NEW ALBUM: TEMPTATIONS | TEMPTATIONS 60

This year marks the 60th anniversary of The Temptations, and they’re marking the occasion with the release of their new album, "Temptations" 60 LP. Williams, the iconic Motown group’s lone surviving original member, decided to dust off and remake the 1960 song “Come On” — the very first release by the baritone singer and his proto-Tempts group, The Distants. And so the wide-ranging album “Temptations 60” closes with a poignant shot of throwback doo-wop soul as Williams and his latest Temptations lineup mark six decades of music from one of the preeminent vocal groups in the history of popular music. For Williams, the diamond-anniversary project has been refreshing and sentimental — a chance to look back on a musical life of shared triumphs and personal tragedies, of groundbreaking artistry and career perseverance, and a story forged all those years ago in Detroit. It’s a journey, he says, that often has seemed “guided from above.” The new album that arrives after months of teasers is the cornerstone of a yearlong 60th-anniversary campaign unveiled by the Temptations in the spring. The hoopla includes a three-part video series that rolled out last month. The Tempts — Williams, Ron Tyson, Terry Weeks, Willie Greene Jr. and Mario Corbino — have resumed touring after a year-plus pandemic layoff, the most extended performance break in the group’s history.