The Temptations' front man dies

ALI-OLLIE Woodson, who led the legendary Motown quintet the Temptations in the 1980s and 1990s and helped restore them to their hit-making glory, has died, aged 58, it was announced yesterday.

Woodson died on Sunday in southern California after battling cancer.

The news was announced by Motown records executive Billy Wilson, after he was informed by Woodson's wife Juanita.

Woodson was not an original member of the group, which had several line-up changes from its launch in the 1960s.

But he played an integral part in keeping the Temptations from becoming a nostalgia act. By the early 1980s, the Temptations were no longer posting hit after hit like they did in the 1960s and 1970s, with classics such as Papa Was a Rolling Stone, My Girl, and I Wish It Would Rain.

The group had lost original members, and Woodson was charged with replacing Dennis Edwards, whose passionate voice defined the group during the 1970s.

Woodson's voice, though similar to Edwards' with its fiery tone, was distinct in itself, and helped the group notch the R&B hits Treat Her Like A Lady, Sail Away and Lady Soul, from 1984 to 1986. "He had this swagger about himself. He was cool. He had a coolness about himself that was really very inviting," said Mr Wilson.

He said he first met Woodson in 1980 before he joined the group and that he last spoke with his friend about two weeks ago.

Despite his fame, Woodson was "always a gentleman and always polite and kind to everybody".

"If we ever asked him to do anything, he never said, 'well, it's going to cost you'. He'd always say, 'yeah, let's go'," said Mr Wilson, who founded the Detroit-based Motown association in the mid-1990s.