THE SUPREMES
The Supremes subiu da pobreza do bairro pobre em Detroit's Brewster, onde moravam no ano de 1959, para tornar-se o grupo feminino mais popular e bem sucedido dos anos sessenta.
The Supremes cantavam num estilo polido e delicado, diferente dos demais grupos do mundo do pop. Seu maior sucesso veio com canções talhadas para eles pelos produtores da Motown, Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier e Eddie Holland e sob o olhar atento do todo poderoso fundador da gravadora, Berry Gordy. Em junho de 65, as Supremes estabeleceu um recorde de vendagens e de sucessos jamais igualados por outro grupo americano. Esta etapa é ainda mais impressionante, porque ocorreu no auge da British Invasion - a tomada do mercado pelos grupos de rock ingleses. Em sua autobiografia, To Be Loved. consta o registro de que a popularidade das Supremes nos anos sessenta só perdia para os Beatles e as suas vendagens sustentavam a Motown inteira.
O primeiro grupo, formado por Diana Ross, Florence Ballard e Mary Wilson era um quarteto, as Primettes. Após persistentemente aparecerem na sede da Motown em busca de uma chance, as Supremes foram contratadas em Janeiro de 1961. (Conta-se que Dianna Ross teve que prestar alguns "favores sexuais" ao big boss Berry Gordy.
A história da carreira das Supremes é longa, cheia de detalhes dramáticos, troca constante de componentes, brigas internas - tal como nos demais grupos vocais americanos e é contada no texto em inglês abaixo transcrito, com maiores detalhes.
Dianna Ross deixou o Supremes para iniciar uma carreira solo de sucesso e para atuar como estrela do filme, "Lady Sings Blues" , representando Billie Holiday.
Sua última aparição com o grupo ocorreu no Frontier Hotel, em Las Vegas, em 14 de janeiro de 1970.
Dianna foi substituída por Jean Terrell, e as Supremes continuaram com as outras duas fundadores. Depois iniciou-se um interminável ciclo de substituições que descaracterizaram o grupo, tal como aconteceu como quase todos os grandes grupos do "doo-wop", "rhythm and blues" e "rock & roll". O "barraco" é uma instituição entre eles.
O ultimo desempenho do grupo The Supremes foi na Drury Lane em Londres em 12 de junho de 1977, quando Wilson dissolveu o grupo e aposentou o nome.
Ballard morreu de parada cardíaca em 1976, depois de ter passado por em tempos difíceis.
No início dos anos oitenta, a história da vida das Supremes foi transformada num sucesso musical da Broadway, "Dreamgirls' e posteriormente filmado.
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THE SUPREMES
The Supremes were a Motown all-female singing group. Active as The Supremes from 1961 until 1977, the Supremes performed, at various times, doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, and disco.
One of Motown's signature acts, The Supremes were the most successful African American musical act of the 1960s recording twelve American number-one hits between 1964 and 1969.
Founded in Detroit, Michigan in 1959, The Supremes began as a quartet called The Primettes. Founding members Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross and Betty McGlown, all from the Brewster-Douglass public housing project in Detroit were the sister act to The Primes (later known as The Temptations).
In 1960, Barbara Martin replaced McGlown, and the group signed with Motown in 1961 as The Supremes. Martin left in early 1962, and Ross, Ballard and Wilson carried on as a trio. Achieving success in the mid-1960s with Ross as lead singer, Motown president Berry Gordy renamed the group Diana Ross & the Supremes in 1967 and replaced Ballard with Cindy Birdsong. Ross left the group for a successful solo career in 1970 and was replaced by Jean Terrell. After 1972, the lineup of the Supremes changed frequently, with Lynda Laurence, Scherrie Payne and Susaye Greene all becoming members before the group ended its eighteen-year existence in 1977.
After winning a local talent contest, Ross arranged an audition for an old neighbor, Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson, in hopes of getting the Primettes signed to the local Motown label. Robinson arranged for the Primettes to audition - acapella - for Motown CEO Berry Gordy, Jr., who felt they were too young and too inexperienced to be recording artists In January 1961, Gordy finally relented and decided to sign the group to Motown after promises of oral sex from Diana and on the condition that they change their name. Gordy gave Ballard a list of names to choose from: The Darleens, the Sweet Ps, the Melodees, the Supremes, the Royaltones, and the Jewelettes.
In December 1963, the Supremes song "When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes", charted at number 23 on the Billboard pop chart.
