Motown's Jimmy Ruffin Has Died

Jimmy Ruffin, the first in a long series of singers to record the soul staple “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,” died Monday at his home in Las Vegas, according to The Associated Press. He was 78 years old.


“Brokenhearted” was originally written for Ruffin’s fellow Motown signees The Spinners, but he convinced the label’s in-house songwriters to give it to him instead. In 1966, he sent the song into the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, the only song of his career to chart that high. In 1970 he teamed up to record with his brother David, a member of The Temptations, and in 1980 he had the second big hit of his career with the Robin Gibbs-produced “Hold On to My Love.”