"Bad Weather" | ||||
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Single by The Supremes | ||||
Released | March 22, 1973 | |||
Recorded | 1973 | |||
Genre | Soul, Funk, R&B | |||
Length | 3:01 (album/single version) | |||
Label | Motown M 1225 | |||
Songwriter(s) | Stevie Wonder Ira Tucker Jr. | |||
Producer(s) | Stevie Wonder | |||
The Supremes singles chronology | ||||
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"Bad Weather" is a song recorded and released as a single by Motown vocal group The Supremes in 1973. It was composed by Stevie Wonder [1] and Lynda Laurence's brother Ira Tucker Jr., and produced by Wonder. The song was then-lead singer Jean Terrell's last charted single as a member of the Supremes and the second and last time Laurence was featured on a Supremes single.
By 1973, the Supremes' records were doing poorly in the charts. Cindy Birdsong left the group on maternity leave after recording the group's 1972 album, Floy Joy and was temporarily replaced by former Wonderlove background singer, Lynda Laurence. Although Birdsong was featured on every track, Laurence appeared on the cover of the album. The new lineup featuring Laurence set about recording The Supremes Produced and Arranged by Jimmy Webb , but it also sold poorly in spite of good reviews. Undaunted, Laurence asked Wonder, her former mentor, to help the group find a new sound. Wonder concocted the single "Bad Weather" using a funkier sound that the group had been accustomed to, and is reported to have recorded a few more songs with the trio (such as "Soft Days", whose demo recording circulates in bootleg copies) for a future unreleased album project. [1]
When the proto-disco song (including the characteristic whistle sound of the discothèque experience) was first issued to radio in the summer of 1973, it caught some initial positive buzz mainly from the Supremes' American R&B fan base. In a contemporary review for UK publication Record Mirror , James Hamilton expressed 'Stevie Wonder penned and produced the "A" side here especially for Jean Terrell: it's in his own current mould, which means full of weaving melodies and poly-rhythms — and like Stevie's own LPs, it slips by all too easily. Lovely listening, but will it stop Pop Pickers in their tracks?' Of the b-side, "It's So Hard For Me to Say Goodbye", Hamilton wrote, 'The Frank Wilson-produced tensile slow flip is a strung-out beauty'. [2]
"Bad Weather" was performed to a receptive audience on Soul Train , but the buzz wore down as, according to Mary Wilson years later, it wasn't a favorite of Terrell's or Laurence's. Motown also failed to promote and push the song despite pleas from the group and Wonder. Unknowingly the group was ahead of its time, announcing the disco era. Shortly after this single was released, Terrell left the Supremes, later followed by Laurence when she became pregnant. As years went by the Stevie Wonder song became a cult favorite, and it was covered in 1978 by Melissa Manchester in her LP Don't Cry Out Loud , and by Dutch singer Mathilde Santing in her 1994 album Under a Blue Roof .
The song peaked at number 87 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and 74 on the R&B singles chart. However it was a different story outside the United States: "Bad Weather" was extensively played on Radio Europa, it peaked at the Top 40 of the UK singles chart at number 37, while in places like Puerto Rico it became a huge hit in discothèques and went up to number 1 in radio charts.
The next Supremes project would take two more years to come out. In 1975, a fresh lineup of the group (including Birdsong and the newly recruited vocalist Scherrie Payne) released the disco single He's My Man with Wilson and Payne on lead, but this time the song went to the top of the dance chart.
Chart (1973) | Peak position |
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UK Singles (OCC) [3] | 37 |
US Billboard Hot 100 [4] | 87 |
US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs ( Billboard ) [5] | 74 |
US Cashbox Top 100 [6] | 92 |
US Record World Singles [7] | 115 |
The Supremes were an American girl group and a premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as the Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and the most successful American vocal band, with 12 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Most of these hits were written and produced by Motown's main songwriting and production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland. It is said that their breakthrough made it possible for future African-American R&B and soul musicians to find mainstream success. Billboard ranked the Supremes as the 16th greatest Hot 100 artist of all time.
Scherrie Ann Payne is an American singer. Payne is best known as the third and last lead singer of the R&B/Soul vocal group The Supremes from 1973 until 1977. Because of her powerful voice and petite stature (5'2"), Payne is sometimes referred to as "the little lady with the big voice." Payne is the younger sister of singer Freda Payne. Payne continues to perform, both as a solo act and as a part of the "Former Ladies of the Supremes" (FLOS).
Velma Jean Terrell is an American R&B and jazz singer. She replaced Diana Ross as the lead singer of The Supremes in January 1970.
"Stoned Love" is a 1970 hit single recorded by The Supremes for the Motown label. It was the last Billboard Pop Top Ten hit for the group, peaking at number seven, and their last Billboard number-one R&B hit as well, although the trio continued to score top ten hits in the UK into 1972. In the UK, it was the post-Ross Supremes' biggest hit, reaching number 3 in the singles chart. The single spent six weeks in the UK top ten and five weeks in the US top ten. The BBC ranked "Stoned Love" at number 99 on The Top 100 Digital Motown Chart, which ranks Motown releases solely on their all time UK downloads and streams.
