Motown singer Jimmy Ruffin of 'What Becomes of the Brokenhearted' fame dies

Motown singer Jimmy Ruffin of &#039;What Becomes of the Brokenhearted&#039; fame dies

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Jimmy Ruffin, the singer behind one of Motown's most legendary songs, died Monday in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was 78.

Ruffin's "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" catapulted him to stardom in 1966, when the track made it to the No. 7 slot on Billboard's pop chart. Prior to recording the song, he sang backup for other Motown artists, and was also drafted into the U.S. Army and stationed in Germany, the Clarion-Ledger reports.

Ruffin was the older brother of the late David Ruffin, a member of The Temptations, and together the pair released an album in 1970 called I Am My Brother's Keeper. Ruffin's last big hit was "Hold on to My Love" in 1980, produced by Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees. "All of his songs were about love, so that spoke to the kind of spirited guy he was, and spiritual too," his daughter, Philicia Ruffin, told the Clarion-Ledger. "He came up in the church, and that's where he started singing."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.