another recording company (BMG). The only omission, if considered as such, is Ruffin's duet "Stand By Me" with brother Jimmy.

While not a comprehensive gathering, this is true to its purpose as a concise overview of Ruffin's solo singles with a few album tracks to bring it to the Millennium series mid-price standard of 12 tracks. All the tracks are in stereo and decent sound quality although a few tracks exhibit the common muddiness of early Motown recordings. The liner notes booklet provides a brief history of Ruffin's solo career at Motown along with a few photos and track listing details.

For its purpose and for the listener interested in the basics, this offers a respectably done gathering up of Ruffin's solo years at Motown.

David Ruffin was a Entertainer's Entetainer. a Singer's Singer. you felt the Emotion,Soul&Feeling in His voice&Work. He was the link between Jackie Wilson&Marvin Gaye for many Artists.He was a true Showman."Walk away from love"&Whole World ended" are timeless. the Brother has never gotten his full due.He left a huge mark with the Temptations&then Solo.

I must admit, I am not a Temptations fan. As far as David Ruffin's solo career, I was unfamiliar with any of these tunes. I was raised on radio back in the 70's, and I love 70's music, but none of these songs were familiar to me. Of course, that does not mean they weren't hits. Two of David's solo hits included on here did make the Billboard Top 40, "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)" and "Walk Away from Love". My reason for buying this CD was "A Night at the Apollo Live! The Way You Do the Things You Do/My Girl", which was a song David recorded with Daryl Hall, John Oates, and Eddie Kendrick. That song went to #20 in 1985. At that time, Hall & Oates were at the peak of their popularity and just about anything they put out with their name on it became a hit record. The joke is that on the record, Hall & Oates received top billing to capitalize on their popularity, but on the recording they are just backup singers to Mr. Ruffin and Mr. Kendrick. Anyway, I have been looking for that recording on CD for quite some time and that was my reason for purchasing this disc.

After listening to the CD, I can kind of understand why David's solo career faltered. He certainly had a very emotional voice, but the songs to me are forgettable. Of the songs here, I prefer the material from 75-77 that was produced by Van McCoy. At the time, Van McCoy had just had a #1 hit with "The Hustle", so I assume he was brought in as a hot producer to re-invigorate David's career. The results are mixed. The arrangements contain that light and breezy, "hustle-esque" disco beat, which seems to be in conflict with David's coarse vocals. It's like he is trying to put meaning and emotion into what is clearly a vapid disco song.

For hardcore fans, I think you will enjoy this CD. For those who like the Temptations or who are looking for that Hall & Oates song, you may be disappointed in the rest of the material.

I was born in 1952 and have been listening to music since I was old enough to realize what the word music meant. All through junior and senior high soul music and The Beatles and other British invasion groups domonated my music interest. David Ruffin is The premier voice of soul in my opinion. This CD has his best solo songs on it. I enjoy it along with the Temptaions CDs I own.

I listen to the entire CD daily, David Ruffin is a awesome singer, he truly was the voice of the temptations. His songs has so much meaning in them. If you listen to the lyrics you almost feel what he was feeling at that time. I would to have his entire collection.

This cd is a real find. I wish there were more of David's songs on this disc, particularly his cover of the Jackson 5's "I Want you back". My favorite songs on here are "Walk Away From Love", "My whole world ended", "Statue of a fool", "I'm so glad I fell for you" (David really takes it to church on this one), "Everything's Coming up love" and I've lost everything I've ever loved". David was in top form on this collection. The only gripe I have is in the liner notes it has "Walk away from love" listed as being 5:29 and it's really about 3 minutes long. Other than that, I love this cd.

David Ruffin was the epitome of a soul singer. Ruff had that great edgy voice that spoke of hard living and tragic loving; the depth of his vocals were heart-wrenching and came completely from the inner portions of his soul. Yes, he left the Tempts; and yes he was never promoted well nor did he have the best material or producers. Sadly he fell into a drug habit that has taken all too many entertainers and young African-American men. But...let's enjoy the great singing he did with and after the Temptations, thank God we had him for however brief a time he was on this earth, and love what IS rather than what might HAVE BEEN. David, God bless you with peace and I thank you for all the many hours I have thrilled listening to your fine voice. We all miss you, but thankfully you'll never really leave us as long as we can hear you singing.