The Supremes

The Supremes
The Supremes, Florence Ballard , Mary Wilson and Diana Ross , (1965), (from left to right)
General information
Genre (s)	Pop , soul , R&B
founding	1959
resolution	1977
Founding members
singing	Florence Ballard (until 1967)
singing	Mary Wilson
singing	Diana Ross (until 1970)
singing	Betty McGlown-Travis (until 1960)
former members
singing	Barbara Martin (1960, † 2020)
singing	Cindy Birdsong (1967–1972, 1973–1976)
singing	Jean Terrell (1970–1973)
singing	Lynda Laurence (1972-1973)
singing	Scherrie Payne (from 1973)
singing	Susaye Greene (from 1976)

The Supremes , sometimes even Diana Ross & The Supremes , one was American Soul - Pop - girl group of the 1960s and 1970s. Between 1964 and 1969 the trio had a total of twelve number one hits in the USA. Only the Beatles had more hits in the 1960s. The Supremes are among the most successful and style-defining artists of the legendary Motown record company and, above all, made the lead singer Diana Ross world famous. The group's dazzling success story served as a template for the musical Dreamgirls , which was later also very successful as a movie . In 1988 the Supremes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame .

history

founding

In 1959, the two young girls Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson (born March 6, 1944) won a talent competition in Detroit with the song There Goes My Baby by the Drifters . The two became friends, and Florence invited Mary to join a vocal group using her classical voice. A little later, Mary Wilson brought in her classmate Diana Ross , who was still called Diane at the time. The three girls were living in the Brewster-Douglass Housing Project , a housing estate specially designed for poor people with a predominantly African-American neighborhood. In the same year, the male vocal group The Primes was formed , which was later renamed The Temptations . To build a sister group to this group, The Primettes were founded in the spring of 1959 . Initially, this group consisted of Ballard, Wilson and Ross, Betty McGlown , friend of Primes member Paul Williams .

With the small record company Lu-Pine Records , the Primettes released the singles Tears Of Sorrow and Pretty Baby in 1959 , but without much success. In 1960 McGlown married and left the Primettes , she was replaced by Barbara Martin . When there was initially no breakthrough for the group, Martin and Ballard focused on graduation while Ross and Wilson continued as a duo. The four got together again in the same year and recorded a few tracks for a small record company.

In late 1960, the quartet was offered a contract with Berry Gordy at the young record label Motown Records in Detroit. While Martin left the group in December 1960 due to their pregnancy, the remaining trio accepted the contract on January 15, 1961. As Gordy wanted to change the name of the group Ballard hit from a predefined list of names Gordy The Supremes (dt .: The Supreme ago). The other two didn't like the name because it seemed too pompous to them, but Gordy finally picked it.

Career

Florence Ballard , Mary Wilson and Diana Ross , (1966), (from left to right)

The first single from the Supremes was called I Want A Guy , which, like the second record, Buttered Popcorn, was a flop. The first hit, Your Heart Belongs To Me , hit record stores in the summer of 1962. In the next two years the Supremes were represented with a few titles in the charts. In 1963 they reached the first time the top 40 of Billboard - Charts with that of the writing and producing trio Holland-Dozier-Holland designed Song When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes .

The Supremes made their breakthrough in June 1964 with the song Where Did Our Love Go , with which they first hit number one in the US charts and thus conquered the “white music market”. The follow-up singles Baby Love in October 1964, Come See About Me in January 1965, Stop! In The Name Of Love in February 1965 and Back In My Arms Again in May 1965 were able to build on the success. The tracks I Hear a Symphony in November 1965, You Can't Hurry Love in August 1966 and You Keep Me Hangin 'On in October 1966 were other top performers, as were Love Is Here And Now You're Gone in January 1967 and The Happening in April 1967. In addition to numerous television appearances, they completed many live appearances and went on tours that took them around the world.

