The Supremes: "Come See About Me"

January 11, 1965 (1 week)

"That's the first record to start with a fade in, before The Beatles, before Talking Heads, before any fucker..."

— Diana Ross (possibly)

We tend to assume that the innovations made in music are the product of creative types unconcerned about commercial pressures. Well, I tend to make this assumption at any rate. By the end of 1964, The Beatles were already making the most of having virtually unlimited time for recording at Abbey Road Studios. While they had many ideas they wished to explore, they were also fortunate enough to utilize accidents that befell them. The feedback on "I Feel Fine" came from leaving a guitar propped up against Paul McCartney's bass amp just as he was playing it. The result was a sound they'd never heard before which was reason enough to include it.

And yet, "Come See About Me" starts with a fade in, which the Fab Four wouldn't attempt for another few months, on a single by The Supremes. Played by famed Motown house band The Funk Brothers. Recorded at Hitsville, USA. Not quite where we'd imagine the studio boffins to be at work on some zany sonic experiments. (That said, Motown's original recording facility in Detroit had more in common with Abbey Road than the state-of-the-art setups in LA and New York. These two, along with smaller, often makeshift studios in Memphis, Tennessee or Bearsville, New York or Kingston, Jamaica tended to be more the home for innovation than the glossy and slick mainstream locales)

Not unlike "I Feel Fine", "Come See About Me" has its startling opening before settling into the comfiness of pop music warmth. If anything, The Supremes do so far more effectively than The Beatles in this instance. For while their fifth Canadian number one represents the Fabs settling into a more-of-the-same routine (something they would promptly abandon), this key track from Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson shows them just getting the swing of this pop lark.

"Where Did Our Love Go?" and "Baby Love" are both outstanding but in a bubble they're just a pair of singles that, frankly, just about anyone could've had a hit with. "Come See About Me" is the first one that could have only been done by The Supremes, as if the writing team of Holland/Dozier/Holland had begun tailoring their material around them. It is, therefore, rather jarring to hear Nella Dodds' version from right around the same time. (Her rendition predated The Supremes on the charts only for it to be usurped) With all due respect to her languid delivery, it just sounds wrong. Dodds steers into its melancholy while Ross acts above it. The Funk Brothers give a relaxed performance, almost as if they were just working it out in the studio, which doesn't quite measure up to the swinging cool they give off when backing The Supremes.

The one real knock against it is that this turning point for the group also became the very thing that would conspire to hold them back. Yes, The Supremes released numerous sublime singles over the remainder of the sixties (not to mention a few pretty good ones in the seventies) but they never kept moving forward. Motown's window was only open to innovation for a brief period. Much as I love a lot of their stuff, they couldn't quite get into that upper tier where The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding all resided. Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder had to instigate power plays on Motown in order to wrest control and rise to that vaunted place; Ross had to be on an entirely different label for her to get there. As great as "Come See About Me" is, I just wish it had been the start of creative explosion, not a place for them to just happily do more of the same.

Score: 9

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Can Con

Coming in as an EXTRA — caps not mine — on RPM's Top 40 & 5 (I think that's called a Top 45) is the Vancouver-born Ray Griff, a country/rockabilly singer, who, not unlike recent Can Con alum Joe Popiel, lived much of his life in my hometown of Calgary. Apparently he was once even a regular at the semi-legendary country roadhouse pub Ranchman's. (I've never been there but I've heard some stories) "That Weepin' Willow Tree" is brisk and has some old fashioned country-gospel underpinning its rock 'n' roll swagger. Griff doesn't hold back which is a perfectly fine choice though I have to wonder if too much of him could leave audiences wanting a lot less. It is, however, a welcome reminder of just how fantastic Elvis used to be. Not exactly my sort of thing but good for what it is.