Review: “Give Love At Christmas” by The Temptations (Vinyl, 1980)

Today’s Christmas Pop Rescue from an uncertain fate, is the 1980 album Give Love At Christmas by The Temptations. Will this be a tempting offer, or should you keep the receipt? Read on…

The Temptations - Give Love At Christmas (1980) album — The Temptations – Give Love At Christmas (1980) album.

This 8 track LP opens with the tubular bells of the intro of titular track Give Love At Christmas – a cover of The Jackson 5’s track. We’re soon in on the vocals with Glenn Leonard, which are at a high register, but they are light and seemingly fit the track well. The rest of The Temptations (Richard Street, Otis Williams, Dennis Edwards, and Melvin Franklin) flank him. Whilst the track is a total plodder, the vocal harmonies towards the end work quite nicely.

Then it’s The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire), opening with a gentle lullaby sound, which slowly leads us to the guitars and snares of this classic track. Here, we have a much better vocal lead, offering up a more soulful and fuller sound. Once again, the harmonies from the rest of the group works well, giving just enough warmth to stand in as the aforementioned open fire.

That leads on to Love Comes With Christmas, and this track is led by Richard Street. The track feels somewhat weak, with the vocals a little lost in the mix at times. I think that this is one of the original tracks to feature on the album, and unfortunately it doesn’t really feel Christmassy enough.

Side One closes with, as is probably predictable for Little Drummer Boy, a snare drum, but what you’re not expecting is just how disco this track sounds with a funky bass, rumbling timpani, guitars and piano. That aside, the vocal harmonies are luscious here, although they do keep the funk going. Towards the end, it almost becomes Jive Talkin’ by Bee Gees.

Side Two opens with a cover of the Donny Hathaway hit This Christmas, which opens very softly, and this works as quite a nice contrast to the bursting pace of Donny’s original. A meandering lead guitar throws notes around as Dennis Edwards’ vocals make light work of this song, leaning a little bit towards Luther Vandross. Suddenly, the track comes alive, and results in quite a funky sound, with tons of bass and some nice orchestral blasts – complete with timpani, sleigh bells, and swooping strings. It lacks the Hathaway energy but makes up for it with the brilliant vocal harmonies though, resulting in a nice funky version.

Everything For Christmas is next, and this is another original track with Richard Street back on the mic. Here we find the slow song’s lyrics reminiscing of food and sights of Christmas. It’s a very slow song, but this allows Richard to show off some of his soft and warm vocals as the rest of the group flood the background with layers of vocals.

That’s followed by Christmas Everyday, and here we have an entire track sung by the incredible tones of Melvin Franklin. Unfortunately to me, his bass vocals make this track sound a bit comedy, and a little hard to hear when pitched against the bass, drums, and saxophone. He’s lifted slightly by the harmonies from the rest of the group, but sadly it’s not going to save this track.

The album closes with – what else – but Silent Night. Marvin is back to tell us about ‘the night before Christmas’ before we lead into an ensemble track with Dennis and Glenn joining Marvin on main vocals. Strings help to weave the track towards the actual Silent Night track. Glenn’s higher vocals take the first verse, set against bass and piano. This works well, and “Merry Christmas from The Temptations” given to us in Marvin’s velvet tones, leaves us with nice warm feelings at this modern interpretation of this song.

The Temptations’ cover of The Jackson’s ‘Give Love At Christmas’ (1980).

Verdict

Over all, this album is a real mixed bag of Christmas gifts and mediocre presents.

There is no doubt that The Temptations as a vocal group are phenomenal, and their vocal harmonies are perfect, but here in this mixture of old and new, their usage doesn’t quite work. The original tracks – written or co-written by Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson – should be modern classics just by reputation, but instead they feel cheap, bored, or lyrically phoned-in.

There are glistening moments though with This Christmas and Silent Night working well with the music and vocal choices, and the funkiness of Little Drummer Boy should not go unnoticed. However, Love Comes With Christmas and Christmas Everyday are both turkeys – two pieces of stuffing in this Christmas dinner.