Supremes, The (1964–1977)

Popular Motown group of the 1960s. Originally called "The Primettes" when first organized in 1959 by Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson, girlhoodfriends who had grown up together in a Detroit housing project. Diana Ross soon joined the group, which eventually recorded their first song for Berry Gordy's Motown Records in 1964, when the group's name was changed to "The Supremes."

Recording of "Where Did Our Love Go" was their first song to reach Billboard magazine's Top 100; had seven #1 hits and were rarely out of the Top Ten (1965–69); group's name was changed to "Diana Ross and The Supremes" (1967), leading to Florence Ballard's withdrawal and replacement; group gave their last performance as "Diana Ross and The Supremes" (1970), after which Ross left the group to pursue a solo career while Mary Wilson continued to tour and record with various replacement singers until the group was disbanded (1977).

Partial discography (albums only, all on Motown): Meet the Supremes (1963); A Bit of Liverpool (1964); Where Did Our Love Go (1965); The Supremes at the Copa (1965); More Hits by The Supremes (1965); I Hear a Symphony (1966); Supremes a Go Go (1966); The Supremes Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland (1967); The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart (1967); Diana Ross and The Supremes Greatest Hits Vols. 1 and 2 (1967); Reflections (1968); Love Child (1968); Diana Ross and The Supremes Join the Temptations (1968); T.C.B. (1968); Live at the Talk of the Town (1968); Let the Sunshine In (1969); Cream of the Crop (1969); Diana Ross and The Supremes Greatest Hits Vol. 3 (1969); Farewell, New Ways But Love Stays (1970); The Magnificent Seven (w/The Four Tops) (1970); Dynamite (1971); Floy Joy (1972); Baby Love (1973); Anthology (1974); High Energy (1976); Supremes (1976); Supremes at Their Best (1978); Stoned Love (1979); Superstar Series, Vol. 1, Greatest Hits (featuring Mary Wilson, 1981).

Singles:

"Your Heart Belongs to Me" (1964); "Baby Love" (1964); "Come See about Me" (1964); "Stop! In the Name of Love" (1965); "Back in My Arms Again" (1965); "Nothing But Heartaches" (1965); "I Hear a Symphony" (1965); "My World Is Empty Without You" (1966); "Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart" (1966); "You Can't Hurry Love" (1966); "You Keep Me Hangin' On" (1966); "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone" (1967); "The Happening" (1967); "Reflections" (1967); "In and Out of Love" (1967); "Love Child" (1968); "Someday We'll Be Together" (1969).

Ballard, Florence (1943–1976). Born in Detroit, Michigan, on June 30, 1943; died of a heart attack in 1976; eighth of thirteen children of Lurlee Ballard; married Tommy Chapman (separated 1973); children: three daughters, including Lisa Marie.

Ross, Diana (1944—). Born Diane Ross in Detroit, Michigan, on March 26, 1944; daughter of Fred Earl Ross and Ernestine (Moten) Ross (d. 1984); graduated from Cass Technical High School, 1962; married Robert Silberstein, Jr., in 1971 (divorced 1976); married Arne Naess (a shipping magnate), in 1985; children: (first marriage) three daughters, Rhonda Suzanne, Tracee Joy (b. 1972), and Chudney Lane (b. 1975); (second marriage) Ross and Evan.

Films:

Lady Sings the Blues (1972); Mahogany (1975); The Wiz (1978).

Wilson, Mary (1944—). Born in Greenville, Mississippi, on March 6, 1944; daughter of Johnnie Mae Wilson (d. 1999) and Sam Wilson; from age three to age nine, thought her mother's younger sister I.V. Pippin was her mother; at age 57, got her associate's degree in arts, New York University, 2001; married Pedro Ferrer; children: daughter Turkessa.

