"Baby Love". "Stop! In the Name of Love". "I Hear a Symphony". "You Can't Hurry Love". "You Keep Me Hangin' On". Five absolutely marvellous songs by The Supremes, all of which made it to number one on Billboard's Hot 100 in the United States. In Canada, however, they all came up short. (The others at least came fairly close but "Baby Love" and "I Hear a Symphony" both came up well short too) Canadians weren't as crazy about the Motown juggernaut as they were down south and even the label's number one cash cow wasn't completely immune, despite having had a handful of chart toppers north of the border.
And yet, "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone" gave the Michigan trio their fourth Canadian number one smash. (I know, I can't remember how it goes either and I'm in the middle of reviewing the bloody thing!) This is the maddening randomness of chart placings in a nutshell: great songs can miss out while inferior numbers take the title, sometimes even when they're by the same artist.
1972 is a key year in the history of the Motown label. Marvin Gaye had already pulled off a declaration of creative independence with his seminal album What's Going On a year earlier and now Stevie Wonder was about to do likewise with a pair of groundbreaking releases Music of My Mind and Talking Book. The control that boss Berry Gordy had exerted on his signings was beginning to loosen but perhaps he had other matters to attend to, namely the decision to uproot his company from his hometown of Detroit to Los Angeles. Having goals of getting into filmmaking no doubt played a significant role and he had his biggest star to be thinking about. (These two being very much related)
But rewinding back to '67 and it seems like the seeds were already been sown for a move out west — and, indeed, a shift from very high quality work to much more of a mystery box filled with good and bad. Diana Ross was already being groomed for a solo career (their next — and final — RPM number one would be credited to 'Diana Ross and the Supremes', as sure a sign as any that things were changing and not for the better) and so she was given a trio of "dramatic" spoken bits in the middle of "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone". If they weren't necessarily going to do much for her singing career, at least you can practically hear her auditioning for future movie roles as Billie Holiday and Dorothy.
I have nothing against spoken word, toasting or rapping but speaking in the middle of a song is one of my many musical pet peeves. That said, I sort of want to defend its use in this instance because they had to do something to spice up what is truthfully a very ordinary Supremes song. Ross being all full of very unconvincing attitude is the only remotely memorable part. Much of it was recorded in LA as they attempted to utilize lush strings and a baroque pop harpsichord just to give it some life. They failed to do so but good on them for giving it a go, I suppose.
Motown's vocal groups were one of its many strengths but by putting the spotlight on Ross while pushing Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson increasingly to the background, they were slowly losing the plot on what had made The Supremes special in the first place. She may have always been the focal point but that didn't mean they were her backing singers. Yet, a far more grievous act was being committed towards a genuine Motown classic. Just wait til you hear one white guy ruin The Four Tops.
Score: 4
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