Diana Ross and the Supremes
The Supremes were second only to The Beatles in terms of commercial success in music’s golden age, the 1960s, with their biggest personality Diana Ross going on to have a successful solo and acting career.
Starting life as The Primettes in 1958, the group featured; Florence Ballard, Betty McGlown, Mary Wilson and Diana Ross making an impact on the local Detroit music scene. Attracting the attention of Smokey Robinson the group managed to secure themselves an audition with Motown’s Berry Gordy. He considered them to be too young but they continued to pursue the producer even after the departure of McGlown to be replaced with Barbara Martin and were eventually allowed to act as backing singers for artists such as Marvin Gaye.
They were finally signed in 1961, changing their name to The Supremes. Fourth member Barbara Martin left the group and they remained a trio, having their first Top 40 hit, When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes in October 1963. It wasn’t long before Diana Ross was appointed the group’s official lead singer and the move paid dividends when The Supremes had their first number one in the U.S. with Where Did Our Love Go and was followed with hits including; Baby Love, Stop! In the Name of Love and You Keep Me Hanging On.
The group were important as a crossover act appealing to black and white audiences and paving the way for the likes of the Jackson 5 and The Temptations. Going into 1967 the group encountered problems with Ballard and Wilson feeling sidelined by Ross’ success, something made explicit when they were renamed Diana Ross and the Supremes. Ballard fell into a depression and developed a drinking problem, her resultant unreliability eventually led to her being dismissed from the band to be replaced by Cindy Birdsong. Ballard sadly died in February 1976 from coronary thrombosis.
The late sixties saw the group go into decline as their song writing team of Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown. Rumours persisted that Diana Ross wanted to mount a solo career, and she bowed out of the group with the release of Someday We’ll be Together.
The group continued despite the absence of their biggest star, with Ross being replaced by Jean Terrell they had hits with tracks such as Up the Ladder to the Roof and Stoned Love. They continued to go through a number of line-up changes with Cindy Birdsong leaving on two occasions as well as Lynda Laurence, Scherrie Payne and Susie Green being members at various times. They finally called it a day in 1977 bowing out with a concert at London’s Drury Lane Theatre.
Meanwhile Diana Ross’ solo career flourished in the 1970s. She followed Top 20 hit Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand) with a cover of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s Ain’t No Mountain High Enough which topped the US charts in July 1970.
With the Motown label moving into the movie industry, Berry Gordy saw Ross as a key to the new direction. She did not let him down putting in an Oscar nominated performance as Billie Holiday in the biopic Lady Sings the Blues. Although she never repeated the heights of such an acclaimed performance, her vocal talents could not be denied and further films Mahogany and The Wiz while not being critically acclaimed had hugely popular soundtracks. Her singing career continued in fine form with tracks such as Upside Down and Endless Love before moving to RCA Records.
A planned reunion with the Supremes to mark Motown’s 25th anniversary in 1983 did not go to plan. Fraught relations between the Ross and her colleagues combined with the singer suffering from flu limited the trio to just 1 song. A reformed line-up of Diana Ross, Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne eventually did tour together at the turn of the century.
