Elbridge Bryant
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Elbridge "Al" Bryant (top left corner) with the Temptations, circa 1962. |
Elbridge (or
Albridge)
"Al" Bryant (
September 28 1939 -
October 26 1975) was an
African American/
Native American tenor singer, one of the founding members of
Motown singing group
The Temptations.
Bryant was born in
Thomasville, Georgia and later moved to
Detroit, Michigan, where he met best friend
Otis Williams. Williams and Bryant were in a number of groups together, including Otis Williams & the Siberians, the El Domingoes, and The Distants before forming The Elgins in
1961 with fellow Distant
Melvin Franklin and Primes
Eddie Kendricks and
Paul Williams. The Elgins would re-christen themselves as
The Temptations before signing with Miracle Records, a subsidiary of
Motown.
During the Temptations' first two years with Motown, they only scored one charting single, "Dream Come True", which hit #22 on the R&B charts. Their lack of success caused Bryant to become restless: he had a regular day job as a
milkman, which he preferred to constantly performing and recording with the group.
By
1963, a restless Bryant had become sometimes volatile and unpredictable to deal with. An altercation between him and Paul Williams resulted in Bryant smashing a
beer bottle across Williams' face. After a second altercation onstage during Motown's 1963 company
New Year's party, Bryant was fired from the group. By the New Year, the Temptations had recruited
David Ruffin as their new fifth member, and that January the group recorded what would be their first Top 20 pop hit, "
The Way You Do the Things You Do".
After being fired from the Temptations, Bryant turned up in a number of other Detroit singing groups, including The Premiers, which reunited him with former Distants bandmate Pee Wee Crawford. Al Bryant died of
cirrhosis of the
liver in
Flagler County, Florida on
October 26 1975 at the age of 36. He was married to Bobby Jean Bryant; she and their two daughters still live in the Detroit area.
