Eddie Kendricks; Temptations Singer

Eddie Kendricks, whose soaring falsetto was one of the signatures of the Temptations’ remarkable vocal versatility, died Monday night in Birmingham, Ala.

Kendricks, 52, was a founding member and lead singer of the singing group that played such an integral role in the early history of Motown Records.

A spokeswoman for Baptist Medical Center-Princeton said the singer died of lung cancer. Kendricks, a native of Birmingham, had been hospitalized since Sept. 25. Another early Motown artist, singer Stevie Wonder, had visited him Saturday.

When the Temptations were formed in Detroit in 1961, the group consisted of Kendricks, Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams and Elbridge Bryant. David Ruffin replaced Bryant in 1964, and the group signed with the Motown label.

He and Ruffin, the other lead singer, gave the act an unusual ability to shift between romantic songs that featured Kendricks’ golden-throated smoothness, such as “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” and the harsher--sometimes gospel--texture of Ruffin, on songs such as “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.”

After Ruffin left the group, and the Temptations attempted to craft songs more relevant to the social chaos of the late 1960s, Kendricks stretched his form in dramatic, arching performances that moved away from his earlier style.

The group had its first No. 1 hit with a Smoky Robinson composition, “My Girl,” in 1965, followed by “It’s Growing” and “Since I Lost My Baby” that same year.

The Temptations’ rough-edged leads and urgent harmonies coupled with their stylish choreography helped them to become the most successful male vocal group of the ‘60s and ‘70s. By 1982, the group had sold an estimated 22 million records.

They recorded more than a dozen hit singles and trailed only the Supremes--another Motown group--as rulers of the popular music charts.

“While the Four Tops covered the frenetic side of the Motown sound and the Miracles monopolized its romantic side, the Temptations quite simply stood as the finest vocal group in ‘60s soul,” Joe McEwen and Jim Miller wrote in the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll. “They could out-dress, outdance and out-sing any competition in sight.”

Kendricks began a solo career in 1971, but rejoined the group in 1982 for a reunion tour. He was reunited with the band again in 1989 as it was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Paul Williams killed himself in 1973, two years after he was asked to leave the group because of alcoholism and related health problems. Ruffin died last year from a drug overdose.

Kendricks underwent surgery in Atlanta last year to have a lung removed. He later said the disease was caused by 30 years of smoking and he urged children not to smoke.

“A lot of people were saying it was HIV . . . or drugs,” Kendricks said. “It was just from smoking.”

Last year, the singer was arrested for non-payment of $26,000 in child support after serving as a pallbearer at Ruffin’s funeral in Detroit.

When the singer was divorced from Patricia Kendricks in 1975, he was ordered to pay her $25,000 plus child support for their son. He paid her $5,000 in 1982 after a judge threatened to sentence him to 60 days in jail.

In August, Kendricks filed suit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against Motown Records and two other labels, contending they had, among other things, refused his requests for access to his accounts and withheld royalties.

Kendricks first signed with Motown in 1961, and was under contract to the label in 1982. At the time, a lawyer for the singer said Kendricks had attempted to negotiate with Motown, asking the company to enact the terms of his contract as he sought.