Who recorded it first
Papa Was a Rollin' Stone
Not a Temptations original — a 1972 Undisputed Truth single on Gordy
The nine-minute Temptations record is so total a piece of work that it is almost always taken for the song’s beginning. It isn’t. Norman Whitfield gave “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” first to The Undisputed Truth, whose single came out on Gordy on 9 May 1972 and stalled at No. 63 on the pop chart. Whitfield and Barrett Strong wrote it; Whitfield produced both versions. He then re-cut it with The Temptations, released 28 September 1972 on the same label, and that one went to No. 1 and won three Grammys.
The record
Who recorded it first
Released Issued as a 7-inch single on Gordy (Motown) on 9 May 1972, backed with “Friendship Train”; produced by Norman Whitfield. It did not reach an album until the group’s Law of the Land in 1973.
Charted No. 63 on the US pop chart and No. 24 R&B — a modest showing that Whitfield evidently judged a miss.
Hear The Undisputed Truth’s 1972 original recording — not the Temptations version www.youtube.com · Auto-generated “The Undisputed Truth - Topic” channel; the description reads “Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group” with a ℗ 1972 UMG Recordings line. Runtime 3:28, matching the 3:28 listed for the track on the group’s Gordy album Law of the Land.How we know
The song’s Wikipedia article ↗ gives The Undisputed Truth’s single as 9 May 1972 on Gordy at No. 63 pop / No. 24 R&B, and The Temptations’ as 28 September 1972 on the same label at No. 1.
The Undisputed Truth ↗ were assembled by Norman Whitfield in 1970 and repeatedly recorded songs he had written with The Temptations in mind — this was not the first time the two acts shared material.
The 1973 Gordy album Law of the Land ↗ carries the group’s recording as track two, 3:28, credited to Whitfield and Strong.
Wikipedia: Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone — both 1972 versionsKnow more about the original — or think we’ve got it wrong? Add a source →
Fact-check
The fact-check
The song is nearly always filed as a Temptations original. It is a Temptations cover of a record that had already been released on their own label earlier the same year.
The Temptations originated “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” in 1972.
Their version went to No. 1 on the Hot 100, won three Grammys in 1973 and entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. It is the only version most listeners have heard.
The Undisputed Truth, single released 9 May 1972 on Gordy.
Backed with “Friendship Train”, it reached No. 63 on the pop chart and No. 24 R&B, and was later collected on the group’s 1973 Gordy album Law of the Land.
Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong.
Whitfield produced both 1972 recordings. The 1973 Grammy for Best R&B Song went to the two of them as writers, not to either group.
First recorded by The Undisputed Truth, released 9 May 1972 on Gordy. The Temptations’ version followed on 28 September 1972.
Context
Why the second version buried the first
The unusual thing here is that nobody was competing. Same song, same writer-producer, same record label, same year — Norman Whitfield simply decided the first attempt had not got there and did it again. The Undisputed Truth’s reading runs about three and a half minutes and behaves like a single. Whitfield’s re-cut with The Temptations abandoned that discipline entirely, opening with minutes of Funk Brothers vamp before a vocal arrives, and it is that patience — the sheer nerve of making a hit record wait — that people remember.
There is also the matter of who was singing. The Undisputed Truth were a Whitfield studio project with one hit behind them; The Temptations were The Temptations, with four lead voices to trade the verses between. The chart record tells the rest: No. 63 pop for the original, No. 1 for the cover, and a Grammy Hall of Fame induction in 1999 for the version that came second.
The chronology, step by step
- Written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong; Whitfield produced every version discussed here.
- 9 May 1972 — The Undisputed Truth release “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” as a single on Gordy, backed with “Friendship Train”. It reaches No. 63 pop and No. 24 R&B.
- 28 September 1972 — Whitfield’s re-recording with The Temptations is issued on Gordy, drawn from the album All Directions. It reaches No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 5 R&B.
- 1973 — The Temptations’ record wins three Grammys, including Best R&B Song for Whitfield and Strong as writers.
- 1973 — The Undisputed Truth’s recording finally appears on an album, Law of the Land (Gordy), by which point the song belongs to somebody else.
Whitfield did not lose the song to a rival. He took it back from himself.