Papa Was a Rollin Stone

Recorded in 1972 at Hitsville USA (Studio A) in Detroit with The Temptations and Motown session musicians, produced by Norman Whitfield and arranged by Paul Riser. The single edit was cut from the much longer album performance. The single version reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the Temptations’ last U.S. pop chart-topper. It also won three Grammy Awards, cementing the group’s late-period Whitfield sound as one of Motown’s boldest statements. The track remains one of the Temptations’ signature recordings and a landmark of extended single-format soul. It has stayed in circulation through later covers, samples, and repeated inclusion on classic-soul compilations.