In My Mind: The Temptations' 'Silent Night' - One Song, Two Versions

DJ Sir Daniel: Greetings and welcome to another episode of Queue Points podcast.

I am DJ Sir Daniel.

And my name is Jay Ray, sometimes known by my government as Johnnie Ray

Kornegay, the third and Sir Daniel.

I think we're about to blow some minds

DJ Sir Daniel: today.

Listen, we wouldn't be Queue Points unless we dropped a little gem in your

Christmas stockings like we always do.

So check this out.

The holidays are in full effect.

And Jay Ray, we've actually uncovered this gem a while ago, a couple, and it's in one

of our, um, Tick tocks or what is that?

But yeah, in one of our tick tocks and one of our sizzle reels, but we thought

it would be very interesting to bring this back as a matter of fact, when you

get finished watching this episode, we want you to go and check out our "Carols

and Culture" episode in the archives.

If you're subscribed, you know how to find it.

If you're not subscribed, do that now.

Yes.

DJ Sir Daniel: Ray, I want you to have the honor of informing our audience of

this little known fact about a soulful Christmas classic by The Temptations.

Oh, Sir Daniel.

In Black households,

DJ Sir Daniel: hmm.

Yes.

are certain songs that represent the holiday season, and And as Black

folks, we will name a song, something that is not named and we refer, and many people

will refer to this song as in my mind,

DJ Sir Daniel: The In My Mind song.

Yep.

my mind song, that is not the title of the song.

The song is actually "Silent Night".

It is the temptations version of "Silent Night" and in Black

households during the holidays.

And on radio, you will hear this song ad nauseum, it is beautiful.

It's the temptations.

It represents the holiday and it represents Black culture.

Sir Daniel, there are two versions of "Silent Night" by the temptations

that were recorded in two completely different eras of the temptations career.

And the one that we know the most.

Is the second version.

DJ Sir Daniel: Ain't that something?

Now tell us, when was the first one recorded?

I am so glad you asked this Sir Daniel.

So here's how we stumbled onto this fact y'all.

So Sir Daniel just mentioned, go listen to the carols and culture episode.

did this episode called carols and culture because we wanted to talk about the

impact of Black Christmas music, right?

And so we use this article, the best Black Christmas albums of

all time ranked, it included.

"The Temptations Christmas Card", which for us was just like, Oh,

"The Temptations Christmas Card".

It has "Silent Night" on it.

That album ranked number two.

on that chart.

We thought nothing of it.

One day we decided to play "The Temptations Christmas Card" and that

is the moment that we figured out,

DJ Sir Daniel: Wait a minute.

This ain't it.

This ain't it.

DJ Sir Daniel: What is this?

Okay.

Temptations had many lineups, so this is the third version.

Um, Dennis Edwards, Melvin Franklin, Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, and

Otis Williams was in this version of The Temptations at the time.

This song,

uh, was actually done or sang live by Eddie Kendricks.

So Eddie Kendricks sings the 1970 version of "Silent Night" from

"The Temptations Christmas Card".

This song was, um, produced by Barrett Strong And Clay McMurray and what

the, what the, uh, Temptations were doing at the time is they were kind

of infusing like a little seventies funk into some Christmas stuff

and really became like their first kind of foray into holiday music.

This is not the version of the song that most people know.

of the song that most people know was recorded in 1980.

So this is the version of the Temptations.

This version of the Temptations.

still Dennis Edwards, but it was Dennis Edwards, Melvin Franklin, Richard

Street, Glenn Leonard, and Otis Williams.

Otis is in every version of The Temptations.

Um, so, but 1980 was, this was "Give Love At Christmas", and, uh, this album was

produced by Gil Askey, uh, Gil Askey, and it was like a smooth jazz R& B, version

of, uh, the Christmas album by the temps.

they had this version of the little drummer boy on there, which is actually

the version of the little drummer boy that most people know as well.

It's kind of like a funky groove and also includes the timeless

temptations version, which we lovingly refer to as "Silent Night".

In my mind.