Also, in 1963, Berry Gordy made Diane Ross, now going by Diana, the official lead singer of the group, because he felt her higher register would help the group cross over to white audiences. Ballard and Wilson were periodically given solos on Supremes albums, and Ballard continued to sing her solo number, "People".
Unlike their predecessors, the Supremes became the first black female performers of the rock era to embrace a more feminine image. Also, unlike many of her contemporaries, Diane Ross sang in a thin, calm voice, and her vocal styling was matched by having the girls embellish their own femininity instead of imitating the qualities of male groups. Instead of the plain appearances and basic dance routines, the Supremes' on-stage appearance featured high-fashion gowns and wigs, detailed makeup, and graceful choreography created by Motown choreographer Cholly Atkins. Gordy wanted the Supremes, like all of his performers to be equally appealing to black and white audiences, and he also sought to erase the image of black performers as being unrefined or lacking class.
By 1965, the Supremes were international stars. They toured the globe, becoming almost as popular abroad as they were in America.
Because the Supremes were popular with white audiences as well as black audiences. Broadway and pop standards were incorporated into their repertoire alongside their own hit songs. As a result, the Supremes were among the first black musical acts to become a complete and sustained crossover success. The group broke down many racial barriers, becoming one of the first black musical acts to appear regularly on television programs such as The Ed Sullivan Show, Hullabaloo, The Hollywood Palace, and The Della Reese Show. By the release of the 1968 album Reflections, The Supremes had become Diana Ross & the Supremes, their sound was moving towards a middle-of-the-road pop style, and Florence Ballard had been dismissed and replaced by Cindy Birdsong.Personnel problems within the group and within Motown Records' stable of performers led
to tension among the Supremes. As Ross became the focal point of the group, Florence Ballard felt pushed aside in the group she had founded.
Depression caused Ballard to start drinking excessively, and she gained weight until she no longer could comfortably wear many of her stage outfits. The friendship, and later the working relationship, between Ross and Ballard became strained. Although the Supremes scored two number-one hits during the first quarter of 1967, "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone" and "The Happening", the group as a unit began to disintegrate.
In late 1966, rumors began circulating that Motown would be renaming the group Diana Ross & the Supremes, a change which was officially announced in early 1967, after one concert when they were billed as The Supremes with Diana Ross.
By 1967, Ballard would sometimes not show up for recording dates or arrive at shows too inebriated to perform. For some live shows in early 1967, she was replaced by Marlene Barrow of Motown's in house backing group, The Andantes. In April 1967, Gordy contacted Cindy Birdsong, a member of Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles who
superficially resembled Ballard, and began plans to bring her in as Ballard's replacement. In May, However, Florence came back to the group on what she thought was a probation just in time for a performance on The Ed Sullivan Show, another run at the Copa where a "Live" album was recorded but not released, and an appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
June 28, 1967 marked the group's first appearance as Diana Ross & the Supremes at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. After only three days of performances, Ballard was permanently dismissed from the Supremes, and Birdsong officially assumed her place during the second show. Later in the month, Motown released "Reflections", a number-two US Billboard hit single, which was the first single to feature the new group name. Diana Ross & the Supremes: Greatest Hits, a number-one album in both the US and the UK, became the first album to do so when released in October of 1967.
The changes within the group and their decreasing sales were signs of changes within the music industry. The gospel-based soul of female performers like Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight of The Pips had eclipsed the Supremes' pop-based sound, which had by now evolved to include more middle-of-the-road material.
In a cultural climate now influenced more than ever by intercultural movements such as the Black Panther Party, the Supremes found themselves attacked for not being
"black enough", and lost ground in the black music market as a result.
By 1969, Motown had begun plans for a Diana Ross solo career. A number of candidates, most notably Syreeta Wright, were considered to replace Ross as the lead singer of The Supremes. After seeing 24-year-old Jean Terrell performing with her brother Ernie in Florida, Berry Gordy decided that she would be Ross' replacement Terrell was signed to Motown and began recording the first post-Ross Supremes songs with Wilson and Birdsong during the day, while Wilson and Birdsong toured with Ross at night.
Diana Ross & the Supremes gave their final performance together on January 14, 1970 at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas; a live recording of the performance was released later that year in a double-LP box set titled Farewell. After the Frontier Hotel performance, Ross officially began her career as a solo performer.
Over the next twelve years, Ross would record six number-one Billboard pop hits on her own, among them songs like "Touch Me in the Morning", "Love Hangover" , and "Upside Down". In addition, Motown successfully helped Ross break into acting, featuring her as the star of three Motown-produced feature films:
Lady Sings the Blues, Mahogany, and The Wiz. As Ross prepared her debut solo album, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong continued working with Jean Terrell on the first post-Ross Supremes album, Right On. The Terrell-led Supremes – known unofficially at first a "The New Supremes," and in later years informally called the "70's Supremes". Many music critics proclaimed the "New Supremes" as a "blacker" act than the Ross-led group, if not quite as unique.
