DRATS Progression

[vgalindo]

It's interesting that the DRATS "Progression" was derailed almost immediately after the name change took effect. Each single and lp did worse than the previous for over a year.

Berry Gordy was surely panicking, as was Ross, when radio programmers had a rather negative outlook on this name change. I can well remember the pre-Love Child records being played with DJs still saying "The Supremes" as the record faded on air. I remember some saying "That's the Supremes and Diana Ross." No one at Motown expected this backlash.

Gordy was always a gambler, and he did it again in the summer of 1968. DRATS were booked on Sullivan for late September so he locked up his best writers [[minus Smokey and Whitfield) into a Detroit hotel with the order not to emerge until they had a hit on Ross. After several mixes, Love Child was born and all parties involved knew it was a hit. DRATS had already recorded the TCB special with the Tempts and Gordy knew both groups had to have big hit records by the December air date to attract viewers. Therefore Motown PR went into overdrive promoting Love Child and Cloud 9. It worked beautifully even though radio programmers also took to Stevie and Marvin's new singles which took a bit out of the sails of Love and Cloud. Nevertheless, Motown went into December 1968 with two major hits on DRATS and the Tempts, a milestone, heavily viewed TV special on both groups, and lps selling like crazy on their duets.

This renewed interest in the new Tempts [[with Dennis Edwards) and DRATS carried over well into 1969 and beyond for the Tempts, but DRATS cooled quickly. The problem here was that no one at Motown could capture the group into a hit sound that HDH did prior. So DRATS flapped around for much of 1969. Gordy was so panicked over getting the group back on top so he could pull Diana out that he yanked Smokey's The Composer as it was heading for a certain Top 20 showing in favor of his own No Matter What Sign You Are, which made a dismal showing. This was one time Gordy gambled and lost. As the summer of 1969 came to a close, his star was cold again. Another duet lp with the Tempts didn't help and the Broadway special was not well received.

As someone said earlier, Johnny Bristol's Someday We'll Be Together was being held back for Diana's solo debut. But nobody at Motown was coming up with anything that had hit potential on Ross going into the fall of 1969 and Gordy was now determined that his unhappy star was to be launched as a soloist at year's end. They were once again booked for Sullivan in late December as the headlining act in a special celebrating Sixties music. Gordy needed a major hit for this to be Diana's swan song. Therefore Someday was moved up to be the final single for DRATS. That gamble also paid off.

For the next three years Diana Ross was hit and miss on the charts as a soloist. After Remember Me she went into the doldrums as she got pregnant and started preparing for LSTB. Her ABC tv special didn't do well. In late 1972 Diana was the coldest she had been since 1963 when the movie was issued. LSTB single handedly revived Diana's career, sunk the Ross-less Supremes who had been more consistent hitmakers than Ross, and launched Diana Ross into the superstardom she continues to enjoy.

I always read that her ABC television special was a Neilsons rating success? This is the first time hearing that it didn’t do good.

[sup_fan]

I always read that her ABC television special was a Neilsons rating success? This is the first time hearing that it didn’t do good.

my guess is there are multiple ways to define "good." on one hand it probably had pretty solid Neilsons. and it also had that silent movie segment with Diana doing those characters and this helped lead to her casting in LSTB.

on the flip side, it probably further segmented her away from the youth market. this was basically Vegas done on a tv special. the glitz and excessive glamor, the corny skits, etc. the 60s saw a HUGE explosion of the youth market and how lucrative that was. motown missed out on that in many ways in the later 60s and into the 70s. motown was still focusing on MOR and Queen of the House and wigs and tuxedos and all. the 14 - 29 year old audience wasn't interested in that any more. there were so many new genres of music and artists. motown was no longer as "cool" as it was in the mid 60s. this tv special did nothing to change Diana's image in those regards. therefore you didn't have teens and college kids looking for her Surrender album or the singles. they also ignored EIE