Vintage Rock Presents - The Beatles - UK (2021-02 & 2021-03)

The Supremes

ON 3 NOVEMBER

1969, DIANA ROSS’S

BREAK FROM

THE SUPREMES

BECAME OFFICIAL

had penned every one of the 17 Supremes

singles, from 1963’s When The Lovelight

Starts Shining Through His Eyes

to Forever Came Today in 1968, quit to

found their own Invictus/Hot Wax stable.

Gordy gathered the cream of his writers –

Pam Sawyer, R Dean Taylor, Frank Wilson

and Deke Richards – to pen Love Child

(see panel), the November 1968 No.1 that

launched a more contemporary Supremes

sound and saw Ross backed by the Andantes

instead of Wilson

and Birdsong.

Diana Ross was

soon being moulded

as a solo artist and

on 3 November

1969 her break

from The Supremes

became offi cial.

After recruiting Jean

Terrell, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong,

The Supremes headed into the early 70s

with such hits as Stoned Love and Nathan

Jones. Ross faltered with her fi rst solo

single, Reach Out And Touch (Somebody’s

Hand), which only made the US pop Top 20,

but she was back at No.1 with her second,

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough. None of

the Supremes, though, would match the

dizzying heights of their mid-60s prime.

Diana Ross was

destined for stardom

from the start, fi nally

going solo in 1969

Mic

hae

l^ Oc

hs^ A

rchi

ve/G

etty

Im

age

s

The Supremes’ (^1970) - 72 line-up:
(left to right): Cindy Birdsong,
Jean Terrell and Mary Wilson
In early 1967, Gordy
decided that Cindy
Birdsong, a friend of
Ross’ from the chitlin’
circuit, who had sung with Patti
LaBelle and the Bluebelles, would
take Ballard’s place if she failed to show.
ON 23 APRIL,
BERRY GORDY
SUMMONED the group
to his home to tell them they’d
now be called Diana Ross And
The Supremes. The other two
were heartbroken. “There wasn’t
a group anymore,” says Wilson.
Ballard’s behaviour went into
freefall. She missed a headlining slot over Buff alo
Springfi eld on 30 April 1967 and Birdsong stepped
in. Then, midway through a sell-out residency at
the Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas, in July, Ballard
turned up clearly drunk. The following night, she
was replaced for good. Ballard never recovered
from her sacking and died from a heart attack on
22 February 1976, aged just 32.
For the remaining Supremes, there would be a
further blow when Holland-Dozier-Holland, who
Har
ry^ L
ang
don
/Ge
tty^
Ima
ges