Elbridge Bryant

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.