Let The Sunshine In & Cream Of The Crop lps - a discussion

many fans have stated they weren't all that thrilled with the material on these DRATS albums. some feel that there's too much andantes, some feel they're too patchwork, some feel too many stronger songs were left in the vault in place of weaker songs

so what are your thoughts?

would you simply merge them into 1 lp?
who really likes them as is?


My thought is that they were just too hodge-podge. and few of the tracks are truly stunning. there just seemed to be too much experimentation and lack of musical direction at the time.

I've played around with making some alt playlists of each which i feel create a more cohesive project

for Let, i've done two. one that pulls in most of the Smokey songs, plus a few others. so basically a "DRATS sing smokey" idea. The other Let playlists is cover heavy. almost like DRATS sing current favorites like Everyday people, Western union, hey jude, macarthur park ,etc

for Cream, i've tried to make it a more mature sounding set. Since i'd redone Let, i was able to repurpose some of the stronger songs that i "canned" from that lp. I'm So Glad and Discover Me. Plus You Gave me Love, The look of love, stormy

I would have gone with having a final album titled "No Matter What Sign You Are" and issuing "Someday We'll Be Together" on the "Greatest Hits Vol. 3" LP as was done with "The Happening." They could have taken the strongest outtakes from "Love Child" along with the best of their new material, and released a solid 12-track LP.

I actually loved both albums the way they were released. I play both very often.

Well ... both were kinda-sorta thrown together, but both are Diana and Motown, so I echo vgal: love 'em both, even if they're not 'major' lps. I also like the rogue 'No Matter' cd that came out a while back.

My favorite Supremes' album of all time is Let The Sunshine In! I love playing it on summer days...

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Originally Posted by Thornton

I would have gone with having a final album titled "No Matter What Sign You Are" and issuing "Someday We'll Be Together" on the "Greatest Hits Vol. 3" LP as was done with "The Happening." They could have taken the strongest outtakes from "Love Child" along with the best of their new material, and released a solid 12-track LP.

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I agree with this. But it is interesting to know all the different thoughts on these two albums.

I think LET was the weakest album since BIT of Liverpool.
Just disappointing.i would go with a single final album....

I don't like either album. They were both extremely weak efforts, thrown together with previously vaulted material with a hit single on each album tacked on. I have them but if if I've listened to them twice straight through that was enough for me. It signaled the end. "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" has to be the worst version of that song I've heard...and it's strictly a Diana Ross solo track anyway...is she even backed up by the Andantes on that one because to my ears is sounds like some generic L.A. studio session back up singers.

I'm surprised how many people like the Let The Sunshine In album. I always found it to be the weakest of the DRATS albums. First, the title. I know it was originally titled No Matter What Sign You Are, but to scrap that in favor of another group's hit and include a less-than-stellar cover of the song to justify it is odd. Second, the inclusion of three vaulted tracks from 1966 that aren't all that spectacular while more recent recordings far superior in quality weren't used is puzzling. I would love to know who was responsible for selecting these tracks. Third, it just doesn't flow for me. Cream Of The Crop is somewhat of an improvement, but that too has its problems.

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Originally Posted by LoveSupreme

..."Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" has to be the worst version of that song I've heard...and it's strictly a Diana Ross solo track anyway...is she even backed up by the Andantes on that one because to my ears is sounds like some generic L.A. studio session back up singers.

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It's taken straight from Diana's appearance on Dinah Shore's LIKE HEP special.

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Originally Posted by reese

It's taken straight from Diana's appearance on Dinah Shore's LIKE HEP special.

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Wherever it is from it is seriously awful.

I agree...it's awful including the backing vocals. If I were Diana would have fought to keep it in the can.it kind of worked on tv but not..the lp...
Both albums could be combined into one good one

"Cream Of The Crop" is a great album for me - probably my fave DRATS album. As to the title of "Let The Sunshine In" I assume Motown were trying to ride the crest of what was popular around that time in the 60s and trying to be trendy. Phil Spector tried it too with The Checkmates Hair Suite taking up a whole side of their album "Love Is All We Have To Give".

It was really all about getting Diana Ross product out there....she was the biggest selling black entertainer at the time....I enjoy both LPS. Masterpieces? No....enjoyable fan listening...yes. I enjoy everything in the Supremes output...except Meet and Jim Webb. Everything else gets played....Touch, High Energy, CW&P, WDOLG? and Reflections more than others....

what canned tracks would people have rather see included in these albums?

