DETROIT — To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Temptations' 1964 hit "My Girl," Motown Museum guests crowded into the small studio where the track was first recorded Saturday afternoon and listened to a remastered version.

Not much has changed in Motown Record's Studio A. It's still packed with instruments, from a grand piano to a drum set. Music stands are scattered around, headphones hang from the back wall, and microphones dangle from the ceiling. Even the hook where original Temptations tenor David Ruffin hung his coat remains.

But on Saturday, the museum offered an exclusive "My Girl" Immersive tour where guests got to listen to a new release of the record and participate in a question-and-answer session with Paul Riser, who arranged the song's original string track, and the Motown Museum's Director of Development Paul Barker, who joined virtually.

Fans listened to each isolated section of the record, broken down in the actual room where it happened, with black and white photographs of the Temptations and the Funk Brothers, Motown's studio musicians, hung above them on the walls. Heads couldn't help but start to bob along upon hearing the first notes of "My Girl's" familiar guitar riff.

Hearing the string track brought a smile to Riser’s face, as he nodded along to the beat. Riser told one fan Saturday afternoon that it only took him three hours to put it together.

"You get inspired and you just do what you learn. ... What you're hearing is what I'd learned up to that point," said Riser, who was 21 years old when he worked on "My Girl."

The museum, founded by Motown Records founder Berry Gordy's sister Esther Gordy Edwards, opened in 1985 and is located in Hitsville U.S.A.'s original headquarters and recording studio on West Grand Boulevard.

The museum created a legacy vinyl project to commemorate the iconic love song, first recorded by the Temptations and co-written by the Miracles' Smokey Robinson and Ronnie White, and dig deeper into the history and making of "My Girl," said Digital Media Curator Drew Schultz.

It is the first time in over 50 years that Motown's Studio A produced new content that was pressed into a 7-inch, 45 rpm record in Detroit. Only 1,500 copies will be pressed.

The first side of the single contains interviews with Riser, Robinson, and the founder of The Temptations Otis Williams in which they discuss how different elements of the song came to be, including its characteristic string track.

"On the record, you hear the story of the song from the voices of those who created it, interspersed with multi-track spotlights," Schultz said. "So you'll hear Smokey Robinson talk about the guitar part, and get to hear a little bit of Robert White from the Funk Brothers playing that."

The flip side is a new version of the song remastered in 2024 from the original tapes, Schultz said.

"My Girl" was originally recorded in Studio A over the course of three sessions, Schultz said. The first was just the Funk Brothers band playing the instrumental backing and horns. The second was the Temptations recording lead and background vocals after rehearsing them with Robinson at the Apollo Theater in New York. The third was the strings, arranged by Riser and performed by members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

"Through technology, we pulled up pieces of the song that were always there, but maybe leveled down a little bit, so you'll hear a little bit more of the background vocals, you'll hear some different components," said the Motown Museum's Barker.

Ron Gillum, and his girl, Harriette, who lived in Detroit for several years before moving to Holt, celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary at the exclusive Motown experience. "My Girl" was their song, Ron, 85, said.

"It is amazing that it's history now and we were watching it while it was happening," Harriette, 83, said. "The songs, it's like I become immediately young when I hear it. It's like I'm only 25."

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