Greatest Hits - the filler

[sup_fan]

if you had the opportunity to do a 1-lp set of the Supremes' [[any line up) greatest non-hits, what would it be? no A sides allowed. i guess a B side MIGHT be ok lol but mostly just the album tracks. don't worry about album cohesiveness or whatever. But if you select a longer track [[like Sweet Dream or Time To Break Down), then you sacrifice a song. remember the standard lp could only hold about 35-40 mins of music :)

Long Gone Lover
This Old Heart of Mine
You Bring Back Memories
How Long Has That Evening Train Been Gone
Wonderful Wonderful
Ain't That Good News

Misery Makes It's Home
5:30 Plane
You Can't Stop A Girl In Love
Thank Him For Today
Sweet Dream Machine

[Thornton]

I love threads like these. Here's my mix of "greatest" album tracks.

Side A:
Ain't That Good News
This Old Heart of Mine [[Is Weak For You)
Shake Me, Wake Me [[When It's Over)
Mountain Greenery
I'm Gonna Make It [[I Will Wait For You)
I'll Set You Free

Side B:
Thank Him for Today
Tossin' & Turnin'
It's All Been Said Before
You Can't Stop A Girl In Love
I Don't Want To Be Tied Down

[lucky2012]

Side A:
After All
The Tears
I'm Giving You Your Freedom
I'm In Love Again
Lazybones
Ain't That Good News

Side B:
Mother You, Smother You
I Can't Make It Alone
How Long Has That Evening Train Been Gone
Then We Can Try Again
I Wish I Were Your Mirror
The Wisdom of Time

[sup_fan]

haha - i started a similar thread on the Motown part of the forum. and it's so hard.


maybe another way to look at it would be to go by your itunes account and what are the 12 most played Sups songs. do a hits version and a filler version

[floyjoy678]

Side A
1. Long Gone Lover
2. He's Seventeen [[or Makes No Difference Now)
3. Ain't That Good News
4. Honey Boy
5. Shake Me, Wake Me
6. Falling in love with love

Side B
1. Mother You, Smother You
2. How Long Has That Evening Train Been Gone
3. He's My Sunny Boy
4. I Wish I Were Your Mirror
5. It's All Been Said Before
6. Now the Bitter, Now the Sweet

[Diana Ross Fan Club]

SIDE A
1.Standing At The Crossroads Of Love
2.Whisper You Love Me Boy
3.I'm In Love Again
4.Love Is In Our Hearts
5.I Guess I'll Always Love You
6.I'll Set You Free

SIDE B
1.Discover Me [[And You'll Discover Love)
2.I Can't Make It Alone
3.Then
4.Hey Western Union Man
5.Loving You Is Better Than Ever
6.Will This Be The Day?

[jobucats]

1. Baby Doll
2. Makes No Difference Now
3. Long Gone Lover
4. Mother Dear
5. Who Could Ever Doubt My Love
6. The Only Time I’m Happy
7. Any Girl in Love
8. Mother You, Smother You
9. Take Me Where You Go
10. How Long Has That Evening Train Been Gone
11. Loving You is Better Than Ever
12. You Gave Me Love

[Thornton]

This thread reminds me of the great songs sprinkled into "Let The Sunshine In" and "Cream of the Crop." I have a mix that puts all the best tracks into a single "album" of sorts. Interesting to see the songs that are coming up repeatedly too.

[RanRan79]

Sup fan you're foul for only allowing a single disk instead of the 2 on the original greatest hits. Made it extremely difficult to compile this list. I tried to stick to only album cuts and I excluded songs that came out in the previously unreleased era. I had to break my selections down as noted.

Side A
1) Play a Sad Song [[from the "before they were stars period")
2) Long Gone Lover [[representing the non-specialty albums during the Flo years)
3) Aint That Good News [[no way was this not making the album)
4) Falling In Love With Love [[representing the specialty albums during the Flo years)
5) The Impossible Dream [[from TCB, representing the collab with the Tempts albums)
6) I'll Set You Free [[representing the DRATS non specialty/live albums)

Side B
1)Didn't We [[because I needed something here)
2)Here Comes the Sunrise [[representing the JMC period)
3)Without the One You Love [[representing the albums with the Tops)
4)A Heart Like Mine [[although recorded w/ Cindy, Lynda's on the cover so rep JML)
5)You Turn Me Around [[representing MSC)
6)Sweet Dream Machine [[representing MSS)

This may have been the most difficult to compile.

[sup_fan]

^hehehe part of my twisted scheme to drive all supremes fans mad lol

how about this one. what's the 1 song you thing best captures each lineup?

DMFB - Your heart belongs to me
DMF - originally i'd say You Can't Hurry love but since Flo isn't on that song, i'll go with Back in my arms again
DCM - Your love is so wonderful to me
MJC - stoned love
MJL - 5:30 plane
MSC - you can't stop a girl in love
MSS - let yourself go

[RanRan79]

^hehehe part of my twisted scheme to drive all supremes fans mad lol

how about this one. what's the 1 song you thing best captures each lineup?

