It Was 50 Years Ago Today: ‘Supremes A’ Go-Go’ by The Supremes
October 25, 1966
Supremes A’ Go-Go by The Supremes
#1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, October 22 – November 4, 1966
When the Supremes earned five consecutive #1 pop hits in 1964-65, they established themselves as Motown’s great mainstream hope. Berry Gordy and company eagerly stoked the group’s crossover appeal, stuffing Supremes LPs with pop standards and ballads and constructing albums themed around the British Invasion and country and western to prove their versatility and expand their fanbase.
While these albums featured a few gems and sold reasonably well — they were released by the Supremes in the mid-’60s, after all — they missed the point of what made the group great.
Finally, someone at Motown HQ had a simple, yet brilliant, idea: since the Supremes made their name with danceable R&B hits, why not release an album full of danceable R&B hits? The result, 1966’s Supremes A’ Go-Go, became not only the group’s first #1 album, but the first #1 album by an all-female group.
In addition to two of the group’s most recent hits, “Love is Like an Itching in My Heart” and “You Can’t Hurry Love,” the tracklist of Supremes A’ Go-Go is fleshed out with songs that had been recent successes for other artists, many of them fellow Motown acts.
No one knew the Supremes better than their writing/production team Holland-Dozier-Holland, so fittingly, the bulk of the album consists of songs penned by the trio. Only two new songs feature on Supremes A’ Go-Go, both of which had already been released as singles, but they stand as two of the Supremes’ all-time best.
The album opens with “Love is Like an Itching in My Heart,” one of the few Supremes singles of the era not to top the pop charts, “only” making it to #9. While it may not have been one of the group’s biggest hits, its driving, funky sound perfectly sets up the album to come, as well as presaging heavier Supremes singles like “Reflections” and “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.”
The Supremes did manage to score a #1 with “You Can’t Hurry Love,” one of the group’s most enduring classics — not only for its catchy melody and tight, bouncy arrangement, but because it marked the turning point where the Supremes began incorporating a more soulful, sophisticated style.
The rest of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s contributions to Supremes A’ Go-Go had previously been hits for other Motown acts, including the Four Tops, the Isley Brothers, and Martha & the Vandellas. The one exception is also the most compelling of the non-singles. “Put Yourself in My Place” had been recorded the previous year by the Elgins as the B-side to their debut single, “Darling Baby,” but it would surely be new to most people who bought Supremes A’ Go-Go.
While the melody of “Put Yourself in My Place” wasn’t as airtight as the singles Holland-Dozier-Holland were producing for the Supremes, it has a shimmering, wistful quality that stood out from the rest of the album while still feeling well-suited to the group’s sound, especially Diana Ross’s little-girl vocals.
The other Holland-Dozier-Holland songs on Supremes A’ Go-Go are consistently well done, if never quite matching the originals. The fact that several of these tracks were recorded in LA rather than Detroit, without the benefit of Motown’s studio band the Funk Brothers, gives them a somewhat tidier, less powerful sound as well.
Still, it’s a treat to hear the Supremes reclaim the Isley Brothers’ “This Old Heart of Mine (is Weak for You),” which itself had borrowed a hook from “Back in My Arms Again,” or tackle a sped-up, energized version of the Four Tops’ “Baby I Need Your Loving.” A cover of the Vandellas’ “Come and Get These Memories” allows Mary Wilson a deserved moment in the spotlight, even if her interpretation doesn’t add anything new.
The Supremes’ version of “Shake Me, Wake Me (When It’s Over),” however, rivals the Four Tops’ hit version, with Ross ably matching Levi Stubbs not in vocal power, but in raw anguish.
In addition to the Holland-Dozier-Holland hits, Supremes A’ Go-Go features two other Motown classics. The Supremes’ take on “Money (That’s What I Want),” penned by Berry Gordy and originally performed by Barrett Strong, is a fun nod to Motown’s early days, if not particularly inventive.
“Get Ready,” on the other hand, may not quite match the Temptations’ original, but it could have easily been a hit in its own right, perhaps even surpassing the legendarily disappointing chart performance that ended Smokey Robinson’s tenure of writing for the Tempts.
Only two tracks on Supremes A’ Go-Go originated outside the Motown hit factory, and appropriately enough, they’re two of the album’s least interesting. Ross leaves her groupmates behind for a solo take on “These Boots are Made for Walkin’,” but she lacks the archness and assertive sexuality that made Nancy Sinatra’s version so enticing and the absence of Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard’s backing vocals is keenly felt. The Supremes reunite for the closing track, “Hang On Sloopy,” which is decent but inessential. (Isn’t there another Four Tops song the girls could put their own spin on?)
While every track on Supremes A’ Go-Go may not be a classic, the album hangs together as a whole and represents the Supremes’ distinctive sound well, which is more than could be said of most of the group’s previous cobbled-together affairs. Its pop success also stood out from the sea of white male artists who usually dominated the era’s albums charts.
Not only was Supremes A’ Go-Go the first #1 album by a female group, it was only the second chart-topping Motown LP ever (after Little Stevie Wonder’s Recorded Live: The 12-Year-Old Genius three years earlier), and the only #1 album that year by African-American artists. Supremes A’ Go-Go may not be the defining artistic of the sort that labelmates Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder would release a few years later, but its artistic cohesion and mainstream popularity hinted that Motown had more to offer than killer singles.
It Was 50 Years Ago Today examines a song, album, movie, or book that was #1 on the charts exactly half a century ago.
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George L