"Walk Away From Love" - David Ruffin

[ClassicCase]

As some of us know this is NOT his first solo effort. I dug this song up among my collective pile of mini-discs and it's one of David Ruffin's best since he'd occasionally left the Temptations. This song was written and produced by the late Van McCoy who brought us The Hustle and I know this goes WAY back (some of you were yet in existance when it came out but it's new to you ;)).

Chart history: #9/Billboard-Pop
top 5/R&B

His earlier solo work included My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me) in 1969 and in '85 collaborated with Eddie Kendricks along with Daryl Hall & John Oates with A Nite At The Apollo Live, a melody of Motown favorites with The Way You Do The Things You Do and My Girl.

[mst3k]

I've only heard this song a couple of times (listening to copies of AT40 from 1980)... it's okay, doesn't stick in my head though.

[reception]

Here's a full clip.

[Live Your Life]

Good song. His voice is electrifying.

[DJDaveMick69]

GREAT slow disco song.

[Soulsista]

I like this.

[Deleted]

I love it!

[Soulsista]

Topped the R&B chart.

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

I was just listening to this song last night!

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

#66 in Rolling Stone's 200 Best Singers Of All Time.


www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-singers-all-time-1234642307/david-ruffin-2-1234643097/

Take it from Bruce Springsteen: “‘I Wish It Would Rain,’ you’ve gotta be nuts to try and sing that song after David Ruffin sang it,” he told Rolling Stone’s Andy Greene this year with a laugh after he made the, yes, moderately hubristic decision to cover that 1967 Temptations classic. Bruce is just one of many great singers in awe of Ruffin’s distinctive sandpaper tone, a vocal texture that countless soul and rock musicians have envied in the peak Motown years and afterward. On hits like “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” “Beauty Is Only Skin Deep,” and “My Girl,” Ruffin was the earthbound anchor for the Temptations’ heavenly harmonies, the guy whose flawed humanity enriched their greatest love songs. “I know you wanna leave me,” he sang, with a singular rasp that guaranteed we never would. —S.V.L.