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The phenomenon that greatly helped put Creator/{{Motown}} on the musical map began in 1959 when Brewster residents Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Music/DianaRoss, and Betty [=McGlown=] organized a sister group to The Primes (with future Temptations Paul Williams and Eddie Kendrick), calling themselves The Primettes. Eventually, Smokey Robinson brought them to the attention of Creator/{{Motown}} exec Berry Gordy. At Hitsville USA, the group, having not yet finished high school, apprenticed by contributing backing vocals and handclaps to other artists on the label.

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The phenomenon that greatly helped put Creator/{{Motown}} on the musical map began in 1959 when Brewster residents Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Music/DianaRoss, and Betty [=McGlown=] organized a sister group to The Primes (with future Temptations Paul Williams and Eddie Kendrick), Kendricks), calling themselves The Primettes. Eventually, Smokey Robinson brought them to the attention of Creator/{{Motown}} exec Berry Gordy. At Hitsville USA, the group, having not yet finished high school, apprenticed by contributing backing vocals and handclaps to other artists on the label.

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Long Title is a disambig.


* LongTitle: The first pressing of "A Breath Taking Guy" gave the title as "A Breath Taking, First Sight Soul Shaking, One Night Love Making, Next Day Heart Breaking Guy". After realizing [[https://motownjunkies.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/m1044a.jpg?w=529 how ridiculous it looked on the label]], Motown amended it to the shorter title.


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* OfficiallyShortenedTitle: The first pressing of "A Breath Taking Guy" gave the title as "A Breath Taking, First Sight Soul Shaking, One Night Love Making, Next Day Heart Breaking Guy". After realizing [[https://motownjunkies.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/m1044a.jpg?w=529 how ridiculous it looked on the label]], Motown amended it to the shorter title.
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* FadeIn: "Come See About Me" fades up on its opening drum beats, making it the first pop song to use that technique.
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IS now YMMV, so moving to that page


* RefrainFromAssuming: While they have sung the words "I was bitten by the love bug," the title is "Love is Like an Itching In My Heart."

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* FilkSong: "I'm Livin' in Shame", the followup to "Love Child", was inspired by the plight of Sarah Jane in the Creator/DouglasSirk version of ''[[Film/ImitationOfLife1959 Imitation of Life]]''
* GirlGroup: The TropeCodifier

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* FilkSong: "I'm Livin' in Shame", the followup to "Love Child", was inspired by the plight of Sarah Jane in the Creator/DouglasSirk version of ''[[Film/ImitationOfLife1959 Imitation of Life]]''
*
%%* GirlGroup: The TropeCodifier
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Similar to what happened to Music/{{Genesis}} later, The Supremes' history falls into two distinct eras. Most casual listeners and oldies fans would be familiar with the above songs and others produced in TheSixties, when Ross was still a member. But in TheSeventies, the group, anchored by Wilson, were heard mostly on R&B radio and are staples of classic soul programming to this day.

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Similar to what happened to Music/{{Genesis}} Music/{{Genesis|Band}} later, The Supremes' history falls into two distinct eras. Most casual listeners and oldies fans would be familiar with the above songs and others produced in TheSixties, when Ross was still a member. But in TheSeventies, the group, anchored by Wilson, were heard mostly on R&B radio and are staples of classic soul programming to this day.
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* ArtistAndTheBand: The group changed its name as Diana Ross And The Supremes in 1967 before Diana left the group three years later.
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** Ross herself theorized the song could be seen as an allegory for the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement (especially considering the political unrest surrounding it at the time and the nation still reeling from the assassination of UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr the previous year), with the lyrics dreaming about a time when all the races could come together in complete harmony.

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** Ross herself theorized the song could be seen as an allegory for the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement (especially considering the political unrest surrounding it at the time and the nation still reeling from the assassination of UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr the previous year), with the lyrics dreaming about a time when all the races could come together in complete harmony.
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** Ross herself theorized the song could be seen as an allegory for the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement (especially considering the political unrest surrounding it at the time and the recent assassination of UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr), with the lyrics dreaming about a time when all the races could come together in complete harmony.

