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The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | May 22, 1967 | |||
Recorded | 1966–1967 | |||
Genre | ||||
Label | Motown | |||
Producer | ||||
The Supremes chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart is the eleventh studio album released by The Supremes for Motown in 1967. The album is wholly composed of covers of show tunes written by the songwriting duo of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The album was the final album released before The Supremes' name was changed to "Diana Ross & the Supremes," and member Florence Ballard was replaced by Cindy Birdsong.
Recording sessions for the album began in Los Angeles in October 1966, after the Supremes taped the ABC Stage 67 special Rodgers & Hart Today the previous August. Bobby Darin, The Mamas and the Papas, Petula Clark, Count Basie and His Orchestra and the Doodletown Pipers also appeared. Quincy Jones served as musical director. The show first aired on March 2, 1967. Originally intended as a double album, The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart was halved before Motown issued it in May 1967. In 1986, two unreleased tracks from the Rodgers & Hart sessions were included in the Diana Ross & the Supremes' 25th Anniversary collection. Several more were included alongside the original twelve LP tracks on The Rodgers & Hart Collection, an expanded compact disc collection released by Motown in 1987. All of the sessions, including a bonus live recording, were included on the 2002 Motown/Universal release The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart: The Complete Recordings.
All tracks written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, produced by Berry Gordy and Gil Askey.
The following Rodgers/Hart compositions were also recorded by the Supremes for this album:
Numbers 1 and 2 were first issued on the compilation Diana Ross & the Supremes' 25th Anniversary in 1986, while 3 through 12 were first issued on The Rodgers & Hart Collection in 1987. This collection sequenced the songs in order from slowest tempo to fastest, concluding with "Johnny One Note", and all the tracks were given new stereo mixes. All of these songs, plus a live medley of "The Lady is a Tramp/Let's Get Away from It All" recorded at the Copacabana in May 1967, were included in the collection The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart: The Complete Recordings in 2002. The versions of "You Took Advantage of Me" and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" included on the 2002 collection are alternate recordings to those previously issued. "I Could Write A Book" was previously unreleased and included on the 2002 collection. "Manhattan" was done as a duet with Florence Ballard and Diana Ross.
They promoted the album as special guest stars in an hour-long tribute to Rodgers & Hart on a network television special. The album reached the Top 20 of the Billboard Top 200 and a peak of #3 on the Billboard R&B Album chart.
The Supremes were an American female singing 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 group, 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. At their peak in the mid-1960s, the Supremes rivaled the Beatles in worldwide popularity, and 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.
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer and actress. Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, she rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group The Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. They remain the best-charting female group in US history, with a total of twelve number-one hit singles on the US Billboard Hot 100, including, "Where Did Our Love Go", "Baby Love", "Come See About Me", and "Love Child".
Florence Glenda Chapman was an American singer and a founding member of the Motown vocal female group the Supremes. She sang on 16 top 40 singles with the group, including ten number-one hits. After being removed from the Supremes in 1967, Ballard tried an unsuccessful solo career with ABC Records before she was dropped from the label at the end of the decade. Ballard struggled with alcoholism, depression, and poverty for three years. She was making an attempt at a musical comeback when she died of a heart attack in February 1976 at the age of 32. Ballard's death was considered by one critic as "one of rock's greatest tragedies". Ballard was posthumously inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Supremes in 1988.
Mary Wilson was an American singer. She gained worldwide recognition as a founding member of The Supremes, the most successful Motown act of the 1960s and the best-charting female group in U.S. chart history, as well as one of the best-selling girl groups of all-time. The trio reached number one on Billboard's Hot 100 with 12 of their singles, ten of which feature Wilson on backing vocals.
American girl group The Supremes have released twenty-nine studio albums, four live albums, two soundtrack albums, thirty-two compilation albums, four box sets, 66 singles and three promotional singles. The Supremes are the most successful American group of all-time, and the 26th greatest artist of all time on the US Billboard charts; with 12 number one songs on the Billboard Hot 100 and three number one albums on the Billboard 200. In 2017, Billboard ranked The Supremes as the number-one girl group of all-time, publishing, 'although there have been many girl group smashes in the decades since the Supremes ruled the Billboard charts, no collective has yet to challenge their, for lack of a better word, supremacy.' In 2019, the Official Charts Company placed 7 Supremes songs - "You Can't Hurry Love" (16), "Baby Love" (23), "Stop! In The Name Of Love" (56), "Where Did Our Love Go?" (59), "You Keep Me Hangin' On" (78), "Come See About Me" (94) and "Stoned Love" (99) - on The Official Top 100 Motown songs of the Millennium chart, which ranks Motown releases by their all time UK downloads and streams. In 2020, Insider.com named The Supremes 'the best-selling vocal group to date', after EBONY estimated The Supremes' record sales at 50 million in 1980 and Euronews reported total sales exceeding 100 million records in 2014.