While Florence Ballard was still the lead singer when the first recordings were made, Diana Ross emerged as the star of the group more and more in the mid-1960s. To replace the offended Ballard, Berry Gordy got in touch in April 1967 with Cindy Birdsong from Patti Labelle & The Bluebelles . Birdsong's first meeting with the Supremes took place on April 29, 1967 at the Hollywood Bowl .

The trio, from then on called Diana Ross & The Supremes , had existed in this formation for around three years and two other frontrunners in the USA: Love Child (1968) and Someday We'll Be Together (1969), the last number one in the Decade.

To pursue a solo career, Diana Ross left the group in early 1970, with whom she made her last joint appearance on January 14, 1970 at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas . Ross was subsequently replaced by Jean Terrell , sister of boxer Ernie Terrell , and the group called themselves The Supremes again . She didn't land another number one hit with the new line-up, but by 1972 she placed seven titles in the top 40 of the US Billboard charts, five of them in the top 20. She reached the British top five times in these two years Ten, with Up The Ladder To The Roof and Nathan Jones , among others . She had her last gold-plated million seller in the USA in 1970 with Stoned Love .

In 1971, Florence Ballard sued Motown Records for $ 8.7 million for having Berry Gordy and Diana Ross forced them out of the group in 1967, but lost the case.

Numerous personnel changes were made in the following years. In 1972 Cindy Birdsong left the group and was replaced by Lynda Laurence . A year later, Laurence also left, so Mary Wilson continued with the returning Cindy Birdsong and Freda Payne's sister , Scherrie Payne . 1976 Birdsong left the trio again; Susaye Green came for her .

Florence Ballard died on February 22, 1976 of complications from a thrombosis . In December 1976, the last remaining founding member, Mary Wilson, announced that she would be leaving the group. The Motown record company saw only small sales opportunities and dissolved the trio completely in 1977. The Supremes had their farewell appearance on June 12, 1977, accompanied by singer and songwriter Billy Ocean , at the Theater Royal Drury Lane in London .

Reunion and Later Events

In 1978, Mary Wilson toured England with Karen Jackson and Karen Raglan as The Supremes , but Motown made sure that they were no longer allowed to use the name.

On May 16, 1983: once Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong came to the 25th anniversary of Motown Records as The Supremes together in the NBC telecast Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever along with other Motown stars, among others The Temptations and Michael Jackson to appear with the song Someday We'll Be Together . During the performance, however, there was considerable tension: Ross moved more and more to the front edge of the stage, while Wilson and Birdsong were to stay in the rear area. Nevertheless, both of them came to the edge of the stage, which visibly annoyed Ross, so that she gave Wilson a push. A short time later, Wilson took over the lead part that Ross had already started; at the same moment Smokey Robinson came on stage, other Motown stars followed. Although Ross was intended to call Berry Gordy on stage, Wilson wanted to do it. Ross grabbed the microphone from her hand and shouted at her with the words "It's been taken care of", only to ask Berry Gordy to come on stage shortly afterwards. At that time, all the artists who participated in the show were already on stage. While the audience heard the argument on site, it was cut out for television broadcast.

The Supremes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 after their long successful career .

Mary Wilson was involved in a serious traffic accident on January 29, 1994, in which her 14-year-old son was killed.

In 2000 Diana Ross, Scherrie Payne and Lynda Laurence went on their Return To Love Tour as Diana Ross & The Supremes after Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong - who were originally intended for the reunification - had rejected the project. Payne and Laurence have been members of The Former Ladies Of The Supremes group since 1986 and tour the world with the group's songs. They also made some appearances on German television.

On May 19, 2018, The Supremes performed with Scherrie Payne, Susaye Greene and Joyce Vincent at the Jazz Rally in Düsseldorf .

The Rolling Stone listed Diana Ross & the Supremes as 96th of the 100 greatest musicians of all time .

Literature, theater and film

In two books ( Dreamgirl - My Life as a Supreme and Supreme Faith ), Mary Wilson describes the rise and fall of the group.