It did not seem the most auspicious beginning for a career in the rough and tumble music world. In a smoky Detroit union hall one night in 1959, during a raucous party for the rank and file of one of the United Auto Workers' locals, four girls stepped uncertainly onto the stage in their first professional engagement. The name chosen for them by their manager was The Primettes, a sister group to the act that had preceded them, the all-male Primes. After three numbers marked by cautious harmony and some rudimentary choreography, the Primettes left the stage to scattered applause. Those who, years later, would remember the performance as the birth of one of the world's most famous female groups would recall less the girls' music than their clean-cut wardrobe—white pleated skirts, white sweaters, white bobby sox and white gym shoes.

The four were all friends from Detroit's Brewster Housing Projects, one of the largest government-financed apartment complexes in Detroit, and almost entirely inhabited by African-American families who had left the poor, rural South to look for work on the assembly lines of Detroit's automobile factories. Mary Wilson had been born in Greenville, Mississippi, on March 6, 1944, but the other three girls had all come into the world in the projects. Florence Ballard, born in June 1943, was the eighth of thirteen children; Diane Ross was the second of six and was the same age as Mary, having been born on March 26, 1944. The fourth Primette, Betty Travis (sources variously give her last name as McGlown, Horton, or Anderson), had also been born that year.

The idea for a singing group was Ballard's, although all the girls had been singing in church choirs or at family functions for as long as anyone could remember. It was one of the first things Ballard mentioned to Mary Wilson when the two met at a local talent show in which both were appearing in 1958. Both girls were fans of Freddy Limon and the Teenagers, whom they had seen on the "Ed Sullivan Show," and both were envious of the Franklin girls (Erma, Carolyn and Aretha Franklin ) who were already forming a group and were often featured in the choir at church on Sundays.

Baby, baby, where did our love go?

—The Supremes

It seemed too good to be true when, early in 1959, Flo excitedly told Mary that she had been asked by The Primes' manager, Milton Jenkins, to form an all-girl counterpart to his most successful act. Jenkins was known up and down Detroit's Hastings Street, where all the best clubs and restaurants were, for his flashy wardrobe and bright red 1958 Cadillac. Jenkins had adapted the style of urban white "doo-wop" groups for black audiences, and the Primes were his first big success. The invitation to audition for him had come by way of one of the Prime's members, who was dating Betty Travis and had told her of Jenkins' idea for the Primettes. Needing a fourth singer to match their all-male counterparts, the three girls—Florence, Mary, and Betty—were joined by Diane (later Diana) Ross, the girlfriend of another of The Primes.

Arriving at Jenkins' hotel room without thinking to prepare an audition piece beforehand, Ballard suggested Ray Charles' "Night Time (Is the Right Time for Love)." "Without having had a minute of rehearsal … we all fell into our parts, and we sounded wonderful," Mary Wilson remembered many years later. Jenkins must have agreed for, shortly afterward, The Primettes made their debut down at the union hall. Over the next year, The Primettes played a series of "sock hops," dances organized and emceed by local disc jockeys, and it soon became clear to everyone that it was Florence Ballard's energy and powerful, clear voice that gave the group life. "Singing was Flo's ticket out" of the projects, Mary Wilson once noted, "and so The Primettes became her life. Everyone who heard us agreed that Flo was the best." Diana Ross would be equally complimentary about Mary Wilson, who, she said, "fit so well with Florence and me. She carried the exact sound just between the two of us that blended all our voices together … so that we were like one voice."

Betty Travis left the group early on, her mother feeling she should spend more time at her school-work, and was replaced by Barbara Martin as The Primettes began to work particularly hard at choreographing a series of coordinated gestures and movements that in time became smooth enough to seem almost spontaneous. By 1960, the girls were confident enough of their act to enter that year's Detroit-Windsor Freedom Festival's amateur talent contest, sponsored by radio stations in the Motor City and across the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario. The Primettes were deemed the best female group at the Festival. The win led to the most important decision of their fledgling career—to audition for Berry Gordy's Motown Records.

