Project 1001: Cloud Nine by The Temptations

The Motown icons' classic is a timeless masterpiece.

Jun 06, 2025

The Temptations are one of the pillars of Motown and one of my favorite groups from the that classic Motown era. They put out so many great songs and this album is absolutely stunning. Every track is outstanding. I could listen to this record all day. It never gets old.

This album is notable because Dennis Edwards replaced David Ruffin as the lead vocalist. For me, Edwards didn’t miss a beat. The group is as polished and well-matched as ever with their smooth harmonies.

Previously the Temptations produced high-level soulful pop/dance songs. With this album their primary songwriters, Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield moved the group into more social commentary. I’m not sure an artist could avoid social commentary 1969.

My rating:

The BBC reviewed Cloud Nine in 2008 and noted a change in style dipping into psychedelia.

It wasn't all wigged-out stuff, though. On the original release's side two the band did return to more familiar, three-minute fare such as I Need You Lovin'. Thus, Cloud Nine was a halfway house in the Temptations' metamorphosis into true psychedelic pioneers. The final transformation was to follow on the next two albums…where Whitfield's productions continued to stretch them in all kinds of new directions. But from Cloud Nine onwards, Motown were back at the forefront of American popular music.1

AllMusic’s Amy Hanson credited producer (and songwriter) Norman Whitfield with shaking things up for the band while producing “an album that would become one of the defining early funk sets, with songs that not only took Motown in a new direction, but helped to shape a genre as well.

“(T)he brash experimentation away from traditional Motown on the three seminal tracks which open the disc shattered the doorway between past and present as surely as the decade itself imploded and smooth soul gave way to blistering funk.”2

In 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Lois Wilson wrote:

The album left Berry Gordy scratching his head, but the likes of Funkadelic, Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes, And Barry White all took serious note.3

Enjoy and listen without prejudice.
“And just remember, different people have peculiar tastes”
~ Lou Reed

Cheers!

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Charts

• Peak on Billboard 200 album chart: #4 4
• Singles on Billboard Hot 100 chart: “Runaway Child, Running Wild”, #6 5
• RIAA certification: Gold | October 12, 1999 6

Released on February 17, 1969. Here’s what else was happening:

Pop Culture

• Number one song: “Everyday People” by Sly & the Family Stone7
• Number one album: The Beatles (The White Album) by The Beatles8
• Number one movie: Funny Girl by William Wyler9
• Most watched TV programs: Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, Gomer Pyle, USMC, Bonanza10
• NYT bestseller, fiction: The Salzburg Connection by Helen MacInnes11
• NYT bestseller, non-fiction: The Money Game by "Adam Smith" (George Goodman)12

Some other albums released that month

• Perspective by Rick Nelson

• Goodbye by Cream

• The Gilded Palace of Sin by The Flying Burrito Brothers

• 20/20 by The Beach Boys

• Sound of Sexy Soul by The Delfonics

• Instant Replay by The Monkees

• Stonedhenge by Ten Years After

• Odessa by Bee Gees

• Near the Beginning by Vanilla Fudge13

Sport

• Feb 7 Diane Crump (20) becomes 1st woman jockey to ride against men at a major US racetrack, aboard Bridle ’n Bit in a race at Hialeah Park, in Hialeah, Florida
• Feb 16 Detroit Red Wings' captain Alex Delvecchio picks up an assist in a 6-2 defeat at Minnesota to become the 3rd player in NHL history to score 1,000 career points.
• Feb 22 Barbara Jo Rubin becomes 1st female jockey to win at an American parimutuel race at a major US track aboard Cohesian at Charles Town, West Virginia.14

Notable Births

• Feb 17 Tuesday Knight, American actress, born in Bentwood, California.
• Feb 19 Burton C. Bell, American heavy metal vocalist (Fear Factory), born in Houston, Texas.
• Feb 20 Jason Blum, American producer, founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions (Whiplash, The Reader, Split), born in Los Angeles, California.15

Historical Events

• 16 Feb Boeing 747 Inaugural Flight: The Boeing 747 'jumbo jet' completes its first historic flight, taking off from the Boeing airfield in Everett, Washington, revolutionizing commercial aviation.
• 17 Feb Apollo 9 Mission Launch: NASA launches Apollo 9 with astronauts James McDivitt, David Scott, and Rusty Schweickart to test the lunar module, a critical step in the Apollo program's mission to land humans on the moon.
• 24 Feb Tinker v. Des Moines: Student Free Speech Landmark Case: The United States Supreme Court issued a landmark decision affirming that students do not lose their constitutional rights to free speech when they enter school. The ruling established that students have the right to express opinions, even when those opinions might conflict with official government or school perspectives, marking a significant moment in civil liberties and educational rights.16

Notable Deaths

• Feb 2 Boris Karloff, English actor (The Mummy, Frankenstein), dies of pneumonia at 81.
• Feb 14 Vito Genovese, Italian-American crime syndicate boss, dies at 71.
• Feb 15 Charles "Pee Wee" Russell, American jazz clarinet and saxophone player, dies at 62.
• Feb 17 Paul Barbarin, American jazz drummer (King Oliver; Red Allen Sextet), and band leader (Onward Brass Band), dies while playing his snare drum, marching in a Mardi Gras parade at 69.17