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** Ross herself theorized the song could be seen as an allegory for the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement (especially considering the political unrest surrounding it at the time and the recent nation still reeling from the assassination of UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr), UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr the previous year), with the lyrics dreaming about a time when all the races could come together in complete harmony.
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1967 saw some major changes for the group. Flo Ballard, talented but extremely troubled, was fired after performing drunk onstage and replaced by Cindy Birdsong. Concurrently, the group's billing changed to Diana Ross & The Supremes, cementing Ross once and for all as the band's star. The next year, their songwriting[=/=]production team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland left Motown over some disputes with Gordy. While Gordy put several other Motown staffers to work on Supremes music, he also began grooming Ross for a solo career, and she officially left at the end of 1969, though the group continued with Wilson and new lead singer Jean Terrell.

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1967 saw some major changes for the group. Flo Ballard, talented but extremely troubled, was fired after performing drunk onstage and replaced by Cindy Birdsong. Concurrently, the group's billing changed to Diana Ross & The Supremes, cementing Ross once and for all as the band's group's star. The next year, their songwriting[=/=]production team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland left Motown over some disputes with Gordy. While Gordy put several other Motown staffers to work on Supremes music, he also began grooming Ross for a solo career, and she officially left at the end of 1969, though the group continued with Wilson and new lead singer Jean Terrell.

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* FilkSong: "I'm Livin' in Shame", the followup to "Love Child", was inspired by the plight of Sarah Jane in the Creator/DouglasSirk version of ''[[Film/ImitationOfLife1959 Imitation of Life]]''



* MockMillionaire: "I'm Livin' in Shame". The narrator is ashamed of her poor upbringing and her slovenly mother, so when she gets to college she lies and says she's a wealthy girl whose mother died, and becomes estranged from her past, only to learn years later when her mother dies for real.

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* MockMillionaire: "I'm Livin' in Shame". The narrator is ashamed of her poor upbringing and her slovenly mother, so when she gets to college she lies and says she's a wealthy girl whose mother died, and becomes estranged from her past, only to learn years later but NeverGotToSayGoodbye when her mother dies died for real.
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1967 saw some major changes for the group. Flo Ballard, talented but extremely troubled, was fired after performing drunk onstage and replaced by Cindy Birdsong. Concurrently, the group's billing changed to Diana Ross & The Supremes, cementing Ross once and for all as the band's star. The next year, their songwriting[=/=]production team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland left Motown over some disputes with Gordy. While Gordy put several other Motown staffers to work on Supremes music, he also began grooming Ross for a solo career, and she officially left at the end of 1969, though the group continued with Wilson and new lead singer Jean Terrell.


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* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: ''Theatre/{{Dreamgirls}}'' is a very thinly-fictionalized retelling of the Supremes story, centered on the tension between Diana Ross and Flo Ballard being transformed into the Deena Jones[=/=]Effie White rivalry.


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* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Florence Ballard got some lead vocals on the early albums and in live shows, including a version of [[Theatre/FunnyGirl "People"]].

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* MockMillionaire: "I'm Livin' in Shame". The narrator is ashamed of her poor upbringing and her slovenly mother, so when she gets to college she lies and says she's a wealthy girl whose mother died, and becomes estranged from her past, only to learn years later when her mother dies for real.



* QuestioningTitle: "Where Did Our Love Go?"



* SingerNamedrop: Their final album, ''Mary, Scherrie, and Susaye,'' referencing members Wilson, Payne, and Greene respectively.

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* SingerNamedrop: SingerNamedrop:
** Diana Ross mentions her bandmates in "Back in My Arms Again".
--->How can Mary tell me what to do\\
When she lost her love so true?\\
And Flo, she don't know\\
'Cause the boy she loves is a Romeo
**
Their final album, ''Mary, Scherrie, and Susaye,'' referencing members Wilson, Payne, and Greene respectively.
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* TheBandMinusTheFace: One of the most notable examples, as they carried on for quite a while after Diana Ross went solo. While not coming anywhere close to their previous success, they managed to get a few more hits, though after a while they started doing better on the R&B charts than the pop ones (the post-Ross Supremes had six Top 10 R&B hits in the 1970-71 period).


