About
Otis Williams (born Otis Miles Jr.; October 30, 1941) is an American second tenor/baritone singer. He is occasionally also a songwriter and a record producer. Williams is the founder and last surviving original member of the Motown vocal group the Temptations, a group in which he continues to perform; he also owns the rights to the Temptations name.
Williams was born Otis Miles Jr. in Texarkana, Texas, to Otis Miles and Hazel Louise Williams. The couple separated shortly after their son’s birth. While he was still a toddler, his mother married and moved to Detroit, Michigan, leaving the young Otis to be raised by both of his grandmothers in Texarkana.
Hazel Williams moved her son to Detroit when he was ten years old, where he lived with her and his stepfather.
Becoming interested in music as a teenager, Otis Miles Jr. adopted his mother’s maiden name for his stage name, and as Otis Williams put together a number of singing groups. These groups included Otis Williams and the Siberians, the El Domingoes, and the Distants. In 1959, the Distants scored a local hit, co-written by Williams and their producer Johnnie Mae Matthews, & manager…
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