The Supremes
THE FAB
THREE
The Beatles went Motown
crazy with their covers
of The Marvelettes’
Please Mr. Postman, The
Miracles’ You’ve Really
Got A Hold On Me and
Barrett Strong’s Money (That’s What I
Want) on their 1963 second album With
The Beatles.
When North America went Beatle crazy
as the Fab Four topped the US charts for
the fi rst time with I Want To Hold Your
Hand, the fi rst of seven No.1 singles
they achieved within a 12-month span,
Motown boss Berry Gordy had an idea.
He would get The Supremes, hot from
the success of Where Did Our Love Go,
to record a Brit Invasion covers album to
link the two groups’ success. Billed as a
kind of love letter, the trio were booked
into the label’s Los Angeles studio for
two days in October 1964 while in the city
for an appearance on the T.A.M.I. Show
Produced by Gordy and mixed by Hal
Davis and Marc Gordon, A Bit Of Liverpool
(retitled With Love From Us To You in the
UK) exploited a lack of knowledge in the
US of UK geography, capturing Ross,
Wilson and Ballard singing not only
Gerry And The Pacemakers and The
Beatles, but Newcastle’s Animals and
London’s Dave Clark Five to varying
degrees of success. When issued on
16 October 1964 as their third album, it
hit No.23 in the US pop parade and went
Top 5 in the R&B chart. It began a trilogy
of albums intended to widen their
audience, completed by The Supremes
Sing Country, Western And Pop and
We Remember Sam Cooke.Mic
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