DMFB - I'd like to say "Those DJ Shows" because apparently Barbara missed the recording session.;) However, I'll go with "Your Heart Belongs" because it is probably the best example of that groupings harmonies with Barbara in the mix.

DMF - "Mr. Blues" because it's a great example of the three harmonizing together, which was a strong point of theirs. It sucks that Motown would get further and further away from this aspect of the group as the Flo years wore on.

DCM - I'm actually going to go with a "live" one here rather than a studio cut, and that's the "Fats Waller Medley". In addition to the medley being a fantastic visual [[and one of the instances where Cindy's tenure allowed for the group to step their game up as Flo probably never would've been that good a dancer), the three of them are doing some great harmonizing together. Of course the name of the group at this point is Diana Ross and the Supremes, and we know why, but again it's a shame that there wasn't more reliance on even Diana's ability to join the girls in harmony. They sound great here.

MJC - "I Wish I Were Your Mirror", Mary and Cindy are cutting up on this one and of course Jean sounds fantastic as usual. I'd say a perfect representation of what they could do together.

MJL - "Bad Weather", as most of everything else is from JW and we know it was basically the Supremes and the Blossoms together for the sessions. As far as I know there's no one but Supremes on "Bad Weather" and Jean sounds great and Mary and Lynda are tearing it up.

MSC - "The Sha La Bandit" from the 70s Anthology, with the shared leads. To be honest I'm not all that impressed with the MSC background vocals on most cuts, as they don't come across very "groupy", unlike the Three Degrees or Pointer Sisters or even JMC. I don't particularly care for the Scherrie only "Bandit"s, but I love the one where they all share the leads, even Cindy sounds good and I never think of her voice as lead material, and the backgrounds are lovely. The only other example I might use is "Seed of Love". Scherrie's lead is great and understated and Mary and Cindy are harmonizing beautifully. So I might say a tie between "Bandit" and "Seed".

MSS - Probably "Let Yourself Go", but there isn't much worth choosing IMO.

[sup_fan]

^ great list and interesting choices. i'm intrigued that you're not all that big of a fan of the material from the Scherrie years. I think MSC actually have a wonderful blend and their group background vocals are stronger in many instances than the MJC. Now i'm not sure how they compare to the Emotions or Pointer Sisters as i've never really listened to much of their material other than some of the big hits.

the MSS lineup was also excellent IMO in the studios. live was another matter though

[RanRan79]

^ great list and interesting choices. i'm intrigued that you're not all that big of a fan of the material from the Scherrie years. I think MSC actually have a wonderful blend and their group background vocals are stronger in many instances than the MJC. Now i'm not sure how they compare to the Emotions or Pointer Sisters as i've never really listened to much of their material other than some of the big hits.

the MSS lineup was also excellent IMO in the studios. live was another matter though

There are some cuts from the Scherrie years that I absolutely love: Early Morning Love, Where Do I Go From Here, You're What's Missing In My Life, High Energy. Most of the songs during this time are certainly good songs, and Scherrie's contribution to the group can't be pointed out enough. She brought an energy to the group vocally that was invaluable. But they're no Emotions or Pointers or Three Degrees. Of course that's not because they didn't have the abilities, but their musical direction at the time just isn't cutting it for me. Their songs tend to be overly disco-fied and the harmonies suffer, IMO.

Susaye's entrance definitely kept the talent level up, but I'm not a fan of her voice. They were certainly much better in the studio than they were when they were competing to be heard on stage. Yikes.

[sup_fan]

i do agree that the consistency of the quality of songs during the Scherrie years suffered. there were amazing tracks and not so amazing ones. And then quite a lot in the middle - rather generic disco. i think things got progressively better with each lp. Sup 75 is a mixed bag at best. I do like the more pop songs by Woodford & Ivey. He's My Man is corny but an energetic track. Where Do I Go is fine enough but nothing all that unique or special. Early Morning is ridiculous as is Where Is It I Belong.

with HE things are picking up. obviously IGLMHDTW is sensational. and with it i think they finally found a "sound" for this grouping. it's a powerful "you go girl" girl group song. Some of the other HE tracks though are a bit generic.

MS&S then takes this attitude and power from Walking and builds on it

[RanRan79]

Song for song I prefer the HE album to the other two. "Heart Do the Walking" was definitely a good move. It had a sound that I think was R&B enough to not be thrown into the disco box. And that's what I think the other girl groups had going for them. They recorded songs that were popular with the disco crowd, but they were R&B enough to be popular with the non disco fans. [[Of course a lot of disco is R&B, but I imagine you get what I'm talking about.)

