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Undisputed Truth


The Undisputed Truth was a 1970s Motown recording act, assembled by record producer Norman Whitfield as a means for being able to experiment with his psychedelic soul production techniques. Joe "Pep" Harris served as main lead singer, with Billie Rae Calvin and Brenda Joyce Evans on additional leads and background vocals.

Billie Calvin and Brenda Evans had been part of a group called The Delicates in the 1960s. They were introduced to Motown by singer Bobby Taylor, and, when The Delicates broke up in 1970, the two began providing background vocals for artists around Motown. They sung backing on the hits "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" for Diana Ross and "Still Water (Love)" for The Four Tops. Joe Harris had been part of a Detroit soul group called The Fabulous Peps. Formed in 1962, the group were renowned for their energetic stage performances, and they cut a handful of singles for various different labels before their dissolution in 1968. Harris also became a member of The Ohio Untouchables (later The Ohio Players). In 1970, Motown producer Norman Whitfield - partly as a response to criticism from Temptations fans that he was using the group as his personal plaything - put together Joe Harris, Billie Calvin and Brenda Evans to create his own recording act, The Undisputed Truth.

The group's music and unusual costuming (large Afros and white makeup) typified the then-popular trend of "psychedelic soul" which Whitfield had inaugurated. A number of their singles became minor hits, and many of them were also songs for Whitfield's main act, The Temptations, among them 1971's "You Make Your Own Heaven and Hell Right Here on Earth" and "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone". Their single Top 40 hit in the United States was the ominous "Smiling Faces Sometimes," originally recorded by The Temptations, which hit #3 on the US Pop Charts in mid-1971.


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