Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)

"Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)" is a 1971 #1 hit single recorded by The Temptations for the Motown label and produced by Norman Whitfield. It was the third of four Temptations songs to go to #1 on the Billboard pop singles chart, and is the final Temptations single to feature Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams, both of whom were previously members of The Primes.

The single held the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks, from March 27 to April 10 1971, replacing "Me and Bobby McGee" by Janis Joplin, and replaced by "Joy To The World" by Three Dog Night.

During the late-1960s and early-1970s, Whitfield crafted a long string of "psychedelic soul" tracks for the Tempts, among them hits like "Psychedelic Shack", "I Can't Get Next to You", and the Grammy-winning "Cloud Nine". However, the group, particularly Eddie Kendricks, preferred the earlier classic soul material like "My Girl", and were constantly pressuring Whitfield to craft something similar to those earlier hits. During this period of Motown's existence, producers, not artists, held the decision-making power, and the Temptations were forced to record Whitfield's psychedelic soul songs, especially since the records were pop hits.

"Just My Imagination" was one of the few times that Whitfield relented and crafted a ballad for the group, working from a tune that he and former Motown artist Barrett Strong had written in 1969, but had never gotten around to recording with the group. Whitfield finally recorded "Just My Imagination" in late 1970, after the psychedelic soul single "Ungena Za Ulimwengu (Unite the World)" failed to reach the Top 30. He approached his lyricist Barrett Strong and asked him to pull out "that song we were messing around with a year ago...becasue I'm going to record it today."

Featuring a full orchestral arrangement with strings and French horns adorning a bluesy rhythm track and guitar line, the song has a strong doo wop influence and features intricate harmony vocals from Otis Williams, Paul Williams, Melvin Franklin, and Dennis Edwards. In the center is Kendricks’ falsetto, relating the bittersweet story of a young man who is too shy to approach the woman he loves, and instead daydreams and imagines a relationship with her.

Kendricks' character in the song is helplessly in love with a woman he sees every day. The woman knows nothing of the man's love for her because after having been hurt by a previous lover, he is simply too afraid to embrace the possibility of heartbreak again. His safe solution is to romance her within the safe confines of his imagination. In his mind, the two of them are lovers, prepared to be married, "raise a family", and "build a cozy little home/off in the country/with two children, maybe three".

One of the more melancholy songs in the Temptations' canon, "Just My Imagination" would seem to be a logical sequel to a song like "I Wish It Would Rain", a 1968 hit for the group with David Ruffin on leads, as it depicts the results that a breakup as painful as that depicted in "I Wish It Would Rain" can have on a person.

In addition to Kendricks’ mourning lead vocal, "Just My Imagination" features a brief lead vocal passage by Kendricks’ bandmate and lifelong best friend Paul Williams. During most of 1970, Williams had been in and out of the hospital. Williams had developed alcoholism, which, when combined with his sickle-cell anemia, caused him to become seriously ill. Richard Street, a former bandmate of Otis Williams in The Distants and current lead singer of Motown's The Monitors, and was proposed as a replacement for Williams. As Williams got weaker, Street was called upon to sing Williams' parts from offstage, while Williams danced and lip-synced onstage. By November, it became apparent that Williams was no longer physically capable of being in the group, which toured and performed frequently.

Eddie Kendricks also began to withdraw from the group; he regularly quarreled with either Otis Williams or his best friend Melvin Franklin, and the fights often became violent. Kendricks began spending more time with his friend David Ruffin, former lead singer of the Temptations. Ruffin had been fired from the act in June 1968 because of unprofessional behavior and percieved ego problems, and Kendricks was the only member who continued an alliance with Ruffin. In fact, Kendricks suggested mroe than once that Ruffin should be invited back into the group, an idea which the other members strongly objected to.

Kendricks also suggested that he be allowed to record a solo album on the side, so that he could get back to singing the kind of soul music that he preferred to sing, but Otis Williams, who served as de facto leader for the group, told him to "forget about it", since it would appear to the public that Kendricks was leaving the group for a solo career. By the fall fo 1970, Ruffin, with whom Kendricks had discussed all of his problems with the group, had convinced Kendricks that he should indeed leave the group and go solo.

During a November 1970 engagement at the Copacabana nightclub in New York City, tensions came to a head. Otis Williams' mother had just died, and he gave a weak performance that night, drawing Kendricks' ire. Attempting to avoid yet another fight, Williams and Melvin Franklin snuck out of the Copa immediately after the show, infuriating Kendricks to the point that he left as well and didn't return for the next show. The rift became irreparable at that point, and it was mutually agreed by all parties involved that Kendricks would be leaving The Temptations.

Norman Whitfield had the instrumental track for "Just My Imagination" recorded on November 24 1970, and the group added its vocals on December 3. The "Just My Imagination" recording session was one of the last sessions to include Kendricks and Paul Williams, and although he and Kendricks weren't communicating by this time, Otis Williams called it "Eddie's finest moment."

Motown released "Just My Imagination" as a single on their Gordy imprint on January 14 1971, and the Temptations performed it in their final appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on January 31. On-screen, it was apparent that Kendricks was off by himself, and that the group was no longer a complete unit. Kendricks’ mother tried to talk him out of leaving the group, but his mind was made up, as was those of his bandmates.

In March 1971, while "Just My Imagination" was on its way to becoming the #1 song in the country, Eddie Kendricks officially received his release from the group and inked a solo deal with Motown's Tamla label. The intended follow-up to "Just My Imagination", the Kendricks-led "Smiling Faces Sometimes", was re-recorded by The Undisputed Truth, and became a Top 5 pop hit for that group in the summer of 1971.

Kendricks would be replaced by a long stream of similar-sounding tenors, including Ricky Owens for a few shows in 1971, Damon Harris from 1971 to 1975, Glenn Leonard from 1975 to 1982, and current Temptation Ron Tyson from 1982 to the present. Not long after Kendricks’ departure, Paul Williams was officially replaced with Richard Street, after a doctor found a spot on Williams' liver.

A #1 hit on both the US pop and R&B charts, "Just My Imagination" was the group’s biggest single since "My Girl". After its release, the Temptations and Whitfield returned to psychedelic soul and funk singles. One of these singles, "Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are)", was a message track aimed at both Kendricks and his cohort Ruffin. Two and a half years after the release of "Just My Imagination", Paul Williams was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot.

Kendricks and Ruffin would later briefly rejoin the group for a 1982 reunion tour, and, after being fired (a second time for Ruffin) in late December 1982, would later form their own touring and recording act, Ruffin and Kendrick.

A number of artists have since covered the tune, including The Rolling Stones on their 1978 album Some Girls.

• Lead Vocals by Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams
• Background Vocals by Dennis Edwards, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, and Otis Williams

• Written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong
• Produced by Norman Whitfield
• Orchestra Directed by Jerry Long
• Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers and members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

• Download sample of "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)".

• George, Nelson. "Cool as They Wanna Be". The Temptations: Emperors of Soul [CD Box Set]. New York: Motown Record Co., L.P.
• (March 21, 2004). "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)". Superseventies.com. Retrieved on April 21, 2005 from http://www.superseventies.com/1971_7singles.html.
• Williams, Otis and Romanowski, Patricia (1988, updated 2002). Temptations. Lanham, MD: Cooper Square. ISBN 081-541218-5.

• Lyrics to "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)".