Lynda Laurence is an American singer.
Right On is the nineteenth studio album by The Supremes, released in 1970 for the Motown label. It was the group's first album not to feature former lead singer Diana Ross. Her replacement, Jean Terrell, began recording Right On with Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong in mid-1969, while Wilson and Birdsong were still touring with Ross.
The Former Ladies of the Supremes, or FLOS, is a singing group that was originally formed by former Supremes members Jean Terrell, Cindy Birdsong and Scherrie Payne, in 1986, and has since included former Supremes Lynda Laurence and Susaye Greene. Though they were not Supremes members, singers Sundray Tucker, Freddi Poole and Joyce Vincent have also sung with the group alongside pairings of Supremes members Laurence, Payne and Greene, following the departure of Jean Terrell.
The Supremes is the twenty-seventh studio album by The Supremes, released in 1975 on Motown Records.
The Supremes Produced and Arranged by Jimmy Webb is the twenty-sixth studio album released by the Supremes on the Motown label in 1972. It was the only Supremes LP produced by a non-Motown artist, successful songwriter and producer Jimmy Webb, and was the last album to feature early-1970s Supremes lead singer Jean Terrell. Only one single from the album was released in the United States, the ballad "I Guess I'll Miss the Man" from the musical Pippin. Other non-Webb tracks included Joni Mitchell's "All I Want", Harry Nilsson's "Paradise" and covers of hits by Bobby Lewis and Mina, respectively "Tossin' and Turnin'" and "La voce del silenzio".
Floy Joy is the twenty-fifth studio album released by The Supremes on the Motown label. This was the only Supremes album solely produced and arranged by Smokey Robinson and included the U.S. top 20 hit, "Floy Joy" and the U.S. top 40 hit, "Automatically Sunshine", both of which were top 10 hits in the U.K.
"Floy Joy" is a song written by Smokey Robinson and released as a single in December 1971 by popular Motown female singing group The Supremes.
"Automatically Sunshine" is a song written by Smokey Robinson and released as a single by Motown singing group The Supremes as the second single from their popular album Floy Joy in 1972.
"I'm Gonna Let My Heart Do the Walking" is a disco-styled soul single composed by the Holland brothers Eddie and Brian, members of the former Holland–Dozier–Holland team and was released as a single by Motown vocal group The Supremes in 1976 on the Motown label. It was the first single since "Your Heart Belongs to Me" in 1962 to feature four Supremes. It is also notable for being the last top forty single the group would score before they disbanded in 1977.
"Everybody's Got the Right to Love" is a socially conscious–inspired pop song written by Lou Stallman, produced by Frank Wilson and released as a single in 1970 by Motown group The Supremes, who took the song into the top forty in mid-1970 following the release of "Up the Ladder to the Roof".
"Touch" is a soft ballad written by Pamela Sawyer and Frank Wilson, who also produced it as a single for Motown recording group The Supremes, who issued it as a single in 1971.
“You Gotta Have Love in Your Heart” is a duet single between Motown singing groups The Supremes and the Four Tops, released as a single from their The Return of the Magnificent 7 album in 1971. The single became a modest charter peaking at #55 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and #41 on the U.S. Billboard R&B Singles Chart. The single fared better in the UK, where it reached #25 in the official top 50 single chart. Lead vocals were by the groups' respective lead singers Jean Terrell and Levi Stubbs.
This Is The Story is a box set, released in 2006, comprising The Supremes' albums from the period 1970-1973, featuring new lead singer Jean Terrell, along with Mary Wilson, Cindy Birdsong and Lynda Laurence In addition to the five studio albums Right On, New Ways But Love Stays, Touch, Floy Joy, and The Supremes Produced and Arranged by Jimmy Webb, the set also includes thirteen tracks from the group's unreleased 1972 album, Promises Kept. Not included from the same time period are the three duet albums recorded with Four Tops; these were issued in full in 2009 on the 2-CD compilation Magnificent - The Complete Studio Duets, which included 13 previously unreleased recordings.
"Your Wonderful, Sweet Sweet Love" is a song written by Smokey Robinson, recorded in October 1966 by Kim Weston. Her recording was not issued at the time as she left the label over a dispute over royalties in 1967. Weston's original version was first released in 2005.
"I Guess I'll Miss the Man" is a song written by Stephen Schwartz and released as a single by Motown singing group The Supremes in 1972 from their album The Supremes Produced and Arranged by Jimmy Webb. Contrary to the album's title, the song was produced by Sherlie Matthews and Deke Richards. It peaked at 17 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart and 85 on the Hot 100.
"He's My Man" is a single released by Motown singing group The Supremes, listed as catalog number M1358F. It is the lead single released from their 1975 self-titled album, The Supremes. The single's peak position was 69 on the US R&B charts, and number-one on the regional Disco charts.