On Sunday June 12, 1977, supported by singer/songwriter Billy Ocean, the Supremes performed their farewell concert at the Drury Lane Theater in London and officially disbanded. The show was originally intended as a farewell concert for original member Mary Wilson, with Scherrie Payne and Susaye Greene continuing the group, although at that stage no replacement member had been auditioned or named.
After their disbanding and announcements that all three members particularly Wilson) would begin solo careers, there were soon rumors that Payne and Greene had auditioned several candidates for Wilson's replacement but Motown felt that since no original member would be in the group, it was time to call it quits for The Supremes. In 1979, Wilson had her first solo album, Mary Wilson, released by Motown, which included a single titled "Red Hot". That same year, Payne and Greene released an album titled Partners under the names "Scherrie & Susaye".
Two of the Supremes have written autobiographies. Mary Wilson's autobiography Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme was published in 1986, and in 1990, she published the follow-up Supreme Faith: Someday We'll Be Together. In January 2000, the two books were released together as Dreamgirl & Supreme Faith: My Life as a Supreme, and included an afterword.
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O álbum postado é uma reliquia, por reunir o melhor da musica composta pela excepcional dupla Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart, na interpretação de um grupo
de "rhythm & blues" com origens no "doo-wop", estilos aparentemente inapropriados para a elegante e sublime música da dupla.
Mas a categoria, a delicadeza, o cuidado com a produção e os arranjos, e a extraordinária performance de Dianna Ross & The Supremes, contorna com enorme classe
esse grande desafio.
É um álbum que merece constar na coletânea de todos os amigos do CBVG.
Esta postagem é uma homenagem aos 1000 Cbvg-friends e foi sugerida pelo Kléssius Lobo, grande amigo e incentivador do blog.
Valeu Kléssius
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Album comments:
Seen from a '60s perspective, this collection might strike a novice Supremes fan as somewhat unusual. Viewed in the context
of Diana Ross's subsequent solo career as pop diva extraordinaire, however, it makes perfect, often sublime sense.
But the historical truth is that the Motown superstars had employed an eclectic mix of classics and new material that was typical of the era.
The germ of this album was a 1966 all-star TV special honoring the music of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart, whose songs for stage
musicals and films from the mid-1920s to early 1940s had long since become one of the great treasure troves of American songraft. Twenty-five songs
were subsequently recorded in Los Angeles for a planned double album that was eventually truncated to a 12-track single disc.
This anthology includes those complete sessions, productions that span the lounge-ready verve of "The Lady Is a Tramp" and restrained pop-jazz of
"My Funny Valentine" and "The Blue Room" to the more rhythmic, Motown formulaic takes of "Lover," "My Romance," and "Falling in Love with Love"
that became the focus of the initial, cut-down album. It's the second half that explores the Supremes' musical potential outside their familiar recipe for hits.
Previously unreleased cuts include a go-go-upped version of Pal Joey's "I Could Write a Book" and an animated 1967 live-at-the-Copamedley of "Lady Is a Tramp/Let's Get Away from It All," which marks one of Florence Ballard's last performances with the group.
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THE SUPREMES SING RICHARD RODGERS & LORENZ HART
Original Release Date: March 26, 2002
Label: Motown
ASIN: B000063BOM
All songs written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, produced by Berry Gordy and Gil Askey
THE SUPREMES
Dianna Ross
Florence Ballard
Mary Wilson
FAIXAS / TRACKS
1. The Lady Is A Tramp
2. Mountain Greenery
3. This Can't Be Love
4. Where Or When
5. Lover
6. My Funny Valentine
7. My Romance
8. My Heart Stood Still
9. Falling In Love With Love
10. Thou Swell
11. Dancing On The Ceiling
12. Blue Moon
13. Manhattan
14. The Blue Room
15. With A Song In My Heart
16. Spring Is Here
17. Little Girl Blue
18. It Never Entered My Mind
19. There's A Small Hotel
20. You Took Advantage Of Me - Alternate Mix
21. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - Alternate Version
22. Wait Till You See Him
23. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
24. Johnny One Note
25. I Could Write A Book
26. Medley: The Lady Is A Tramp/Let's Get Away From It All (Live)
DOWLNLOAD: Parte 1:
AQUI - Parte 2
AQUI
