The Supremes

From Detroit's Brewster housing project came Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson, originally known in the late '50s as the Primettes (a sister group to the Primes, who evolved into the Temptations) but which achieved global stardom as the Supremes.

Motown Records' Berry Gordy prized them above his other girl groups, such as the Marvelettes, and the Supremes received the professional grooming (down to etiquette lessons) that would enable them to be Gordy's ultimate crossover act. After several unsuccessful singles, the Supremes united with the Motown songwriting & production team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, yielding five consecutive No. 1 pop hits: "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love," "Come See About Me" (all 1964), then "Stop! In The Name of Love" and "Back in My Arms Again" (1965).

The group hit No. 1 again in 1965 with "I Hear a Symphony," a lavish, baroque concoction that bore scant resemblance to the gritty R&B of their earlier singles. Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote and produced another half-dozen hits for the Supremes, prior to Ballard being replaced by Cindy Birdsong in 1967. Their producers having left Motown, the trio continued to score chartwise with the controversial hit "Love Child," issued in tandem with their first network television special.

Lead vocalist Ross claimed feature marquee status within the trio; after the group's final chart-topping hit, "Someday We'll Be Together," in 1969, she remained with the Supremes for another year, touring and taping a network TV special prior to departing for a solo career.

Thereafter, the group became a franchise with a revolving door cast of vocalists, fated never to approach the success of their '60s output. Ross went on to a solid, albeit uneven, solo career, hitting No. 1 with the 1972 soundtrack to the film "Lady Sings the Blues," in which she portrayed Billie Holiday. In 1978, she starred opposite Michael Jackson and Richard Pryor in the film "The Wiz."

In 1981, the hit musical "Dreamgirls," based on the story of the Supremes' rise to fame and the covert machinations that enabled their astonishing achievements, was produced on Broadway.

Essential Listening»