DJ Sir Daniel: In my mind.

No.

You know, I've been to several Christmas parties in the past where,

you know, after a site of, I think it was, it was, it was a cowboy.

If I believe it was DJ cowboy with love after we've, you know, getting

people up into a sweat would drop, um, "Silent Night" just to break it up in

the middle of the set and it turned into this huge, huge sing along and

you know, that moment of in my mind.

It was like, I don't care where you go, where you put Black people.

There's going to be a moment when we get to, we could become

a unified choir and we are all going to sing in unison in my mind.

And it's one of the most glorious things that you can ever witness.

And if you're a DJ out there listening to this, try it, drop it, drop it

in the set and see what happens.

If you clear out the floor.

Don't blame me, but go ahead and let us know what happens.

Um, and also what I find very interesting about this, um, this version and what

the temptations were very skillful at doing was marrying a falsetto

hmm.

Oh yeah,

DJ Sir Daniel: And,

Silence.

DJ Sir Daniel: male groups to come along and give us an offering.

Of a Christmas classic.

And yeah, yeah.

Cause I don't think has Jodeci ever done any Christmas classics?

Not that I can think of.

Not that I can think of.

Definitely let us know, folks.

And Sir Daniel, I'm wondering your thoughts, because you mentioned

something that I think is really important that is missing today.

And we also included this.

So if you follow, um, Queue PointsMag, talk about this.

I think theory, DJ Sir Daniel normally has the theories, but I have a Jay Ray

DJ Sir Daniel: It's Jay Ray's time.

Yes.

I think that one of the reasons this song endures is because

of the distinction of the Black male voice is very clear on this song,

DJ Sir Daniel: Yes.

So,

DJ Sir Daniel: The range.

Yes.

Mm hmm.

Hmm.

which is a gravelly, you've got an Otis Williams in the, in the,

in the bottom, you know what I mean?

so there's this very clear range of voices, but it's all anchored

by this distinctly deep male voice that we do not hear music and

pop culture pretty much anymore.

Right?

so I'm also thinking that the reason why this song indoors, um,

so much is it also represents, um, that connection to that sound.

Of voices which we just don't get because one we don't even have a

lot of vocal groups anymore The temptations were a proper vocal group

DJ Sir Daniel: days.

Not in groups.

And just to, so Jodeci does not have a Christmas album.

However, like Casey and Jojo have a few like Christmas or holiday

offerings on their solo projects.

And I'm pretty certain maybe a gospel project here or there, but as

far as the male groups of concern.

Yeah, we don't have that anymore.

I think, and we've discussed this.

We have a couple of episodes where we celebrate Black male voices.

Um, I think it was a series.

We talked about, uh, Teddy Pentagrass, um, Barry White, Isaac Hayes.

Make sure you go back and check out those episodes because we celebrate those

Black voices that we don't get anymore.

Uh, we talked about Maxwell who, uh, And himself can, has been able to do both.

Yeah.

DJ Sir Daniel: will give you a falsetto and then he'll go down in the

basement and give you something else.

So there's a range and maybe it's a reflection of, Oh God, I don't want

to sound, start sounding like one of those podcasts about, well, you know,

Black men nowadays, or, you know, I think it might be a reflection of what

people are attempting to be, what people feel like, um, Their performances of

masculinity need to be these days.

Um, and it also reflects the lack of groups, maybe reflect the fact that

people don't, there's not a lot of unison anymore, or the idea of doing

things together as a team might be part, you know, just, just theories.

You know, we good for a good conspiracy theory here on Queue Points, but it

might just be a reflection of the time.

And that's why we're not seeing a whole lot.

Of male groups like that anymore, you know, one year, of course, a voice to

men, his sons have formed a super group.

So we'll see what happens with them.

They've been working on music for a while now, and they sound amazing.

They definitely earned it from their dad.

And so, um, I don't know, we'll see.

Maybe it will change within the next couple of years.

So Daniel, I think you said that's really important and the holidays,

I think the reasons why songs like this endure is they also remind us of

the importance of coming together in

DJ Sir Daniel: Mm hmm.

and groups like The Temptations, to your point,

people working together, right?

are people who do lead things in groups, right?

