My Girl – The Temptations | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning

Chart Performance: Pop(#1 for 6 weeks); 1965

Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne

The story of soul music’s greatest group began in 1959 with the release of Come On by the Distants. By the time the first Temptations’ single – Oh, Mother Of Mine – appeared in mid-1961, Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks had joined former Distants’ Melvin Franklin and Otis in their new group.

As 1964 dawned, the group had spent just three weeks on the R&B chart in 1962 with Dream Come True. By now David Ruffin was on board. With the classic Tempts lineup in place, Smokey Robinson concocted The Way You Do The Things You Do, which reached #1R&B and #11 pop in 1964.

After two more respectable outings, Smokey took the Tempts into the studio on December 21, 1964 to record a tune he and Ron White had penned specifically for David Ruffin. My Girl took less that a month to conquer the R&B chart, and took over the pop top slot in March. In 1998 My Girl was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2024 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.

Produced by:

• Smokey Robinson
• Ronald White

Lyrics Written by:

• Smokey Robinson
• Ronald White

Awards:

• Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998
• National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2018
• Ranked at number 88 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
• Ranked at number 11 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 40 Greatest Motown Songs of All Time
• Inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll