Biography & Records Allmusic

Biography & Records Allmusic Biographyby Andy Kellman + Follow Artist Motown's greatest girl group and many of supremes the most famous R&B and dad acts of the 1960s.Read Full Biography Biography↓Discography↓Songs↓Credits↓Artist Biographyby Andy Kellman The Supremes were given off to a slow begin inside the early 1960s, but their call soon became a self-gratifying prophecy. Synonymous with sincerely every time period with which they're supremes categorized -- Motown act, woman organization, pop-soul, and soul, truly soul -- their unprecedented legacy supremes become constructed by way of Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and Diana Ross, the most successful of the institution's many lineups. Partnered with the songwriting/production group Holland-Dozier-Holland, these 3 ladies crowned the Billboard pop chart ten times from 1964 through 1967 with everlasting classics along with "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love," "Stop! In the Name of Love," and "You Keep Me Hanging On," and inside the manner supremes set a brand new fashionable for glamour. The organization ultimately became known as Diana Ross & the Supremes, hinting at Ross' departure for a fruitful solo career. It was throughout this 1967-1968 section that the group confirmed they have been as ideal for psychedelic production strategies and supplying a voice for the otherwise unheard, exemplified respectively by "Reflections" and "Love Child," as they have been for boisterous love songs and cooing ballads. It changed into the Ballard, Wilson, and Ross lineup of the Supremes that turned into inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, yet the institution -- with Wilson the linchpin -- lasted nicely into the disco generation and achieved their final Top 40 hit in 1976, the yr earlier than they ceased. Detroit young adults Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross, and Betty McGlown done and recorded collectively first as the Primettes, the sister organization of Temptations precursors the Primes. All teens from the city's Brewster-Douglass housing project, the Primettes formed in 1959, and the next yr released their lone unmarried underneath that name on the local Lupine label. McGlown left following her engagement and turned into replaced by using Barbara Martin. The Primettes had auditioned without success for Motown founder Berry Gordy, but that did not prevent them from frequenting the label's West Grand Boulevard headquarters, where they ingratiated themselves with the aid of adding heritage vocals and handclaps for studio periods. In January 1961, they done their goal of signing with Motown. Instructed to rename themselves and surpassed a list of alternatives, the Primettes have become the Supremes. That year, the Supremes released their firstsingles, "I Want a Guy" and "Buttered Popcorn," on Motown subsidiary Tamla. The organization moved to Motown right the following year with their 0.33 single, "Your Heart Belongs to Me." It changed into fitting that this was their first entry at the Billboard pop chart, given that it changed into written and produced by using the man who added the Pipettes to Gordy, Smokey Robinson. "Let Me Go the Right Way," which also charted, as well as the overall-duration Meet the Supremes, had been each out through the end of 1962. The cover of Meet the Supremes indicated that the institution had been a trio. Martin had departed that spring to start a family. Ballard, Wilson, and Ross were eventually paired with the songwriting/manufacturing team of Brian and Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier, known as Holland-Dozier-Holland. They at once hit the Top forty collectively in 1963 with "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes." An outstanding warm streak followed across 1964 and 1965. The Supremes and Holland-Dozier-Holland strung together 5 consecutive primary pop hits: "Where Did Our Love Go," the Grammy-nominated "Baby Love," "Come See About Me," 2nd Grammy-nominated recording "Stop! In the Name of Love," and "Back in My Arms Again." These and other hits have been scattered throughout the Top Ten albums Where Did Our Love Go and More Hits by the Supremes. Between the 2 LPs, a series of themed studio albums -- namely A Bit of Liverpool, The Supremes Sing Country Western & Pop, and We Remember Sam Cooke -- demonstrated the girls's versatility beyond pop-soul. Further fulfillment and trade happened in 1966 and 1967. The albums I Hear a Symphony, The Supremes A' Go-Go, and The