Like Marvin Jenkins, Gordy—a former boxer, auto worker, and songwriter—had begun by promoting a single act, The Five Stars, a group of friends for whom he wrote and produced. In 1959, the year The Primettes were formed, Gordy had persuaded United Artists to distribute his artists under Gordy's new Tamla label; by 1960, he had moved into larger quarters in a house on Detroit's West Grand Boulevard that he called "Hitsville USA." Gordy's genius was in sensing that mainstream American audiences, black and white, were ready for a more pop-oriented, rhythm and blues sound—a sound that became synonymous during the coming decade with the new label he created for it, Motown (from Detroit's nickname, "Motor Town"). At the time The Primettes came to him for an audition, in the late summer of 1960, Motown already had made a name for itself with such artists as Mary Wells and Smokey Robinson. (It was Robinson who arranged their audition with Gordy.) "I sensed that his mind was clicking every moment, even when he was talking to us," Wilson remembered of her first meeting with Gordy. "If you were smart, you knew that there was something going on behind his smile."

Gordy turned the group down, telling them to finish high school before coming back. But he wasn't about to get rid of The Primettes so easily. "Berry Gordy was not the only one who knew what he wanted," Diana Ross wrote many years later. "I have never been able to take no for an answer, and he had definitely not seen the last of me." As a way of keeping themselves in Gordy's thoughts, the girls took to hanging around the studios after school every day, contributing the occasional handclaps or "oohs" to the backup work on various Motown records.

During the next few months, The Primettes survived what could have been several fatal setbacks. First, Barbara Martin announced she was leaving the group to marry, nearly leading to its disintegration before Ross convinced Wilson and Ballard to continue as a threesome. The intensive rehearsals needed to rework the groups' harmonies and choreography nearly collapsed when Florence mysteriously failed to appear, even at school. It was not until several days had passed that Wilson and Ross learned that Ballard had been raped by a new boyfriend, a trauma from which both girls later said Florence never fully recovered. To compound the group's troubles, a recording contract that they had signed with a new company—Flick Records, for its Lu-Pine label—came to nothing when the company's distributor was indicted in the payola scandal that rocked the radio and record industry at the time. The records they recorded for Lu-Pine in the fall of 1960 were not released until 1968 and are highly prized by collectors.

Late in 1960, The Primettes once again auditioned for Gordy, getting as far as recording "I Want a Guy" for him before Gordy once again declined to sign them. This time, however, Gordy put the girls under the tutelage of Smokey Robinson, who worked with them on their material and presentation. Finally, in January 1961, Gordy offered them a contract on the condition

they come up with a new name. Everything from "The Darleens" to "The Jewelettes" to "The Sweet P's" was tried before Ballard's favorite name, "The Supremes," finally prevailed.

Gordy's contract with his new group was the standard one he offered all his eager young acts, and one that in later years would lead to legal action from many of them, including Mary Wilson. Gordy took care to present each of the girls with individual contracts, as well as one for the group as a whole, and exercised total creative and financial control. The Supremes were paid no salaries, their income being strictly from a small allowance and from royalties which amounted to two cents for every record sold—a lump sum which was then split between the girls. In addition, Gordy was allowed to deduct from royalties any advances he made to promote the act. (Mary Wilson once estimated the girls each made some $5,000 for every million records sold.) Only Motown was authorized under the contracts to dismiss group members or hire new ones, and only Motown had authority over material and arrangements. Motown was, in effect, the sole manager, agent, accountant, and financial adviser for The Supremes, who never saw standard accounting sheets or the tax returns Motown filed on their behalf. "In truth," Wilson later said, "few of us knew anything at all about the business and fewer still knew to have legal counsel for any business dealings or contracts."

The group's new life as The Supremes did not at first seem destined for success. Motown released their demo recording of "I Want a Guy" on its Tamla label to little notice in 1961. The group's next eight records—including their first record on the Motown label, 1962's "Your Heart Belongs to Me"—barely made it onto Billboard's Top 100. During these early years, each of the girls took turns singing lead—Ballard on the more upbeat numbers, Ross on the slower, sensitive love songs, and Wilson on the ballads.