In 1981, based on a book by Tom Eyen , the successful Broadway musical Dreamgirls was developed, which took on the rise and fall of the group. The musical, starring Jennifer Holliday , Sheryl Lee Ralph , Loretta Devine , Ben Harney , Cleavant Derricks and Obba Babatundé , premiered on New York's Broadway in late 1981 and garnered critical and public approval. Dreamgirls had over 1,500 performances from December 20, 1981 to August 11, 1985, and in 1982 won the Tony Award , the most important US theater award, six times . Broadway revivals of the musical followed in 1987 and 2001 .

In 2006, the American Bill Condon filmed the material for the big screen with Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson , Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx and Beyoncé Knowles . The film Dreamgirls , produced by the film studios DreamWorks SKG and Paramount Pictures , opened in US cinemas on December 21, 2006 and quickly became a box-office hit. The theatrical release in Germany took place on February 1, 2007.

Discography

→ Main article : The Supremes / Discography

Studio albums

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		DE	UK	US	R&B
1964	Meet the Supremes Motown 606	-	UK13 (6 weeks) UK	-	-	First published: December 9, 1962 Producers: Berry Gordy , William Robinson
	Where Did Our Love Go Motown 621	DE33 (8 weeks) DE	-	US2 (89 weeks) US	R&B1 (10 weeks) R&B	First published: August 31, 1964 Producers: Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier
	A Bit of Liverpool Motown 623	-	-	US21 (21 weeks) US	R&B5 (5 weeks) R&B	First published: October 16, 1964 Producers: Berry Gordy, Hal Davis, Marc Gordon
1965	Sing Country Western & Pop Motown 625	-	-	US79 (8 weeks) US	-	First published: February 22, 1965 Producers: Clarence Paul, Lawrence Horn
	We Remember Sam Cooke Motown 629	-	-	US75 (19 weeks) US	R&B5 (6 weeks) R&B	First published: April 12, 1965 Producers: Hal Davis, Marc Gordon, Harvey Fuqua
	More Hits by the Supremes Motown 627	-	-	US6 (37 weeks) US	R&B2 (19 weeks) R&B	First published: July 23, 1965 Producer: Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier
1966	I Hear a Symphony Motown 643	-	-	US8 (55 weeks) US	R&B1 (19 weeks) R&B	First published: February 18, 1966 Producers: Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier
	The Supremes A 'Go-Go Motown 649	-	UK15 (21 weeks) UK	US1 (60 weeks) US	R&B1 (35 weeks) R&B	First published: August 25, 1966 Producers: Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier
1967	Sing Holland – Dozier – Holland (US) / Sing Motown (UK) Motown 650	-	UK15 (16 weeks) UK	US6 (29 weeks) US	R&B1 (24 weeks) R&B	First published: January 23, 1967 Producers: Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier
	Sing Rodgers & Hart Motown 659	-	UK25 (7 weeks) UK	US20 (19 weeks) US	R&B3 (18 weeks) R&B	First published: May 22, 1967 Producers: Berry Gordy, Gil Askey
1968	Reflections Motown 665	-	UK30 (2 weeks) UK	US18th gold (29 weeks)US	R&B3 (28 weeks) R&B	First published: March 25, 1968 Diana Ross and the Supremes Producers: Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier
	Sing and Perform "Funny Girl" Motown 672	-	-	US150 (12 weeks) US	R&B45 (6 weeks) R&B	First published: August 26, 1968 Diana Ross and the Supremes Producers: Berry Gordy, Gil Askey
	Join the Temptations Motown 679	-	UK1 (15 weeks) UK	US2 (32 weeks) US	R&B1 (32 weeks) R&B	First published: November 8, 1968 Diana Ross and the Supremes with The Temptations Producer: Frank Wilson