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* PsychedelicRock: "Reflections" was Motown's first overt attempt at a psychedelic sound, with a beeping oscillator and mildly trippy lyrics.
-->I'm all alone now\\
No love to shield me\\
Trapped in a world\\
That's a distorted reality
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Not a trope


* MusicOfNote: The definitive GirlGroup of TheSixties, arguably the yardstick by which all others of the era are judged.

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->''"(Think it over) After I've been good to you''
->''(Think it over) After I've been sweet to you''
->''Stop! In the name of love''
->''Before you break my heart''
->''Stop! In the name of love''
->''Before you break my heart''
->''Think it over''
->''Think it over"''
-->-- [[PunctuatedForEmphasis "Stop! In the Name of Love"]]

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->''"(Think it over) After I've been good to you''
->''(Think it over) After I've been sweet to you''
->''Stop! In the name of love''
->''Before you break my heart''
->''Stop! In the name of love''
->''Before you break my heart''
->''Think it over''
->''Think it over"''
-->-- [[PunctuatedForEmphasis "Stop! In the Name of Love"]]
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** Diana Ross departed the group two months after the single's release, with some interpreting it as a wistful swan song to her time working with Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong, and how they would "be together" again sometime in the future.

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** Diana Ross departed the group two months after the single's release, with some interpreting it as a wistful swan song to her time working with Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong, and how they would "be together" again sometime in the future.future, which indeed happened when the trio briefly reformed in 1983 for the TV special ''Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever''.
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* StudioChatter: The instrumental version of "Love is Like an Itching in My heart" by Music/{{Motown}} studio band The Funk Brothers starts off with several musicians speaking at once.

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* StudioChatter: The instrumental version of "Love is Like an Itching in My heart" by Music/{{Motown}} Creator/{{Motown}} studio band The Funk Brothers starts off with several musicians speaking at once.
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** And its opposite number, moodwise, "You Keep Me Hanging On"

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** And its opposite number, moodwise, "You Keep Me Hanging On"On" is an inverted version, being about begging for a break-up.



* StudioChatter: The instrumental version of "Love is Like an Itching in My heart" by {{Motown}} studio band The Funk Brothers starts off with several musicians speaking at once.

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* StudioChatter: The instrumental version of "Love is Like an Itching in My heart" by {{Motown}} Music/{{Motown}} studio band The Funk Brothers starts off with several musicians speaking at once.
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* DisappearedDad: "Love Child" is about a woman who grew up without a father. She is telling her story to what one presumes is an eager boyfriend, telling him to hold his horses because she's not going to inflict that life on her own baby if ''he'' disappears.
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* ChristmasSongs: Their 1965 ''Merry Christmas'' album

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* ChristmasSongs: Their 1965 ''Merry Christmas'' albumalbum.
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[[caption-width-right:350: The classic lineup: Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and Music/DianaRoss.]]

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[[caption-width-right:350: The classic lineup: '60s lineup of The Supremes. From left to right: Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and Music/DianaRoss.]]
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->''(Think it over) After I've been good to you''

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->''(Think ->''"(Think it over) After I've been good to you''



->''Think it over''
-->[[PunctuatedForEmphasis "Stop! In the Name of Love"]]

-> ''The next three singers are aptly named. In the field of popular music, [[MeaningfulName they’re really supreme.]] Ladies and gentlemen, The Supremes.''
-->Music/HerbAlpert, introducing them in his VarietyShow special.

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->''Think it over''
-->[[PunctuatedForEmphasis
over"''
-->-- [[PunctuatedForEmphasis
"Stop! In the Name of Love"]]

-> ''The ''"The next three singers are aptly named. In the field of popular music, [[MeaningfulName they’re really supreme.]] Ladies and gentlemen, The Supremes.''
-->Music/HerbAlpert,
"''
-->-- '''Music/HerbAlpert''',
introducing them in his VarietyShow special.



