A Motown Christmas

Volume 2 (Motown)

The Temptations

The Best of the Temptations Christmas (Motown) The concept alone of A Motown Christmas ensures this holiday sampler to be far more fun than the socks ‘n’ underwear letdown of most Xmas platters. Sure enough, the Supremes, Miracles, Temptations, and J5 deliver the hits, Marvin Gaye’s “Purple Snow Flakes” and the Funk Brothers’ instrumental snow flurry on “Winter Wonderland” the perfect beds for ice angels. The Temptations’ Eddie Kendricks is angelic to the 25th degree with that falsetto of his, and the Best of Temptations Christmas, combining the best halfs of the group’s two holiday comps, 1970 and 1980, only hits a false note when they get too much MIX in the mix, as on “This Christmas.”

This article appears in December 21 • 2001.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.