Damon Harris obit

 

Temptations’ Damon Harris dies at 62

He was not on the list.

Damon Harris, a former member of the Motown group The Temptations, has died at age 62, his family reported.

His eldest daughter, Erica Harris Outlaw, told CNN her father had been battling prostate cancer for the last 14 years.

“He was in great pain for the last several months,” she said.

Harris died Monday, February 18, at Joseph Richey Hospice in Baltimore.

“He was the kind of dad where you wanted the best for him. We’re going to really miss him,” Outlaw said. “We miss him already.”

Harris joined the Temptations at age 20 in 1971 and replaced Eddie Kendricks, one of the group’s original lead singers, Billboard.com reported. Harris was with the group until 1975, and he was best known for singing tenor on the band’s hit, “Papa was a Rolling Stone.”

Harris also released a solo album, “Damon Harris: Silk” in the 1970s.

“I am saddened to hear about Damon,” said Dennis Edwards, who was in the band with him. “He will be missed.”

As a teenager growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, Harris was a major Temptations fan, and idolized in particular the group's falsetto, Eddie Kendricks. Patterning himself after Kendricks, Harris and his friends John Quinton Simms, Charles Timmons (also known as Kareem Ali, who went on to perform with Glenn Leonard's Temptations Revue), and Donald Knute Tighman, formed a Temptations-inspired vocal group during his high school years called The Young Tempts ("Tempts" being a nickname for the Temptations).

The Young Tempts recorded covers of two 1966 Temptations' songs, "I've Been Good to You" (a song originally recorded by The Miracles), and "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby," for The Isley Brothers' T-Neck Records in 1970. Motown Records filed an injunction against T-Neck because of the group's name; the single was withdrawn and re-issued with the group credited as The Young Vandals, and reached #46 on the R&B charts.[citation needed]

After two more T-Neck singles, " In My Opinion" and "I'm Gonna Wait For You", The Young Vandals broke up, because Harris felt that college would be a more sensible endeavor than a singing career.