The Corner

Music

‘It Was the Third of September . . . ’

The Temptations in 1971. (Wikimedia Commons)

That day I’ll always remember . . . as the day mentioned in the Temptations’ cover of “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” released 50 years ago this month. The Motown group turned the original version, released the same year by studio stablemate the Undisputed Truth, into a nearly twelve-minute funk/soul opus. Listen below:

And here’s a live performance from 1973:

Jack Butler is submissions editor at National Review Online, media fellow for the Institute for Human Ecology, and a 2022–2023 Robert Novak Journalism Fellow at the Fund for American Studies.  
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