Supremes - Bad Weather Turns 50

[marybrewster]

With no fanfare, the single "Bad Weather" turned 50 this week. Here's a list of songs that Stevie wrote or co-wrote around the same time. If a full LP had come to fruition, I "wonder" if any of these would have been included.


Year Song Artist Writers
1973 Bad Weather The Supremes S.Wonder/I.Tucker Jr.
1973 Soft Days The Supremes S.Wonder
1973 I Am Yours The Main Ingredient S.Wonder
1973 Something 'Bout Love The Main Ingredient S.Wonder
1973 Something Lovely The Main Ingredient S.Wonder
1973 Open Up Your Heart Labelle S.Wonder
1974 I'm Goin Left Syreeta S.Wonder/S.Wright.
1974 Spinnin' And Spinnin' Syreeta S.Wonder/S.Wright
1974 Your Kiss Is Sweet Syreeta S.Wonder/S.Wright
1974 Come And Get This Stuff Syreeta S.Wonder
1974 Heavy Day Syreeta S.Wonder/S.Wright
1974 Cause We've Ended As Lovers Syreeta S.Wonder
1974 Just A Little Piece Of You Syreeta S.Wonder/S.Wright
1974 Waitin' For The Postman Syreeta S.Wonder
1974 When Your Daddy's Not Around Syreeta S.Wonder
1974 I Wanna Be By Your Side Syreeta S.Wonder/S.Wright
1974 Universal Sound Of The World Syreeta S.Wonder/S.Wright
1974 Tell Me Something Good Rufus S.Wonder
1974 Perfect Angel Minnie Riperton S.Wonder
1974 Take A Little Trip Minnie Riperton S.Wonder

[sup_fan]

the girls did a 3rd song with Stevie called I'll Wait A Lifetime. every now and then it pops up on youtube. frankly i think it's the strongest of the 3 tunes!

[Bluebrock]

With no fanfare, the single "Bad Weather" turned 50 this week. Here's a list of songs that Stevie wrote or co-wrote around the same time. If a full LP had come to fruition, I "wonder" if any of these would have been included.


Year Song Artist Writers
1973 Bad Weather The Supremes S.Wonder/I.Tucker Jr.
1973 Soft Days The Supremes S.Wonder
1973 I Am Yours The Main Ingredient S.Wonder
1973 Something 'Bout Love The Main Ingredient S.Wonder
1973 Something Lovely The Main Ingredient S.Wonder
1973 Open Up Your Heart Labelle S.Wonder
1974 I'm Goin Left Syreeta S.Wonder/S.Wright.
1974 Spinnin' And Spinnin' Syreeta S.Wonder/S.Wright
1974 Your Kiss Is Sweet Syreeta S.Wonder/S.Wright
1974 Come And Get This Stuff Syreeta S.Wonder
1974 Heavy Day Syreeta S.Wonder/S.Wright
1974 Cause We've Ended As Lovers Syreeta S.Wonder
1974 Just A Little Piece Of You Syreeta S.Wonder/S.Wright
1974 Waitin' For The Postman Syreeta S.Wonder
1974 When Your Daddy's Not Around Syreeta S.Wonder
1974 I Wanna Be By Your Side Syreeta S.Wonder/S.Wright
1974 Universal Sound Of The World Syreeta S.Wonder/S.Wright
1974 Tell Me Something Good Rufus S.Wonder
1974 Perfect Angel Minnie Riperton S.Wonder
1974 Take A Little Trip Minnie Riperton S.Wonder
I love the work Stevie did with Minnie Riperton and the Main Ingredient. The guy was literally on fire in the 70's.

[Bluebrock]

the girls did a 3rd song with Stevie called I'll Wait A Lifetime. every now and then it pops up on youtube. frankly i think it's the strongest of the 3 tunes!
It is a nice song. It has popped up on some of those unofficial albums that the guy from Germany compiled several years ago. We really do need an official 70's Supremes Lost and Found collection.

[floyjoy678]

I actually like Bad Weather despite it not being a fan favorite. I thought it was different and current. Easy to dance to and sing along to [[for me anyway lol).

[copley]

It's my fav Jean Supremes single. #37 UK.

[jim aka jtigre99]

Although Bad Weather was not one of my favorite Supremes songs, I clearly feel it should have done much better than #87 on the Pop charts. Collaborating with Stevie Wonder, who was quite hot at the time did give the group a different sound. It certainly has been looked at in retrospect as a very good song and a precursor to the disco era. I once heard Mary Wilson sing it in concert around 1999 and she did a very good job on it. I think it was a song, though, that was a bit difficult for the group to do live and recreate the sound of the song-much like Nathan Jones or Let Yourself Go.

[Spreadinglove21]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1qXCBlnoY8

[jobeterob]

Personally, I can’t see how anyone thought it could be a hit record - nice album cut but but it just ambles along which is why it did little on the charts

[reese]

I always liked BW and remember thinking that it was a hit, probably because it was included on their AT THEIR BEST collection. I was surprised to find out years later that many fans didn't care for it.

