Grammy-winner Dennis Edwards, who performed lead vocals for some of the chart-topping Motown singles recorded by The Temptations in the 1960s and 1970s, has died at age 74, his manager said on Friday (February 2).
Edwards died at a hospital in Chicago on Friday morning of complications from an unspecified illness, his manager Toby Ludwig said by phone.
The singer, who lived outside St. Louis, would have celebrated his 75th birthday on Saturday.
Alabama-born Edwards replaced David Ruffin as lead singer of The Temptations in 1968. He sang lead on some of the vocal group’s most memorable hits, including “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” a 1972 release that earned Edwards and the group two Grammy Awards, and “I Can’t Get Next To You,” which topped the pop charts in 1969.