By 1963, now ages 19 and 20, the women were known around Motown as "the no-hit Supremes," although the taunts subsided somewhat after their "When the Lovelight Starts Shining in Your Eyes" made Billboard's Top 20 in October of that year. The women were as surprised as everybody else when they were included on Dick Clark's "Caravan of Stars" national tour as a warm-up act for the major talent. Also to everyone's astonishment, the song The Supremes recorded just before leaving on the tour, "Where Did Our Love Go," rocketed to #1 and made them instant stars on Clark's tour. The song had been written for them by the same team that had given them their Top 20 hit the year before, the songwriters Brian and Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier. Holland-Dozier-Holland were responsible for "the Motown sound," characterized by heavy percussion overlaid with filigrees of guitars, strings, horns, and backup vocals. "Where Did Our Love Go," with Ross singing lead, is remembered for its thumping drum-tambourine-handclap beat and the "baby, baby" back vocal supplied by Ballard and Wilson. None of the women cared much for the song that marked the beginning of their rise to stardom.

From 1964 on, it seemed as if nothing could stand in their way. No less than four consecutive #1 hits followed—"Baby Love," "Come See about Me," "Stop! In the Name of Love," and "Back in My Arms Again"—all within one year and all written by Holland-Dozier-Holland. The Supremes were as popular on stage as they were on record, especially when Gordy went to work on their wardrobe and dressed them identically in sequined, full-length gowns, full-length white gloves, high-heeled shoes and elaborate, piled hairdos which never budged during the careful choreography designed for each number. The Supremes became Motown's leading ambassadors for Berry Gordy's goal of bridging the gap between black and white audiences in the United States, and presenting Europeans, who were fascinated by the act during several tours of England and the Continent, with a glossy, sophisticated image of African-American culture. By the mid-1960s, only The Beatles and Elvis Presley could command greater crowds at live concerts.

On stage, The Supremes presented a seamless image of sisterhood. Ross did most of the chatter between songs, although Ballard became a crowd pleaser with her sassy comments that put the lie to Ross' insistence on characterizing her as "the quiet one." During Ross' solo of "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You," with its line "Gold won't bring you happiness," Flo would bring down the house by interrupting "Give me that gold, girl, and I'll do my own shoppin'!"; or, when Ross told an audience whose male portion obviously appreciated her slim figure that "Thin is in," Flo shot back, "But, honey, fat is where it's at!" By 1965, in fact, it was obvious that Ballard was putting on weight at an alarming rate, although Motown assiduously hid from the public Florence's increasingly serious drinking problem, the tensions which were growing within the group, and the fact that Ross had become Gordy's lover.

Berry Gordy had long realized that it was Ross' voice and stage presence that was the most commercial of the three women, making their relationship a sometimes stormy combination of the personal and professional. Ross later characterized him as "an incomparable visionary, a dynamite character, and a special human being," but to the other two women, The Supremes was becoming a Ross-Gordy franchise. "Seeing Diane and Berry together," Mary Wilson once wrote, "I never knew exactly who was directing whom; when changes occurred, we never knew which one of them had instigated them." Ballard, who saw herself as The Supremes' creator, was especially hurt by Gordy's favoritism and often showed up drunk for recording sessions and live appearances, in which she was replaced frequently by Marlene Barrow ("and frankly few people … were ever the wiser," Wilson drily noted). The quarrels between Ballard and Gordy were made only more bitter and acrimonious when Gordy announced in early 1967 that the group's name would be changed to "Diana Ross and The Supremes," Ross explaining the change in her first name from Diane to Diana by saying there had been a typographical error on her birth certificate. "The name change was not my idea," Ross insisted, claiming it was "all in the natural scheme of things." She noted that the press had long been singling her out and even blamed fans for playing favorites with each of the women and pitting them against one another.

