David Ruffin

Honestly, David Ruffin might have the most instantly recognizable voice in all of classic soul — that rough, aching rasp that somehow also soared. His years with the Temptations from 1964 to 1968 produced some of the most iconic recordings Motown ever put out: "My Girl," "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," "I Wish It Would Rain" — each one a master class in emotional delivery. What got me was how he made vulnerability sound powerful; he'd crack and strain at just the right moment, and it hit you in the chest every time. His solo run never quite matched those Motown heights, and his personal struggles with addiction were well-documented and genuinely sad, but the man left behind a catalog that still sounds alive. A voice that raw and real doesn't come around very often.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

David Ruffin

Name (Japanese)

デヴィッド・ラフィン

Reading

でゔぃっど・らふぃん

Born

January 18, 1941 – June 1, 1991

Origin

Whynot, Mississippi, United States

Occupation

singer

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Snake

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David%20Ruffin
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%87%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A3%E3%83%83%E3%83%89%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A9%E3%83%95%E3%82%A3%E3%83%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1176417

Tags

• Mississippi
• singer

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.