	Love Child Motown 670	-	UK13 (3 weeks) UK	US14 (21 weeks) US	R&B3 (24 weeks) R&B	First published: November 13, 1968 Diana Ross and the Supremes
	TCB Motown 682	-	UK11 (12 weeks) UK	US1 gold (34 weeks)US	R&B1 (28 weeks) R&B	First published: December 2, 1968 Diana Ross and the Supremes with The Temptations Soundtrack for the NBC TV special Takin 'Care of Business Producers: Ed Friendly, George Schlatter
1969	Let the Sunshine In Motown 689	-	-	US24 (18 weeks) US	R&B7 (17 weeks) R&B	First published: May 26, 1969 Diana Ross and the Supremes
	Together Motown 692	-	UK28 (4 weeks) UK	US28 (18 weeks) US	R&B6 (21 weeks) R&B	First published: September 23, 1969 Diana Ross and the Supremes with The Temptations Producer: Frank Wilson
	Cream of the Crop Motown 694	-	UK34 (4 weeks) UK	US33 (20 weeks) US	R&B3 (27 weeks) R&B	First published: November 3, 1969 Diana Ross and the Supremes Producers: Johnny Bristol, Berry Gordy
	On Broadway Motown 699	-	-	US38 (12 weeks) US	R&B4 (15 weeks) R&B	First published: November 7, 1969 Diana Ross and the Supremes with The Temptations Producer: Motown Productions, Inc.
1970	Right On Motown 705	-	-	US25 (19 weeks) US	R&B4 (21 weeks) R&B	First published: April 26, 1970 Producers: Frank Wilson, Clay MacMurray, Ivy Jo Hunter
	The Magnificent 7 Motown 717	-	UK6 (11 weeks) UK	US113 (16 weeks) US	R&B18 (19 weeks) R&B	First release: September 1970 with The Four Tops Producers: Ashford & Simpson
	New Ways but Love Stays Motown 720	-	-	US68 (17 weeks) US	R&B12 (20 weeks) R&B	First published: October 1970 Producer: Frank Wilson
1971	Touch Motown 737	-	UK40 (1 week) UK	US85 (10 weeks) US	R&B8 (13 weeks) R&B	First published: June 1971 Producer: Frank Wilson
	The Return of the Magnificent Seven Motown 736	-	-	-	R&B18 (6 weeks) R&B	First published: July 1971 with The Four Tops producers: Ashford & Simpson, Clay McMurray, Duke Browner
	Dynamite Motown 745	-	-	US160 (6 weeks) US	R&B21 (4 weeks) R&B	First published: December 1971 with The Four Tops Producer: Frank Wilson
1972	Floy Joy Motown 751	-	-	US54 (15 weeks) US	R&B12 (12 weeks) R&B	First published: May 1972 Producer: Smokey Robinson
	The Supremes Produced and Arranged by Jimmy Webb Motown 756	-	-	US129 (21 weeks) US	R&B27 (13 weeks) R&B	First published: November 1972 Producer: Jimmy Webb
1975	The Supremes Motown 828	-	-	-	R&B25 (9 weeks) R&B	First published: June 1975
1976	High Energy Motown 863	-	-	US42 (15 weeks) US	R&B24 (12 weeks) R&B	First published: April 1976 Producers: Holland – Dozier – Holland

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More studio albums

• 1965: Merry Christmas (Motown 638)
• 1976: Mary, Scherrie & Susaye (Motown 873)
• 2016: Meet the Supremes (Not Now Music 210)

swell

1. ↑ https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/supremes
2. ^ Joel Whitburn: Top Pop Singles 1955-1999, 2000 ISBN 0-89820-140-3
3. ↑ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Supremes in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
4. ↑ 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 2, 2010, accessed August 8, 2017 . 
5. ↑ Chart sources: Chartsurfer DE UK US: US
6. ^ Joel Whitburn : Top R&B Albums 1965–1998, ISBN 0-89820-134-9 .

Web links

Commons : The Supremes  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• The Supremes at Allmusic (English)
• The Supremes at Discogs (English)
• The Supremes in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The Supremes at laut.de
• "Dare to Be Supreme" , New York Times , December 17, 2006 (Eng.)
• The Supremes Biography (English)
• Information in the "Florence Ballard Fan Club" (English)