I think Look Of Love was a missed one. Stormy too. Also:

You're gonna hear from me
wish i knew
if you should walk away

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Originally Posted by sup_fan

what canned tracks would people have rather see included in these albums?

I think Look Of Love was a missed one. Stormy too. Also:

You're gonna hear from me
wish i knew
if you should walk away

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I go back and forth on the track selection, but I've envisioned the "final album" aka "No Matter What Sign You Are" looking something like this:

Side A:
1. No Matter What Sign You Are
2. Can't You See It's Me
3. Everyday People
4. Will This Be The Day
5. The Composer
6. Shadows Of Society
Side B:
7. Hey Western Union Man
8. You Gave Me Love
9. Stormy
10. Discover Me [[And You'll Discover Love)
11. The Beginning Of The End
12. I'm So Glad I Got Somebody [[Like You Around)

Get rid of bad pop crap. Record only great soul songs like I'M SO GLAD I GOT SOMEBODY LIKE YOU AROUND.

To me some of these tracks need new mixs

the b sides in '68/'69 were good....I'm So Glad & Beginning of the End really show DR's RnB chops....Will This Be The Day and Sunny Boy were excellent pop cuts..the LP should have stuck with the NMWSYA title....maybe another TV performance would have boosted the singles sales.

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Originally Posted by mysterysinger

"Cream Of The Crop" is a great album for me - probably my fave DRATS album. As to the title of "Let The Sunshine In" I assume Motown were trying to ride the crest of what was popular around that time in the 60s and trying to be trendy. Phil Spector tried it too with The Checkmates Hair Suite taking up a whole side of their album "Love Is All We Have To Give".

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That Hair suite ... well performed but so ... whatever. Can you imagine what kind of smash lp this would have been with more songs the caliber of Black Pearl instead of the suite?

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Originally Posted by PeaceNHarmony

That Hair suite ... well performed but so ... whatever. Can you imagine what kind of smash lp this would have been with more songs the caliber of Black Pearl instead of the suite?

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I don't know the song Black Pearl. Is it an unreleased track?

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Originally Posted by kenneth

I don't know the song Black Pearl. Is it an unreleased track?

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KENNETH! I GASP!! Here it is - a true classic. Best always!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcA2IoE68rc

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Originally Posted by PeaceNHarmony

That Hair suite ... well performed but so ... whatever. Can you imagine what kind of smash lp this would have been with more songs the caliber of Black Pearl instead of the suite?

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i agree that the medley of Sunshine/Aquarius was sort of haphazard on the lp. I think they should have skipped Funny Girl and done DRATS sing Hair!! obviously a song like Sodomy wouldn't have worked lolol but they could have done

Aquarius
Hair
Good morning starshine
where do i go
let the sunshine in
easy to be hard
maybe Black boys and white boys? heheheeh
Walking in space
don't put it down

or maybe the lp could have been motown tunes on 1 side and a Hair mega-medley on side 2. they could use musical motifs to tie the tunes together [[like what Gil did on Funny Girl)

Side 1
I'm Living In Shame
Hey Western Union Man
No Matter what sign you are
Everyday people
Discover me
I'm so glad

Side 2
Aquarius
Where do i go
good morning starshine
hair
let the sunshine in

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Originally Posted by PeaceNHarmony

KENNETH! I GASP!! Here it is - a true classic. Best always!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcA2IoE68rc

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Thanks! I wasn't sure if it was something from Diane and the Supremes that I hadn't heard before. Appreciate it!

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Originally Posted by PeaceNHarmony

KENNETH! I GASP!! Here it is - a true classic. Best always!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcA2IoE68rc

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What a classic tune this is! Truly wonderful song.

I’ve often wondered who compiled these albums, and, with the abundance of unreleased material at hand, how much they bothered to investigate what was available and how invested they were in making these albums as strong as possible. I suspect that they were pretty much flung together and not much thought went into them. Very much a ‘will this do’ approach. Between them, there’s probably a good album in there if the best of each is extracted.

I did wonder if the really strong material was being held back for consideration on solo Diana Ross projects, given the uncertainty of when she would make the jump.

