September 1, 1964 (1 week)
(Madcap British singer-songwriter-historian Julian Cope believed that John Lennon and Yoko Ono initially wanted to have their famous bed-in for peace at a hotel in the Michigan city but when they couldn't get a visa, they went across the river to Toronto. Now where to begin with this claim? First, far be it from being just over the river, it takes around four hours to drive from Detroit to Toronto. Next, the Bed-In as well as the recording of the seminal "Give Peace a Chance" took place at a hotel in Montreal. Oh, and there's nothing in the way of evidence that this was even contemplated in the first place. But, otherwise, good job there Jules!)
The proximity to Canada hasn't done much for Motor City artists. There had already been three number one hits by Motown acts on the Hot 100 but they all came up short on the CHUM charts. (The Marvelettes' "Please Mister Postman" doesn't seem to have charted at all which must be down to either neglect on the part of Motown or disinterest on the part of Canadians — or both) Though The Supremes ended up having their share of chart toppers on the RPM listings — even if a total of five is still rather low - this trend seems to have continued with both The Four Tops and The Temptations being without a single Canadian number one between them. No "Baby I Need Your Loving"? "My Girl"? "Reach Out (I'll Be There)"? "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)"? Nah, screw that shit, Canadians had Herman's Hermits singles to buy. (Spoiler alert: Herman's Hermits will be coming up a lot in this space. I predict at some point you'll read a review of one of their RPM number ones and you'll think, "well, that's got to be the last one from them, right?" and you will be dead wrong)
I love The Four Tops and I dig The Temptations nearly as much but neither of them were close to The Supremes. With all due respect to Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson, much of this was down to Diana Ross. While seemingly everyone else in the Motown stable possessed a stronger voice — and that even includes her own bandmates — there wasn't anyone who sounded remotely like her. It's scarcely singing at all, more a lilting whisper with the volume cranked up. Surely no one else in the history of pop has made the word 'yearning' sound so, well, yearning. The girl groups effortlessly pulled off sass but they couldn't do innocence and vulnerability like she could. Whatsmore, Ross also gave off the distinct impression that she wasn't someone to mess with.
While some of those wonderful Holland-Dozier-Holland compositions would soon begin to dazzle listeners with instantly lovable choruses and tight grooves, "Where Did Our Love Go" is remarkably low-key. Ian MacDonald described it as having a "frugal starkness" not unlike The Beatles' "Love Me Do" and it's hard to disagree. You don't even get one of those trademark drum rolls that kick start virtually every other Motown single of the era. (On the other hand, Mike Terry's rough, almost barroom baritone sax solo is as good as the one he played a year earlier on Martha Reeves and the Vandellas' "Heat Wave") I don't know if this was his intention but introducing the public to The Supremes with something very intimate was a masterful stroke on the part of label kingpin Berry Gordy. This was not your typical girl group. They were taking you into their private lives, into diary entries that were otherwise locked tight and into notes passed around the classroom.
The Supremes aside, there won't be any further Motown singles covered in this space until we get to the seventies — and even then there won't be all that many. As we're already starting to see, Canadians were simply too caught up in the British Invasion to be all that concerned about all the outstanding music being made just on the other side of the Detroit River. The craze for British pop, however, was only just getting started.
Score: 9
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