After Jean left, the Supremes needed a shot in the arm. Bringing back Cindy and recruiting Scherrie was definitely positives, but they needed a producer to come in and give them a 1975 album that either would blow everyone's minds or at least shake folks up a bit. I like the Supremes 75 album, but when you get down to it it's not anything special. It definitely doesn't hold up well against the Three Degrees' International lp, the Pointers Steppin lp, or Labelle's Phoenix lp, all from 1975. It doesn't even hold up well against Natalie Cole's debut from 1975.

I know the argument gets made that the Supremes had been a successful recording act [[in some form or another) since late 1963 into 1972 and at some point it can be expected that people would move on. I just don't buy this. People move on because whatever they were getting from an artist before, they were no longer getting it. Look at Aretha. She had been marginally hit and miss for about seven years before exploding with success after success for a number of years. And then things kind of drop off. She has that You album that doesn't do much and then she hooks up with Curtis Mayfield for Sparkle and people go nuts. She has another dry spell for like another four or five years and then makes a bit of noise with Aretha and then follows that up with the huge collab with Luther. [[Yes I understand that with Aretha 80 she was now under a different umbrella than she was during her ultimate reign, but my point still stands.) The Supremes were still hanging on [[no pun intended) in the mid 70s, but they needed that right thing to make the public pay attention. Nothing on Supremes 75 was doing that.

[sup_fan]

often artists that are able to last for many years or through multiple generations of youth do so by constantly reinventing themselves. it doesn't mean quite like Madonna or Lady Gaga today with radical reimaging of their sound and look.

Diana did that for a while at least, through the 70s. with her first few solo lps, she was the hot, new black singer. with Lady and Touch Me In AM she's now a more mature "artiste" and a more mature woman

she got herself started strong in the disco market with DR 76 lp and Hangover. but then she sort of stagnated a while in the late 70s. the Boss was a solid effort. she is chic and glamorous but without the glitter and cliche sequins. the mane of hair, the sexy look. she was an 80s woman emerging! then the chic work which is so urban cool and hip. after that she sort of gets stuck in her "80s dynasty phase" IMO. big hair, big nails, big gowns, big glitter. and she's not really moved on from that

with Jean entering the supremes, their sound evolved with a more r&b slant versus the DRATS music. with New Ways they sort of attempted to be "soul sisters singing about mankind and a higher ideal" with the fros, the mostly topical songs. but the approach was weakened by a stray track or two on the lp, the nit wit title and the garish pink cover.

FJ continued to evolve the sound that was established with the earlier works. but they didn't evolve their look as much and with Cindy's departure, suddenly the basic idea of Who Are The Supremes comes up again. with FJ they could have evolved a bit from their cliche sequins to new definitions of fashion and glam. the cover pic is sensational and hip. they could have worked towards that.

then jimmy webb :[[

there was the potential with Stevie to reinvigorate their image and sound but too late

With MSC, they sort of just went back to their Vegas-y sequin approach. From a live perspective, they were just rehashing things. it worked enough to at least get favorable reviews and motown resigned them. but there was no managerial guidance to help them break into a new and exciting direction. they were still buying huge "scarlett ohare" sequin ballgowns for their outfits and that just wasn't an appropriate visual depiction of disco. when Susaye come on, they at least had established the harder edged disco sound and on record, they seemed on the right track. but live they were still a mess

[markdtiller]

A Side:
1. Ask Any Girl
2. Sunset
3. [[Ain't That) Good News
4. Bah-Bah-Bah
5. For Better Or Worse [[w/Temptations)
6. Can't Take My Eyes Off You [[live)

B Side:
1. What Do You Have To Do [[To Stay OnThe Right Side Of Love) w/Four Tops
2. It's Time To Break Down
3. Now The Bitter Now The Sweet
4. I Keep It Hid
5. Bend A Little
6. Sweet Dream Machine

[RanRan79]

Of the eight posts that compiled a list, six of them contain "Aint That Good News". Safe to say a fan favorite, huh? I love that song.

[sup_fan]

yep. 5 votes for it

other top picks include

How Long evening train [[4 votes)
long Gone Lover [[4 votes)
Sweet Dream Machine [[3 votes)
Mother You, Smother You [[3 votes)
I'm in love again [[2 votes)
I Can't Make It Alone [[2 votes)
I Wish I were your mirror [[2 votes)
Loving you is better than ever [[2 votes)
now the bitter, now the sweet [[2 votes)
Falling in love with love [[2 votes)
I Guess I'll Always love you [[2 votes)
I'll set you free [[2 votes)

[daviddh]

Going Down for the Third time
Ask Any Girl
Standing At The Crossroads
Ill Set You Free
The Young Folks
My Sunny Boy
Then
Bah Bah Bah
Im Gonna Make it
Long Gone Lover
Loving You Is Sweeter
You Gave Me Love
the 70s

Life Beats
but I love you more
Shine On Me
time to break down
here comes the sunrise
love it came to me this time
now the bitter now the sweet
sweet dream machine
sha la bandit
bend a little