Ballard, however, had begun to suspect that Ross was intent on breaking up the group and pursuing a solo career. To her, the name change was the first step in The Supremes' demise. Her threats to expose Gordy's financial practices only made matters worse. "You'll be sorry you messed with me, Berry Gordy," she was once heard telling him. "I know a lot about you, more than you think. And don't you forget it." Mary Wilson, the group's peacemaker, tried her best to hold the group together. "I saw the group as something bigger and more important than any one of us. I was content to play on the team. Diane didn't feel that way about things, and her attitude was obvious to everyone we worked with." At the time the name change was announced, Ross occupied a separate dressing room on tour and arrived separately at each venue, often in Gordy's company. Matters came to a head almost as soon as Motown had publicly announced the name change early in 1967, when Ballard arrived drunk for a concert in Las Vegas and so overweight that her costume could barely contain her. Wilson and Ross went on without her, announcing that Florence had had to be hospitalized for exhaustion, but it is probable that Gordy fired Ballard once and for all from The Supremes that night. She was replaced by Cindy Birdsong , who had been appearing with Patti Labelle and the Bluebelles, another Motown act.

A further upheaval in The Supremes' fortunes came that year, when Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown to start their own record company. Although The Supremes never left the charts, with hits by other composers like "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me," "Love Child," and "Someday We'll Be Together," they turned increasingly to cover versions of old standards with such album titles as We Remember Sam Cooke and The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart. Gordy also increased their television exposure. They were frequent guests on "The Ed Sullivan Show" from 1965 to 1969 and appeared on the special "TCB (Takin' Care of Business)" with Gordy's most successful male group, The Temptations (some of whose members had come from the old Primes). The women hosted their own weekly television show, "Hollywood Palace," for one season and even appeared as nuns in an episode of "Tarzan," a network series of the time.

By the end of the decade, rumors that Diana Ross would be leaving The Supremes were widespread, especially when she appeared alone on "The Dinah Shore Show" in 1969. It came as no surprise when the announcement was officially made in December of that year. Diana Ross gave her last performance with The Supremes in Las Vegas on January 14, 1970. "If she hadn't left the group, something would have had to change," Mary Wilson wrote some years later, although she claimed to see the change as a beginning, not an end. "This was … not the end of The Supremes," she said, "but the end of the dream Diane, Flo and I had shared. After years of hard work, I was embarking on another wonderful adventure. I had been blessed to have been in The Supremes the first time; now it could happen all over again." Diana Ross, however, characterized her departure in less philosophical terms, claiming some 20 years later that "the girls treated me very badly. They had gone against me with a vengeance. They were so blinded by jealousy that they never stopped to think … that our records were selling because of my sound."

(In the summer of 2000, amidst much hype, Ross mounted a Diana Ross and The Supremes "Return to Love" reunion tour, in which neither Wilson nor Birdsong participated because they were offered some $3 million each in comparison to her $15–20 million paycheck. Ticket prices were as high as $250. Fans stayed away from the ersatz "reunion" in droves, and the tour was cancelled after a month.)

For a time, after Jean Terrell replaced Ross, it seemed as if Wilson's hopes for a rejuvenated Supremes might be realized. The new Supremes had two Top Ten hits during the first year of their existence, "Stoned Love" and "Everybody Has the Right to Love," along with an appearance on a television special with The Four Tops, another Motown group, with whom they also recorded two albums. "The Supremes give not the slightest indication of missing Diana Ross," wrote one reviewer in The Los Angeles Times in 1970, "or that in their reorganization they are riding any other crest but the one set aside for superstars." But such a glowing assessment proved to be premature, for personnel changes took their toll on the group's stability. Cindy Birdsong left the group for a year, and eventually departed completely and was replaced by Susaye Greene ; while Jean Terrell quit in 1973 and was replaced by Sherrie Payne . The strain was evident in the fact that no new Supremes albums were released from the end of 1973 to the summer of 1975. "These personnel changes haven't helped our situation at all," Wilson admitted to a reporter in 1974. "Motown's waiting to see whether we're stable before they let us record another album." There were some more albums and appearances in the next few years, but even Wilson, the last of the original Supremes, eventually had to give up. The Supremes were officially disbanded in 1977, with Motown legally preventing Wilson from using the name for her new solo act, except as "Mary Wilson of The Supremes." In 1988, in a testament to the influence of a group that hadn't existed for more than ten years, The Supremes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