[rovereab]

Another vote for Bad Weather from me. A different sound which I felt was current at the time. A #37 hit in the UK.

[sup_fan]

I actually like Bad Weather despite it not being a fan favorite. I thought it was different and current. Easy to dance to and sing along to [[for me anyway lol).

see to me, the melody is NOT particularly easy to sing along to. there are a lot of jumps - big leaps from an upper note to a lower note, or visa versa. those tend to make a song more difficult for an average listener to hum along with or whistle to. i've always wondered if that was part of the problem with the song. it didn't even chart well on R&B. and they did do quite a bit of tv coverage for it.

[sup_fan]

my guess is that there was too much competition from hotter motown acts at the time.
they got on a few tv shows, there was a billboard ad and all. but the chart positions were just pitiful. It was released in March and then entered the charts in late April. it entered at a low 106 which was quite low for the girls. The Happening entered at 112 though but run entered at 115, Breathtaking at 124. and after it entered, it just did nothing

106-105-105-103-103-101-101-87-103-101-101-101-108-108

the curious thing though is that it was on the charts longer that other songs. it was on longer than Floy Joy or Nathan Jones. and that peak at 87 came early in June. the girls were already over in japan touring. Soul Train had aired a couple weeks earlier so maybe that was it? not sure how often ST did reruns and all. but maybe that was the nudge?


I think once motown saw how paltry the performance was they simply moved on to other acts. after losing the Oscar, Berry put everything behind Touch me In the Morning which was released in May 73. and Marvin's LGIO single was released in June. The Temps had released Masterpiece in Feb and were doing great with that.

this is also the time the J5 started to drift. corner of the sky had been released in fall of 72 and did ok, going top 20. but the parent album, Skywriter, didn't sell well. previous albums had all gone tpo 10 and this one only hit 44. Hallelujah Day only went to 28 and the title track didn't chart at all

also the Pips were leaving motown - Neither One Of Us [[the single) was released in Dec 72 and the album in March. both were huge hits. I wonder if motown was trying to rekindle some warmth with the group since they knew there were considering leaving


again - once motown saw the BW wasn't doing anything, they just figured "that's it - move on"

[reese]

also the Pips were leaving motown - Neither One Of Us [[the single) was released in Dec 72 and the album in March. both were huge hits. I wonder if motown was trying to rekindle some warmth with the group since they knew there were considering leaving


I don't think there was anything Motown could have done. In 1972, Gladys gave an interview to Blues and Soul mentioning that their Motown contract was going to expire on 3/23/73, they were signing with Buddah, and were already working on the material.

[RanRan79]

I think it's a safe bet that a lot of the stuff that made it onto Syreeta's second album might have been intended for the Supremes. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Syreeta sang demos for the proposed Supremes album and they ultimately morphed into Syreeta's project.

I could hear Jean singing "Perfect Angel" and Mary singing "I Am Yours". The only person other than Chaka that I can ever imagine singing "Tell Me Something" is Stevie himself. Lol

Regarding "Bad Weather", I still like it. I listen to it fairly often. However, I become increasingly convinced that the song lacked some kind of element to give it an edge over the competition. They really jam toward the end, so maybe that's what's missing from the rest of the song. Maybe it should have been jammed packed right out the gate. As Sup points out, the song didn't even do well on the R&B chart, which for the most part the group had always done very well, at various times even better R&B positions than Hot 100. So for the song to do so poorly with R&B airplay and sales, a song combining the talents of the Supremes and Stevie Wonder, there had to be a flaw somewhere. I don't think it was lyrically and I don't think it was Jean, or the other Supremes. I keep going back to the instrumentation. Or maybe the tempo should have been faster. Would love to hear what kind of mixes Stevie could give it if he desired to play around with it today.

[jobeterob]

I think it's a safe bet that a lot of the stuff that made it onto Syreeta's second album might have been intended for the Supremes. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Syreeta sang demos for the proposed Supremes album and they ultimately morphed into Syreeta's project.

I could hear Jean singing "Perfect Angel" and Mary singing "I Am Yours". The only person other than Chaka that I can ever imagine singing "Tell Me Something" is Stevie himself. Lol

Regarding "Bad Weather", I still like it. I listen to it fairly often. However, I become increasingly convinced that the song lacked some kind of element to give it an edge over the competition. They really jam toward the end, so maybe that's what's missing from the rest of the song. Maybe it should have been jammed packed right out the gate. As Sup points out, the song didn't even do well on the R&B chart, which for the most part the group had always done very well, at various times even better R&B positions than Hot 100. So for the song to do so poorly with R&B airplay and sales, a song combining the talents of the Supremes and Stevie Wonder, there had to be a flaw somewhere. I don't think it was lyrically and I don't think it was Jean, or the other Supremes. I keep going back to the instrumentation. Or maybe the tempo should have been faster. Would love to hear what kind of mixes Stevie could give it if he desired to play around with it today.

How about it has no hook? Nothing to grab and hold you. No ear worm

Diana said on AI that you need a hook