Anonymous billing may be helping R&B legends the Temptations get their biggest radio hit in 25 years.
Their single "I'm Here" was released to radio stations during the week of March 13 under the name
"Motown Mystery Artist." The label encouraged stations to play the song and have listeners guess who the singers were.
"Sometimes stations have preconceived notions about what their listeners will want to hear," said Sandra Sullivan, Motown's vice president for urban promotion. "This way, if they played the song and people liked it, they couldn't come back and say that it doesn't fit their format."
She said the label thought stations might shy away from the song if they knew it was by the Temptations, whose last #1 R&B-chart hit was 1975's "Shakey Ground," which peaked at #26 on the Billboard pop chart.
New York's WBLS-FM played the song and received more than 300 e-mails in response to the contest, a spokesperson for the station said. Most listeners thought it was former New Edition singer Johnny Gill; only 40 of the emails picked the Temptations, according to a spokesperson for the radio station.
"We're still getting good interest in the record now that people know who it is," said WBLS program director Vinny Brown. He added that it was still too early to tell if the interest would continue.
Sullivan said the single continued to be added at radio stations. "I'm Here" will appear on the Temptations' upcoming album, Ear Resistible, she said, though no official release date has been set.
The Temptations were formed in 1960 and were the first male group on Motown to have a #1 hit, 1965's "My Girl." They continued to have chart success through the early 1970s, including a #2 hit with 1972's "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" (RealAudio excerpt). Four of the five founding members have died, leaving baritone Otis Williams the only surviving member of the group.
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