In 1964, The Supremes scored their first #1 hit on the ''Billboard'' chart with "Where Did Our Love Go?", beginning their tenure as the chart-topping powerhouse that has made them frequently heard to this day on both classic soul and oldies radio. Among their other chart-toppers in TheSixties were "Baby Love", "Come See About Me", "Stop! In the Name of Love", "I Hear a Symphony", "You Can't Hurry Love", "You Keep Me Hangin' On", "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone", "The Happening", "Love Child", and "Someday We'll Be Together".

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In 1964, The Supremes scored their first #1 hit on the ''Billboard'' chart with "Where Did Our Love Go?", beginning their tenure as the chart-topping powerhouse that has made them frequently heard to this day on both classic soul and oldies radio. Among their other '60s chart-toppers in TheSixties were "Baby Love", "Come See About Me", "Stop! In the Name of Love", "I Hear a Symphony", "You Can't Hurry Love", "You Keep Me Hangin' On", "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone", "The Happening", "Love Child", and "Someday We'll Be Together".
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The phenomenon that greatly helped put Creator/{{Motown}} on the musical map began in 1959 when Brewster residents Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Music/DianaRoss, and Betty [=McGlown] organized a sister group to The Primes (with future Temptations Paul Williams and Eddie Kendrick), calling themselves The Primettes. Eventually, Smokey Robinson brought them to the attention of Creator/{{Motown}} exec Berry Gordy. At Hitsville USA, the group, having not yet finished high school, apprenticed by contributing backing vocals and handclaps to other artists on the label.

to:

The phenomenon that greatly helped put Creator/{{Motown}} on the musical map began in 1959 when Brewster residents Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Music/DianaRoss, and Betty [=McGlown] [=McGlown=] organized a sister group to The Primes (with future Temptations Paul Williams and Eddie Kendrick), calling themselves The Primettes. Eventually, Smokey Robinson brought them to the attention of Creator/{{Motown}} exec Berry Gordy. At Hitsville USA, the group, having not yet finished high school, apprenticed by contributing backing vocals and handclaps to other artists on the label.
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----






* TrademarkFavoriteFood: "Buttered Popcorn" is about a boyfriend who likes it "for breakfast, lunch and dinner too." It's an answer song to another song fitting the same trope called "Peanut Butter" by The Marathons.

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* TrademarkFavoriteFood: "Buttered Popcorn" is about a boyfriend who likes it "for breakfast, lunch and dinner too." It's an answer song to another song fitting the same trope called "Peanut Butter" by The Marathons.Marathons.
----
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[[caption-width-right:350: Music/TheSupremes classic lineup: Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and Music/DianaRoss.]]

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[[caption-width-right:350: Music/TheSupremes The classic lineup: Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and Music/DianaRoss.]]



Original member [=McGlown=] became engaged and left the group in 1960; she was replaced by Barbara Martin. Still a quartet, The Primettes were finally signed to Creator/{{Motown}} in 1961 on the condition that they change their name; presented with a list of suggestions, Ballard decided on The Supremes. Martin left early in 1962, and it was decided to continue the group as a trio.

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Original member [=McGlown=] became engaged and left the group in 1960; she was replaced by Barbara Martin. Still a quartet, The Primettes were finally signed to Creator/{{Motown}} Motown in 1961 on the condition that they change their name; presented with a list of suggestions, Ballard decided on The Supremes. Martin left early in 1962, and it was decided to continue the group as a trio.



* '''Florence Ballard'''
* '''Diana Ross'''
* '''Mary Wilson'''
* '''Betty [=McGlown=]'''

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* '''Florence Ballard'''
Ballard''' (June 30, 1943 – February 22, 1976)
* '''Diana Ross'''
'''Music/DianaRoss''' (born March 26, 1944)
* '''Mary Wilson'''
Wilson''' (March 6, 1944 – February 8, 2021)
* '''Betty [=McGlown=]'''[=McGlown=]''' (June 30, 1941 – January 12, 2008)
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* '''Betty Mc Glown'''

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* '''Betty Mc Glown'''[=McGlown=]'''
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* ChristmasMusic: Their 1965 ''Merry Christmas'' album

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* ChristmasMusic: ChristmasSongs: Their 1965 ''Merry Christmas'' album
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* ChristmasMusic: Their 1965 ''Merry Christmas'' album

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