During the 1970s, while Wilson was struggling to keep The Supremes alive and Ross was becoming an international celebrity as a solo act and as an actress, Florence Ballard's fortunes had declined precipitously. "Florence was always on a totally negative trip," Ross once told a reporter. "She wanted to be a victim. When she left The Supremes and the money stopped coming in, it really messed up her head." By 1975, after the birth of three children and an estrangement from her husband, Ballard was living in Detroit on $270 in monthly welfare payments and was in danger of having her modest house on Buena Vista Avenue placed in foreclosure. Ross, who claimed to have tried to contact Ballard over the years only to be rebuffed by Flo's family, told friends that she had unsuccessfully attempted to get a check to Florence to save her home but had been forced to void it when Florence's husband had demanded it be made out to him. Wilson had tried to do her part, too, arranging for Florence to visit her in Los Angeles in August 1975 and bringing her on stage during one of The Supremes' shows, Florence standing in a soft blue spotlight to receive the cheers of fans who still remembered her. Other efforts to help Ballard were not forthcoming, from any other Motown artists or from Gordy himself. Florence was forced to give up her house and move in with a sister.

Returning to Detroit after the appearance in Los Angeles, Ballard had apparently decided to try and heal wounds that had been festering for eight years and called Ross. "It was a very strange call," Diana remembered. "She said she was ready to go back singing." A few days after the call, Ballard received what she described as "an unexplained cash settlement" of $50,000, which may have been a gift from Ross or a settlement from a long-standing court action she had pursued against an attorney who had once represented her in a suit against Motown over royalties. With the money, she purchased a new home and a Cadillac. Barely two months later, in February 1976, Florence Ballard died of a heart attack which doctors said had been brought on by her high blood pressure and by medication she had been taking to lose weight. Her mother thought differently. "I think she died of a broken heart," Lurlee Ballard said.

Both Ross and Wilson attended Ballard's funeral, to which Berry Gordy made sure to send most of the top Motown acts. Ross caused a stir during the service by asking Wilson to join her in a silent prayer at Ballard's coffin while flashbulbs popped and TV cameras rolled. After the crowds and reporters dispersed, Wilson followed the hearse to Detroit's Memorial Park and marked the loss of a girlfriend's dream by throwing a single rose on top of the coffin. Except for Ballard's immediate family and a few close friends, Mary was alone as Florence was finally laid to rest. Diana had already left.

sources:

De Beer, Frans. "Supremes Biography," published by the Diana Ross Fan Club, undated.

Ross, Diana. Secrets of a Sparrow. NY: Villard, 1993.

Stambler, Irwin, ed. Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul. Rev. ed. NY: St. Martin's Press, 1974.

Taborelli, J. Randy. Call Her Miss Ross. Secaucus, NJ: Carol Publishing, 1989.

Wilson, Mary. Dreamgirl. NY: St. Martin's Press, 1986.

related media:

Dreamgirls, loosely based on The Supremes, starring Jennifer Holliday, Sheryl Lee Ralph , and Loretta Devine , opened on Broadway at the Imperial Theater, December 20, 1981, directed and choreographed by Michael Bennett, book and lyrics by Tom Eyen, costumes by Theoni V. Aldredge , lighting by Tharon Musser .

Norman Powers , writer-producer, Chelsea Lane Productions, New York, New York