George HaffendenFor today’s rare cuts we celebrate another birthday of on the integral members of The Temptations – Mr Ron Tyson, falsetto and tenor with the group since 1983 and still touring with Otis Williams and the group today.
Born in Philadelphia, Ron Tyson was a writer, producer and recording artist prior to his joining The Temptations, working with groups such as The Trammps on the Philadelphia International Record label. In 1967, along with Carl Enlow, Andrew Collins, and Joe Freeman, Tyson formed the group The Ethics and scored a few minor local hits with “Searching” and “Tell Me”. After the record label they were signed to collapsed, the band morphed into the Love Committee, and they recorded two excellent albums, beginning in 1978 with Love Committee.
The title track of the latter album is pure disco – lush horn and string arrangements, combined with a thumping rhythm section to create one of disco’s lost tracks. Indeed, this is not terribly surprisingly considering the architects of the Philly-Disco sound of Ron Baker, Norman Harris, and Earl Young produced the album.
Vocally, this album stands up to anything put out by PIR, and even anything The Temptations were putting out at this time: Tyson’s soaring falsetto dominates, and he even contributes to writing most of the songs on the album. Demonstrating his vocal chops on this album, and 1980’s self-titled album, it’s no surprise that The Temptations came knocking when Glenn Leonard, then tenor with the group, left.
The Love Committee’s first album is below to stream, and also check out a rare performance from the group. We hope you enjoy, and we wish Ron Tyson a very happy birthday.