Supremes Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland all peaked within the Top Ten, with the second of the trio a chart-topper. Seven A-sides issued throughout this period were in addition successful, and protected four straight quantity ones with "You Can't Hurry Love," "You Keep Me Hanging On," "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone," and "The Happening," all collaborations with Holland-Dozier-Holland. During the latter 12 months, Berry Gordy started priming Ross for a solo career with the aid of providing the group as the Supremes with Diana Ross, and then as Diana Ross & the Supremes. Gordy additionally handled a duration of instability by way of changing Florence Ballard with Cindy Birdsong, previously of the Bluebelles. As Diana Ross & the Supremes, a billing that lasted from past due 1967 through mid-January 1970, the group remained very popular, notching some other Top Ten album with Diana Ross & the Supremes Join the Temptations, and reaching the pinnacle with TCB, the soundtrack to the television unique of the identical name. Moreover, there were six extra Top Ten hits, including "Reflections" and the chart-toppers "Love Child" and "Someday We'll Be Together." The 2nd of the 3 referred to songs, a groundbreaking narrative, was the primary massive hit written and produced by the Clan, a crew along with R. Dean Taylor, Frank Wilson, Pam Sawyer, Deke Richards, and Henry Cosby. The 0.33 one changed into Ross' studio farewell. When the Supremes completed with Ross for the last time, Jean Terrell -- a Gordy discovery -- changed into brought as a new member. Without Ross, they rebounded right away with the Top Ten hit "Up the Ladder to the Roof" and the Top 40 access "Everybody's Got the Right to Love." ThoseFrank Wilson-produced singles anchored Right On, the first of seven Supremes studio LPs featuring the lineup of Mary Wilson, Cindy Birdsong, and Terrell. Among the alternative six become a trilogy cut with the Four Tops. Well into 1972, the Supremes unloaded a further haul of Top 40 entries highlighted by using "Stoned Love," the organization's remaining single to height in the Top Ten. Cindy Birdsong left after the sessions for the 'seventy two LP Floy Joy, the quilt of which shows the lineup with temporary replacement Lynda Laurence, who had sung backup for Stevie Wonder. Laurence spelled Birdsong until past due 1973, also the yr of Terrell's departure. Terrell's very last LP was the anomalous The Supremes Produced and Arranged by using Jimmy Webb, issued the preceding 12 months. Scherrie Payne, previously of the Glass House (and the sister of Freda Payne), joined Wilson and Birdsong, and this trio lasted into 1976, liberating simplest one album as a unit, The Supremes. Susaye Greene joined for the '76 albums High supremes Energy and Mary, Scherrie & Susaye, though the outgoing Birdsong was gift for the recording of the former. The largest single off thosefinal Supremes LPs changed into a reunion with Brian and Eddie Holland, "I'm Gonna Let My Heart Do the Walking," that touched the Top 40. Mary, Scherrie & Susaye featured a spell binding collaboration with the Hollands and Richard Davis, "Come Into My Life," amongst different songs with industrial potential, but the album obtained little inside the way of promotion. At Drury Lane in London the subsequent June, the Supremes accomplished what turned out to be their farewell concert. By the give up of the '70s, Scherrie Payne and Mary Wilson made their solo Motown debuts. Payne and Susaye Greene also recorded the 1979 album Partners as a Motown duo. Subsequent Supremes reunions have been either one-off events or partial. The 1983 television unique Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever featured Diana Ross, Wilson, and Cindy Birdsong performing "Someday We'll Be Together." Starting in 1986, numerous lineups -- beginning with Jean Terrell, Payne, and Lynda Laurence -- have carried out as the Former Ladies of the Supremes (or FLOS). In 2000, Ross, Laurence, and Payne -- no combination of which had been in the same Supremes lineup -- teamed up for a lengthy U.S. tour that changed into cut brief earlier than the midway factor. Florence Ballard, who released a couple of solo singles on ABC in 1968, died from cardiac arrest in 1976. Betty McGlown died of diabetes in 2008. Barbara Martin died in 2020. Wilson, who had continued to report as a solo artist and hit the New York Times fine-dealer listing together with her first ebook, Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme, died from heart disorder in 2021.