The Afterword

Tiggerlion on Where Did Our Love To by The Supremes released 31st August 1964

Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Diane Ross were all brought up in Detroit’s Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects. Ballard and Wilson met at Northeastern High School. Ross went to Cass Technical High with the intention of becoming a fashion designer. Even as a youngster, Flo had a powerful, expressive voice and boundless enthusiasm. With her best friend, Mary, she formed a girl group called The Primettes to complement The Primes, a group containing two future Temptations. In turn, Mary, forever in the role of go-between, recruited her neighbour, Diane, to contribute some poise. As teenagers they auditioned for Berry Gordy, chief of Tamla Motown. He told them to come back after they’d graduated. In the meantime, they regularly visited the Hitsville U.S.A. studio, sometimes making themselves useful but mostly making their presence felt. Eventually, they were allowed to provide handclaps and, more excitingly, backing vocals to some records. Finally, in 1961, Berry was persuaded to sign them on condition they changed their name. The girls selected The Supremes from a short list of six.

The first half dozen singles got nowhere. Gordy wrote and produced most of them. » Continue Reading.