Not nearly as transparent as you Miss Looky. LOL
we still luv you Roberta VO5!
Not sure about the final sales of Stone Love but if you want to know if Reach And Touch was a big hit just ask Valerie Simpson. Val would have been the one to see the final royalties from this song.
Me too Jill-loved Remember Me-Diana at her best too!
Come on Jobeterob, you're a smart guy, how do you think they sold 3 million copies of "Stoned Love" without some pretty major radio airplay? It has been concluded that Motown was no longer pulling out all the stops to promote the Supemes and their releases by this time, so it had to have been the DJ's playing it and the public requesting in order to sell in those numbers. I was around back then so I know it received a lot airplay.
johnjeb, I believe you when you say that this talk show host just didn't know. I just have to ask why? I mean it was hardly a secret and he was after all in the entertainment industry. One point you made may hold the answer ,the part about different backgrounds & cultures. In the African American community everyone knew that it was the"New Supremes" with Jean Terrell on lead. It was a no-brainer. The point you made does leave more room for the possibility of some just not knowing or even caring. I am now thinking of what the possible response I would have gotten if I had asked my Grandma to name the members of the Rolling Stones or Beatles.
Marv
I understand what you are saying and agree. I do believe that Look Magazine ran a cover story on Ross before she went solo but mentioned that she would be going solo. I know Time ran articles about the New Supremes and of Ross new solo concerts. Ebony did a cover story and Dick Clark showed clips from the farewell concert on American Bandstand. It was a big entertainment news story in 1969-70. The most successful American music act was breaking up. If you were around back then, how could you not know? LOL? I am not asking that last question of Jimi, rhetorically speaking I mean.
That never happened where I lived or traveled. If anything, you would hear DJ's say " The New Supremes" and something about "Jeannie Terrell" being the sister of Heavyweight boxer Ernie Terrell. "Up the Ladder to the Roof" came out only a couple months after "Someday We'll Be Together" and the farewell concert for Diana Ross and the Supremes so our DJ's knew about that and were not dumb enough to make that simple mistake.
I lived near NY and Philly markets and never heard anything but" The Supremes " when Jean joined and their records announced. WABC, WIBG, WFIL...; I saw them at Atlantic City Steel Pier twice and the convention center was SRO.
Wasn't it Diana herself who pushed for the release of "Reach Out And Touch"?
I had read that Berry didn't see any of the songs on the first solo album as being a big hit [[and that included Mountain! - how wrong can you get) and added the Johnny Bristol written "These Things Will Keep Me Loving You" intending it to be the lead single but Diana got her own way.
I never heard "Reach Out and Touch" at the time it came out, but have heard it many times since then--and I think it is a very weak record. I can't believe anyone thought that was single material. "Ain't No Mountain" and "Touch Me in the Morning" were far superior choices, IMO.
"Stoned Love" was a hit because it is frankly a masterful record. I only hear it a few times as a kid and still it grabbed me. When I first heard "Floy Joy" I was shocked at how hokey it was. "Automatically Sunshine" was, to me, boring old lady music. The first record I fell in love with was "Aquarius" by the 5th Dimension--but I noticed they also started doing what I considered boring old lady music in the early 70's. Ever heard the album "Living Together, Growing Together?" DREADFUL. No wonder they became "uncool."
As I recall the actual US sales for Stoned Love was like 1.5 million. A huge hit for sure having outsold the Diana Ross-led singles except for Love Child, Gonna Make You Love Me and Someday We'll Be Together
and since we;re talking 'sales',any stats on River Deep Mountain High?
Jimi, I think I heard 300,ooo for the Tops & Supremes River Deep which I thought sounded high.I find it hard to beleive that Stone Love sold over a million in the US.
River Deep sold over 600,000 copies
Oh yea it outsold Tina's original, by a long shot
Ladder,Stoned and River deep are played frequently on WCBS FM NY the biggest oldies station in the country
That's right. You're talking about some of the biggest stations in the country serving the most densely populated markets not some Bug Tustle type place where it sounds like they have DJ's like the ones Captain James referred to in his post. I'll say it again, if you've heard of the group "Diana Ross & the Supremes" back then, then you also heard that she was replaced by a more soulful singer named Jean Terrell. Even if you cannot remember the name Jean Terrell in 2011 you heard it back at that time in America. Now that is not to say that every American citizen listen to Pop and or Soul Music. There are demographic groups that listen to what they like be it C&W, Classical, Acid Rock, Folk Music or whatever. The point I am making is that when the biggest group in the U.S. split up, it made the news and newspapers nationally.
BobC, I heard "Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand" on the radio regularly during it's original release at least for a short while. Stations I listen to at that time were located in Detroit, Toledo, Ohio and Windsor Ontario [[CKLW the powerhouse of North America). It was nice song that we just didn't know what to do with it. The song however has been popular enough that it can be heard in some churches as a part of the benediction. I've heard sung in church a few times. It just didn't have the punch that many of the most popular songs had then like "Stoned Love". "War". "Ball of Confusion" "The Love Save".......all Motown releases, but all were powerful, soulful, rockin' recordings. Gladys Knight & the Pips "Friendship Train" also comes to mind now that I am thinking about it.
Jimi, they play them also on B-103 or 103.1 Long Island's Oldies Station located not far from me. For better understanding of the reach of this station, Long Island has approximately 3.1 Million residents which offers great potential for any radio station and even greater for 103.1 as it is the only Oldies Station the Island even though we also in the listening area for WCBS 101.1 Special shout out to Cousin Brucie! LOL!
what was talked about is that currently there is confusion about who's on what..
in 1970, NO ONE said that Ross was singing on any of the Terrell records,it's what happened in the subsequent years,and Motown's apparent indifference to the group, perhaps because of the quarrels with Mary, Jean wearing out, or the desired spotlight being aimed solely at Ross [[or all of the above,not to mention inferior singles choices as time went on)
the casual music fan/radio listeners pays no mind to any of these details anyway, they just don't, it's not important to them,which is why, in a country of hundreds of millions, a record that sold one million ,or even half a million, was a big deal back in the days before platinum
Wow, thats hard to beleive that "River Deep" by Tops & Sups sold that much!Kudos to them, hope they got paid, LOL I love Phil & Tina too much to accept others doin their stuff, I must admit Levi & Jean sounded damn good.I guess 45's sales must have really gone up uring the early 70's compared to the 60's.Bigger audiance for Soul music in general, I guess.
the Ike & Tina version sold about 10 copies in America when it was released as a single, it was a total stiff, and this is what drove Phil Spector over the cliff so to speak..
it WAS a hit in New Jersey,oops, the UK, sorry....lol
Well, I guess I was one of the ten.Dynamic.Really put Ike & Tina in the public spotlight. Southern Soul Stations in Fla. all played it.For a few weeks.Pop station in Miami where all Phils records were big, played it BUT Phil Spector had made very stupid comments about disc jockeys at a convention and so his bread & butter just quit playin his record to teach him a lesson...it worked & he really was finished as far as Philles Records.
it WAS dynamic, I'm a fan, but it WAS a stiff, so there was no public spotlight provided for I&T by that record, not in America, anyway..years later, it took on mythic status and people ASSUMED it was a hit, it wasn't..until The Supremes/4 Tops version
I've always liked Ike & Tina Turner [[Revue) as an act but when I hear how rough their version is compared to the Supremes & Four Tops, it is just no comparison as to which record sounded better in terms of vocals, harmonies, instrumentation and most of all , CLARITY....I loved the Supremes and Four Tops version more. I thought their version was the original version back at that time, 1970.