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Subject Item

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wsb:Song

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dct:title

Cloud Nine

dct:subject

Songs written by Norman Whitfield Songs written by Barrett Strong 1968 songs Motown singles Psychedelic soul songs Song recordings produced by Norman Whitfield Gordy Records singles 1968 singles The Temptations songs

dct:abstract

%22Cloud Nine%22 is a 1968 hit single recorded by The Temptations for the Motown label. It was the first of their singles to feature Dennis Edwards instead of David Ruffin in the lineup, was the first of producer Norman Whitfield's psychedelic soul tracks, and won Motown its first Grammy Award. The song was written by Whitfield and former Motown artist Barrett Strong.In 1968, psychedelic rock band Sly & the Family Stone had a hit with their single %22Dance To The Music%22, and Temptations member Otis Williams introduced Norman Whitfield to the band's music. At first, Whitfield didn't want to produce anything with such a radically different sound. %22I don't want to get into all that crazy shit,%22 he said. %22That ain't nothing but a little passing fancy.%22 Within a few weeks, however, he had created the backing tracks for the newest Temptations single, a psychedelic-styled number called %22Cloud Nine%22, and stuck primarily to such songs well into the early 1970s.Featuring all five Temptations trading lead vocals à la The Family Stone, %22Cloud Nine%22 was a marked departure from the standard Tempts sound: wah-wah guitars and a harder, driving beat propelled the record, as opposed to pianos and strings. The song also features the Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaria on conga drums. Edwards, Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams swap leads on the verses, bridges and choruses, such as this example from the first bridge:Paul Williams: %22You can be what you wanna be...%22Dennis Edwards: %22You ain't got no responsibility...%22Eddie Kendricks: %22And every man, in his mind is free...%22Dennis Edwards: %22And you're a million miles from reality...%22Otis Williams has some brief lead lines on the last half of the song (i.e.: he repeats %22Reality…%22), and Melvin Franklin also gets a line near the end (%22There's no difference between day and night…%22). The lyrics for the song were about the struggles and pains of living poor, as opposed to being about relationship and love troubles. The broke, unemployed, and despondent main character in the song proclaims that he gets over all of his problems by %22riding high on 'cloud nine'%22. This has been interpreted by many (including Motown head Berry Gordy) as a reference to drug abuse, although Whitfield, Strong, and The Temptations deny that %22Cloud Nine%22 is about drugs.%22Cloud Nine%22 won Motown its first Grammy Award in 1969 for Best Rhythm & Blues Group Performance, Vocal or Instrumental, reached #2 in the U.S. R&B chart and #6 in the U.S. Pop chart, and led the way for the Temptations' full-blown venture into psychedelia, with increasingly eclectic and socio-political-themed records, including %22Runaway Child, Running Wild%22, %22Psychedelic Shack%22, and %22Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)%22, following within the coming two years.

schema:author

Norman Whitfield Barrett Strong

schema:datePublished

2008-01-31

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n8:Cloud_Nine

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28a38ecd-2283-4281-9e35-1135f28718c9

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n6:56d9852bcc2ddd0c0f6bd6b5

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5714dee925ac0d8aee55115d

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schema:releaseDate

1968-10-25

mo:bpm

118.0

mo:duration

216000.0

mo:isrc

USMO10111067

mo:producer

Recording Industry Association of America Norman Whitfield

mo:track_number

12

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n12:5714debf25ac0d8aee37b89b

wsb:allMusic_page

n15:mt0011951166

wsb:deezer_artist_id

2730

wsb:deezer_page

n11:14509523

wsb:deezer_song_id

907964

wsb:explicit_lyrics_count

2

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-9.2

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false

wsb:iTunes_page

n9:90669

wsb:language_detected

english

wsb:rank

296285

wsb:record_label

Motown

wsb:recording_description

1968-10-01 Golden World Records

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Cloud Nine

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0.170637

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true

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true

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