20. Let Yourself Go (1977)
The final Supremes album, Mary, Scherrie and Susaye, flopped on release and has been overlooked ever since. This is a mistake, as underlined by the impossibly euphoric, warp-speed disco of Let Yourself Go. For more of the same, check out the album’s equally fabulous closer Love, I Never Knew You Could Feel So Good.
19. Love Is Here and Now You’re Gone (1967)
Motown’s producers were always sharply attuned to broader musical developments. Here, the presence of a harpsichord suggests the influence of the Left Banke’s baroque pop extended further than the Four Tops’ cover of Walk Away Renée. Meanwhile, the sheer melodic loveliness contrasts beautifully with Diana Ross’s bitter spoken-word sections.
18. Someday We’ll Be Together (1969)
A cover of a flop 1961 single intended as Ross’s first solo release – the other Supremes aren’t even on it, although the voice of the co-writer Johnny Bristol is – Someday We’ll Be Together’s sweet sadness works perfectly as a farewell to her bandmates or a melancholy waning-of-the-60s eulogy.
17. High Energy (1976)
The Supremes’ inability to get a break in the mid-70s feels baffling when you hear how good their music frequently was. Released the same year as their former leader’s Love Hangover, High Energy is similarly sumptuous and slowly unfolding disco: atmospheric, lush with strings and the startling sound of Scherrie Payne’s whistle-note vocals.
16. Automatically Sunshine (1972)
One suspects Smokey Robinson had been listening to the Turtles’ Happy Together before he wrote Automatically Sunshine and that its sunshine pop melody sounded a little dated in 1972, hence its muted reception in the US. But no matter: the song itself is a total joy.
15. Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart (1966)
The Supremes’ early hits were all distinctly pop-facing, but Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart shifted – thrillingly but temporarily – in the direction of tough dancefloor soul. It’s closer to the output of the Four Tops than Baby Love, a stripped back sound driven by pounding drums and a killer bassline.
14. My World Is Empty Without You (1965)
Setting romantic misery to upbeat music was a Supremes speciality, but My World Is Empty Without You really amps up the lyrical gloom: “Inside this cold and empty house I dwell, with memories I know so well.” The combination of darkness and stomping beat apparently influenced the Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black.
13. Bad Weather (1973)
It says something about how dramatically the Supremes’ star fell that even a single written to order by Stevie Wonder at the peak of his powers couldn’t get them a big hit. But Bad Weather is fantastic: a weaving, smile-inducing, very Stevie Wonder melody set against bleak end-of-the-affair lyrics.
12. Up the Ladder to the Roof (1970)
The Supremes came out swinging after Ross’s departure in 1970. Up the Ladder to the Roof is pillowy pop-soul spiked with the producer Frank Wilson’s rattling congas, wah-wah guitar and strings, that, as Mary Wilson put it, “seemed to float from the top of the universe”. The song’s stately climax is heavenly.
11. Love Child (1968)
They never got the full psychedelic/protest makeover afforded to the Temptations, but the Supremes definitely got grittier as the 60s progressed. Love Child details the emotional repercussions of being brought up fatherless in a “tenement slum”. It was a world away from their glitzy image; they even dressed down on the accompanying album sleeve.
10. You Can’t Hurry Love (1966)
The Supremes had no gospel roots, but You Can’t Hurry Love does: the lyrics of the chorus are based on Dorothy Love Coates’ 1950s track (You Can’t Hurry God) He’s Right on Time, although the tune is infinitely breezier, buoyed along by Florence Ballard and Wilson’s fantastic backing vocals.
9. Baby Love (1964)
A flat-out copy of a winning formula – it mimicked the arrangement, foot-stomping rhythm and backing vocals of Where Did Our Love Go – that somehow equalled the original: that is songwriting genius for you. Its ad-libs were the last time either Ballard or Wilson would be heard singing solo on a Ross-era Supremes single.
8. I Hear a Symphony (1965)
The failure of 1965’s Nothing But Heartaches to make the US Top 10 rattled the songwriters Holland-Dozier-Holland into altering their hit-making formula for the Supremes. I Hear a Symphony was the result. The beat and “baby baby” backing vocals sounded familiar, but it was more lush and complex, possessed of an entirely divine melody.
7. Where Did Our Love Go (1964)
Their breakthrough hit had a tumultuous gestation. The Supremes hated the song: Ross fled the recording session in tears; Holland-Dozier-Holland simply believed her emotional reaction gave her vocal an edge. But its irresistible bounce soundtracked a moment of optimism: it topped the charts after the passing of the Civil Rights Act.
6. Forever Came Today (1967)
Holland-Dozier-Holland’s most lavish production on a Supremes single to date may have been influenced by the Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations – that certainly sounds like a theremin at 1:56. Perhaps they wanted Berry Gordy to know what he was about to lose – they were on the verge of quitting Motown – but what a way to bow out.
5. Nathan Jones (1971)
Initially, it looked like the Supremes might commercially eclipse Ross’s solo career. With songs as good as this, you can see why: sung in unison, decorated with phasing effects, Nathan Jones’s ticking-off of an errant boyfriend is sassier than anything the Supremes v1.0 recorded: if he does come back, well, she has changed the locks.
4. Stoned Love (1970)
Controversial on release – the title led broadcasters to misread its plea for universal brotherhood as a paean to drugs – Stoned Love gently updates the classic Supremes sound for a new decade: deep in the mix, a distorted guitar weaves around the arrangement. More importantly, as a song, it’s the equal of their 60s hits.
3. Reflections (1967)
The standard line is that Motown followed Sly Stone’s lead when it came to psychedelic soul, but, with its freaked-out intro, echoing oscillator and “through-the-mirror-of-my-mind” lyric, Reflections shows Holland-Dozier-Holland beating Sly to the punch, updating the Motown blueprint for the Summer of Love with stunning results.
2. Stop! In the Name of Love (1965)
A story of infidelity that packed one of the 60s’ most indelible choruses and provoked a fantastic Ross performance – listen to the icy distaste with which she describes her love rival, spitting out the words “her sweet expression”. There is the merest hint of experimentation, too, in the tiny bust of discordant organ at the start.
1. You Keep Me Hangin’ On (1966)
Like the Four Tops’ Reach Out I’ll Be There, You Keep Me Hangin’ On offers the sound of Holland-Dozier Holland at their awe-inspiring zenith, matching hooks with raw intensity. From its morse-code guitar intro to its unexpected chord changes and sudden dropouts to the desperation in Ross’s multitracked vocal, particularly during its fade-out, the song’s dark energy never relents. The result is a masterclass in pop that packs an emotional punch. The overall suggestion is that however much the protagonist pleads, she won’t escape from her toxic relationship – and, as she admits, there ain’t nothin’ she can do about it.