Diana is the eleventh studio album by American singer Diana Ross, released on May 22, 1980 by Motown Records. The album is the best-selling studio album of Ross's career, spawning three international hit singles, including the number-one hit "Upside Down".
Let The Sunshine In is the sixteenth studio album by Diana Ross & the Supremes recorded and released by Motown in 1969. It contains the hit single "I'm Livin' in Shame", "The Composer," a Smokey Robinson composition that peaked at number 27, and "No Matter What Sign You Are," - a single produced by Motown chief Berry Gordy that failed to crack to Top 30. Motown had titled the album “No Matter What Sign You Are” originally; going as far as creating the front cover art with the title in it, but when the single didn’t chart as expected the album was retitled “Let The Sunshine In.” Though the album was released when the group consisted of Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong, original founding member Florence Ballard appears on two songs.
Reflections is the twelfth studio album recorded for Motown by Diana Ross & the Supremes. Released in 1968, it was the first regular studio LP to display the new billing of the group formerly known as "The Supremes." It contains the singles "Reflections", "In and Out of Love" and "Forever Came Today". Also included are covers of songs made famous by Martha and the Vandellas and The 5th Dimension. Also present are songs written by other famous names, including "Bah-Bah-Bah" co-written by Motown singer Brenda Holloway with her younger sister, Patrice, an original Smokey Robinson composition titled "Then", and "What the World Needs Now Is Love" by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, which Motown planned to release as a single in the spring of 1968, but cancelled. It also contains a cover of Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe," whose original recording kept the single #2 "Reflections" from peaking at the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1967, and it hit #2 on Cashbox.
The Supreme Florence Ballard is a 2001 release by Universal Music Group's Spectrum Music. The release compiles the 1968 ABC Records solo recordings of Florence Ballard with four tracks she recorded lead vocals for whilst in The Supremes. The ABC Records album, originally titled You Don't Have To, was shelved and bootlegged heavily preceding the compilation's release. Ballard's second ABC single, "Love Ain't Love", was covered by Udell Anderson in 1969 and by Madeline Bell in 1971.
The Supremes Sing Holland–Dozier–Holland is the tenth studio album released by The Supremes for Motown in 1967. It includes the number-one hit singles "You Keep Me Hangin' On" and "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone". As the title states: all songs on the album were written and produced by Motown's main songwriting team of Holland–Dozier–Holland. Most of the album was recorded during the spring and summer of 1966; however several songs date back to the summer of 1964.
Meet the Supremes is the debut studio album by The Supremes, released in late 1962 on Motown.
A Bit of Liverpool is the third studio album by The Supremes, released in the fall of 1964 on the Motown label. It was produced by Berry Gordy with Hal Davis and Marc Gordon doing the mixing.
I Hear a Symphony is the eighth studio album released by American girl group the Supremes on the Motown label in 1966.
The Supremes at the Copa is a live album by Motown singing group The Supremes, recorded during their debut engagement at the prestigious Copacabana nightclub in New York City. Released in the late fall of 1965, At the Copa was the first live album issued by The Supremes, and the only live album issued by the group's best-known lineup of Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson.
Merry Christmas is the seventh studio album recorded by Motown girl group The Supremes, and released on Motown Records in November 1965. The LP, produced by Harvey Fuqua, includes recordings of familiar Christmas songs such as "White Christmas", "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", "My Favorite Things", and "Joy to the World". Two originals, "Children's Christmas Song" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Me", were issued as a single.
Diana Ross & the Supremes: Greatest Hits is a two-LP collection of singles and b-sides recorded by The Supremes, released by Motown in August 1967. The collection was the first LP to credit the group under the new billing Diana Ross & the Supremes. Although founding member Florence Ballard is pictured on all album artwork and sings on all the tracks, by the time the set was released, she had been fired from the group and replaced by Cindy Birdsong.
Live at London's Talk of the Town is a 1968 live album released by Diana Ross & the Supremes on the Motown label, recorded at the Talk of the Town nightclub. This performance marked the first time that new member Cindy Birdsong had performed overseas with original Supremes Diana Ross and Mary Wilson, a year after original founding member Florence Ballard was ousted. The group performed a variation of standards, show tunes, and their own classics with British rock stars Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney reportedly in attendance. The songs recorded are from the group's 1968 European tour. That European tour also garnered a famous Swedish television special that was used as a catalyst to promote this album.
"In and Out of Love" is a 1967 song recorded by The Supremes for the Motown label. It was the second single issued with the group's new billing of Diana Ross & the Supremes, the penultimate Supremes single written and produced by Motown production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, and the last single to feature the vocals of original member Florence Ballard.
"Buttered Popcorn" is a 1961 song written by Motown president Berry Gordy and songwriter Barney Ales, produced by Gordy, and released as a Tamla label single by Motown singing group The Supremes. It was the group's second single after signing with Motown Records as well as their second, and last, single for the Tamla label, before moving to the Motown label.
"Where Did Our Love Go" is a 1964 song recorded by American music group the Supremes for the Motown label.