Get Ready

Original - The Temptations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqZ-hDJHbQ0

Cover - Rare Earth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWryl...x=0&playnext=1

Here's a shorter Rare Earth version for those impatient ones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agWpGKg0u3g

I rarely say this so definitively, and especially when comparing against an Iconic version of a song like the Temptations here, but Rare Earth really made this their own. The Temptations made a great song, and Rare Earth took that inspiration and carried the song to another level.

I prefer Rare Earth.

I'll go with Rare Earth

I'll go with Rare Earth

Rare Earth for me as well.

Rare Earth as well.

The Only thing I hate worse than High pitch Falsettos is music that doesn't know when to begin or end or etc. blah blah blah. There are so far as I know only 3-4 songs I like that are over 7 minutes: Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts, Spitting Venom, and Down and Out in the bold new city of the south: All of which take all that time to tell a great story, and the latter two change and build throughout the whole song.

Easy Vote for The Temptations

Going with The Temptations here.

My partiality for the oldies is going to be showing again. The Temptations.

I guess I prefer the Rare Earth version.

Rare Earth. Gotta love that 70s funk sound.

Temptations all the way.

Well, here's an interesting matchup, to be sure --- and for a few reasons.

For one, I think the success of Rare Earth's version gave average white bands that practiced in garages and gigged at bars the real hope that they could play Motown in public without shame --- and maybe even have a hit record doing it! At least, that's the way I looked at it, back around that time, when I was singing lead for such bands.

Also...there's the fact that both versions were legit hits for the same record company, though Rare Earth's actually did better on the charts. Meanwhile, if I recall my history with some measure of accuracy, because the Tempts' original didn't crack the Top Ten, it changed the course of things (adios, Smokey).

But above all, it's the song -- more than any other -- that I associate with the Temptations' classic lineup. Having never seen them in concert (much to my regret), I don't know for sure, but I think "Get Ready" was their standard opener. And Holy Crow, these were The Temptations!

That said...

The Original -- The Temptations, most definitely!