^true - hindsight always makes things easier. had Someday failed to chart, who knows what they might have done.

And i do agree about the haphazard approach you mention. if they were really even digging through the vaulted material to identify potential songs. of course they also had the approach of overloading Motown albums with bland cover songs [[this happened to all of the artists). Guess they were just hoping that the 2 - 3 motown hits plus some name-recognition hits would spell album sales.

Oh so many covers Sup Fan! They were quick and easy I expect, but used to massive excess. Not just Motown either, but lots of 60s pop acts. Occasionally the covers are better [[Nancy Sinatra often surpassed the originals with covers) but usually not!

I love both "Let The Sunshine In" and "Cream Of The Crop" including "The Composer" and "No Matter What Sign You Are".

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Originally Posted by Philles/Motown Gary

I love both "Let The Sunshine In" and "Cream Of The Crop" including "The Composer" and "No Matter What Sign You Are".

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These albums are very popular with certain fans. Personally i think they are merely okay. They both sound rushed which was the case i'm sure, but they both contain their fair share of good songs as well as the inevitable not so good songs. I could probably have made one good album out of the two, and then made another decent one out of the numerous outtakes from over the years.

now that DWTS is over, we can get back to posts about the music!

for the most part, i find just about all of the tracks on Sun and Cream to be enjoyable. but maybe not in the lineup as released. And with the newly released For Once In My Life, i'd definitely have gone in a different direction with Cream of the Crop.

Cream alt lp:

Someday
You gave me love
stormy
you're gonna hear from me
till johnny comes
for once in my life

discover me
loving you is better
when it's to the top
beginning of the end
the look of love
wish i knew

The main issue is that these albums were not built around strong singles as were their previous albums. Although "Shame" was Top Ten, "Composer" and "Sign" stalled in the Top Thirty - a poor showing for them. So compiling a hit album seemed unlikely from the start.

I felt "Composer" and "Sign", being Smokey and Gordy produced singles, were an attempt for Smokey and Gordy to each get a hit with DRATS before the group split at the end of the year, rather than those two songs being the best choices for release. In hindsight, with the poor chart performance of those two singles it would appear that releasing something from the "Love Child" album would have done as well, if not better, than "Composer" or "Sign".

Taken individually many of the songs on "Sunshine" and "Crop" are decent. They just get lost in poorly compiled albums. I'm not sure there is a focus or theme to these two albums. I think the "Love Child" album is one of the best efforts in compiling a Supremes album - everything seems to gel effectively. "Sunshine" isn't too bad but it pales in comparison to "Love Child", or even "Reflections", due to the more "POP" nature of the songs - a couple of which are sub-par. "Crop" seems to just be a collection of songs from the vault that are good but not great and do not support the hit "Someday" in style or mood.

Recently, in another thread, there was mention of the "Touch" album telling a story. The songs were ordered in such a way as to tell the story. I wonder if examining the order of the songs on "Sunshine" or "Crop" would tell a story - I can't see a story or even a theme.

It occurred to me recently that "More Hits" and "Sing HDH" may also have the songs ordered in such a way as to tell a story. [[What other reason would there be for abruptly changing the mood created by "Hangin' On" by following it with the somber dirge-like "[[You're Gone But) Always In My Heart" - and changing the title of the song to fit the 'story'".)

I also recently realized that the "Reflections" album appealed to me because the Supremes and Motown originals were on Side 1 while Side 2 was more "POP". Back in the day I often played one side more than another, sometimes for preference other times due to time-constraints.

As a teenager I didn't look at albums to tell a story. I just listened to them as a collection of songs. I loved GK&TP "Feelin' Bluesy" album because they compiled the songs according to similar tempo. They listed the first side as the "Feelin' Side" and the flip as the "Bluesy Side". Nice!

^ Great thoughtful post! I agree with so much of it. I also didn't think about concept albums as a teen. Now i realize there've been concept albums for a long time, if not from the beginning. More Hits [[not a concept album) was, and still is, my idea of a "perfect" album. I'd think ordering songs to tell a specific story might [[sometimes) seem too obvious or forced.

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Originally Posted by Philles/Motown Gary

I love both "Let The Sunshine In" and "Cream Of The Crop" including "The Composer" and "No Matter What Sign You Are".

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I agree. I love them both too.