In 1963 on this date, The Supremes first album, Meet the Supremes was released. 10 things you might not know about the Supremes.
The original group got together in 1958. The original line up was Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross, and Betty McGlown. The four women all lived in the Brewster-Douglass public housing project in Detroit, a low-income housing facility.
They weren’t called The Supremes in the beginning. They were friends with a couple of young men called Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks, who belonged to a boy band called the Primes. Milton Jenkins, the Primes's manager, decided to create a sister group called the Primettes. Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks, incidentally, went on to form the Temptations. The Primettes started out performing cover versions of hit songs at clubs and dances, and entered talent contests. In 1960 they won the Windsor–Detroit International Freedom Festival and decided the time had come to make a record.
Diana Ross contacted an old friend from the housing project, Smokey Robinson, to put in a word for them with Motown executive Berry Gordy. He helped the group get an audition, but Berry Gordy thought the girls were too young and inexperienced and told them to come back when they’d graduated from high school.
The Primettes instead went off and recorded a single for Lu Pine Records, a label created just for them. It was called Tears of Sorrow and had Pretty Baby as the B side. It wasn’t a hit.
At this point the group went through a few changes. Betty McGlown left to get married and was replaced by Barbara Martin. Martin left after a couple of years, and wasn’t replaced.
In early 1961, Gordy finally agreed to sign them, but he didn’t like the name of the group and demanded that they change it. He made a few suggestions: the Darleens, the Sweet Ps, the Melodees, the Royaltones and the Jewelettes. They chose the Supremes.
Even so, they weren’t an immediate success. Between 1961 and 1963, the Supremes released six singles, starting with I Want a Guy. None of those six records charted and the group got the nickname the "no-hit Supremes" and they compensated by doing backing work for other artists. Their breakthrough hit came in 1964 with Where Did Our Love Go? by Holland-Dozier-Holland. The song had been written for another group, the Marvelettes, who had turned it down. The Supremes didn’t like it much, either, but the studio demanded they record it. Where Did Our Love Go? reached number one on the US pop charts. This was the first of their 12 number ones.
In 1967, Berry Gordy renamed the group Diana Ross & the Supremes. Florence Ballard became depressed around this time and was fired for turning up to gigs drunk and putting on too much weight. She was replaced by the appropriately named Cindy Birdsong. In 1970, Ross left to pursue a solo career and was replaced by Jean Terrell, and the group's name was reverted to the Supremes. One suspects they didn’t remain on good terms, as when a reunion tour was arranged in 2000, Wilson and Birdsong turned it down and Ross appeared with Scherrie Payne and Lynda Laurence, who’d joined after Ross left. The fans voted with their feet; the tour was cancelled with 14 dates still to go, because the tickets weren’t selling.
The group, 18 years after its formation, disbanded in 1977. The Supremes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. In 2015 the U.S. Library of Congress added Where Did Our Love Go to the National Recording Registry, a list of recordings deemed to be “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” The Supremes received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in 2023.
There have been a couple of films based on the career of the Supremes. In 1976 there was a film called Sparkle about a singing trio called "Sister & the Sisters" from Harlem, New York; and in 1981 there was a musical, Dreamgirls, which ran for 1,522 performances on Broadway and was later made into a film. The musical follows the story of the Dreams, an all-female singing trio from Chicago.
Christmas is coming!
A Very Variant Christmas
Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.
The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?
Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.
Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.
Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.
Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.
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