It isn’t new, and there is no way to stop it, but we need to complain a little louder about the false promotion of counterfeit musical acts for concerts and fairs. It may be legal, but it is misleading and dishonest.

I just heard a radio promotion for a concert featuring The Temptations and The Four Tops. Naturally, the ad featured the classic recording of “My Girl,” by The Temptations, and “I’ll Be There” by The Four Tops. But those singers aren’t the ones you’ll be hearing, and the renditions will not sound the same. There is only one original member left from each group, but don’t worry: when they retire of pass on to that big recording studio in the sky, new singers will replace them, and the groups will still be promoted as The Temptations and The Four Tops.

The legal explanation for this is simple: these classic groups are like football teams. The members don’t own the names of the group, which are owned by record companies and parent corporations. Legally, they could slap “The Four Tops” on a group that included Condoleezza Rice, Barry Bonds, Jimmy Walker and O.J. Simpson. Ethically, it’s outrageous. People are paying top dollar for a group that literally doesn’t exist any more.

The equivalent scam would be if Frank Sinatra sold his name to a consortium, and after his death, the organization continued to promote Frank Sinatra concerts using recordings of “Ol’ Blue Eyes” singing “The Summer Wind” and “The Lady is a Tramp,” but the singer on stage would be the new Frank, Melvin Shwerdlapp.

The device is the essential deceitful act: it is literally true that these are the “real’ Temptations and Four Tops, because the owners of the group names have complete discretion over who is in the group. But when The Replacement Temptations are advertised using the classic recordings, the audience is paying  to see THE The Temptations, when what they will be getting as A The Temptations. My first experience with this was when I went to see The Platters, and found that Tony Williams , the incredible velvet tenor who was responsible for most of the group’s biggest hits (that’s him on “Only You” and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”), was no longer with the group…in fact, it too only had one original member. Well, The Platters without Tony Williams didn’t sound like The Platters  (the rest of the Platters mainly sang “ooh” behind Tony); they were no more The Platters without Tony Williams than The Rolling Stones would be the Stones without Mick Jagger.

It may be legal, but promoters shouldn’t  sell tickets to “Peter, Paul and Mary” after the group consists of Fred, Carlton, and Agatha. It’s a bait and switch, just one that happens to be legal. It’s not going to stop, because it works. All we can do is complain about it.

I’m complaining.

And good night, Tony Williams. wherever you are…