But the groups themselves on each other.

Um, SWV is an amazing group because those three women rely on each other.

Say what you want to say.

Miss Coco is the bomb.

Like Sir Daniel had a theory that, yo, Coco, we talk about who are the voices of

the nineties and you know, we name all of these people, but it might be Coco, right?

DJ Sir Daniel: Listen, you know, I said it that y'all can come after me.

I know we, we've deemed people, the, you know, the, the voice of the,

of the nineties and whatnot, but I really do believe that Coco is the

voice of the nineties, but let's, we'll save that for another episode.

Absolutely.

And, uh, but I think what that, what the, what we have to remember

is, and the reason why I bring that group up is because they still,

Coco still needs Lili and Taj.

DJ Sir Daniel: Totally.

a role in that group,

DJ Sir Daniel: They absolutely do.

There's this, this is an aside, but I think it's really important.

There was this, uh, there's this TikTok when they were doing week

on the Arsenio Hall show, acapella.

Taj, Coco was singing, Coco was singing down.

Um, Taj and Lili come in with that weak Arsenio falls out because all

of a sudden voices now come together you are like, Oh, I completely get

DJ Sir Daniel: Now we get why they're sisters with voices.

The temptations.

that.

DJ Sir Daniel: Yes.

And I think when we hear "Silent Night", particularly

in my mind version, the

DJ Sir Daniel: Yeah.

Agreed.

Okay.

and that's a, that's a beautiful thing.

It's in our D it's in our DNA.

that's why I think, um, that song indoors one, it's just a beautiful

rendition of "Silent Night", period.

Both versions, by the way, are really, really good.

So you should definitely go back and listen to the Christmas card version,

uh, with leads by Eddie Kendricks.

Um, check it out just so you know, but both versions of

these are unique and distinct.

And I thought that was interesting too, where you have one group, but

two versions of the same song that are miles apart from each other.

The only thing connecting them is the group themselves.

Yes.

DJ Sir Daniel: don't understand the vocal arrangements.

And we're done.

We've been diving into that a lot lately here on Queue Points, um, on that aspect,

because that's a very important aspect of creating music, creating songs so that

you can have different versions of Of the same song that will live forever and grow

the legs of a caterpillar and continue to, to crawl through our generations.

But yes, the idea though, of coming together and working is what

we're about here on Queue Points.

Um, I couldn't do the show without Jay Ray.

I think I like to think that he can do it without me, you know, right?

I could not, there is no Queue Points without,

I couldn't do it without you.

And thank you for you not being able to do it without me.

I think that's important.

That's what this also I think represents is the coming together

during this holiday season.

DJ Sir Daniel: Absolutely.

Well, we come together to create Queue Points, uh, content for

you and we enjoy doing it and we want you to find out about it.

So there's things that you need to do in order to be kept in the know.

Jay Ray, tell him right now, take your part and tell him slowly.

And while you do that, I'll.

I'm narrate behind.

No, I'm going to do the, you're going to, you're going to say your

spiel and I'm going to narrate it in, um, in the base voice after, yeah,

Well, well, thank you.

Um,

DJ Sir Daniel: go ahead.

tickled me.

So I don't know what he's going to do y'all, but, uh, thank

you all so much for joining us.

DJ Sir Daniel: We want to thank you.

if you can hear our voices, if you can see our place, our

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Um, also last but not least, you

DJ Sir Daniel: not least y'all

you can shop our store at store.

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DJ Sir Daniel: get you some merch,

though.

You're right.

We thank you so much.

DJ Sir Daniel: You know, I don't have no sense and y'all already

know it, but what I do know is that in this life, you have a choice.

You can either pick up the needle or you can let the record play.

I'm DJ Sir Daniel,

My name is Jay Ray, y'all.

DJ Sir Daniel: and this is Queue Points podcast, dropping the

needle on Black music history.

We will see you on the next go round.

Peace.

Peace.