"Love Child" is now solidly middle-aged! LOL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2Cq5P6JIjs
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"Love Child" is now solidly middle-aged! LOL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2Cq5P6JIjs
Lots of folks who dig Motown and this song have been born after its release and can not comprehend the sledgehammer effect it had at the time. It was literally the perfect pop record .....no air in it at all, nothing to tweak, it sounded like ten billion dollars on the radio in glorious Motown Mono. Today, with digitizing, mixing, stereoization and the like, peeps can still dig it - but not the way it was intended: to be played on car or transistor radios - where it sounded best. My original 45 was played so much, it’s grey.
It was a monster hit
I was six and a half months old when "Love Child" released on September 30, 1968.
just a classic, and i think this could be there biggest seller
While it’s never been among my favorites of the group’s songs [[DRATS songs never equaled true Supremes numbers, in my opinion), I would have to say it’s probably my favorite from the DRATS era, and without it the group might well have finished its run a good deal sooner than it did. Once the act was revamped as DRATS and after the departure of HDH, it fell into such a slump that it was going to take almost an act of God to revitalize it. We all know the story of Gordy’s sequestering “The Clan” [[Taylor, Richards, Wilson and Sawyer), basically holding them hostage in a hotel room without sleep until they came up with something to put DRATS back on top — or else. Perhaps they feared for their jobs if they didn’t deliver, but whatever the motivation, they created a winner. When the group debuted it on Sullivan, dressed in “guttersnipe” outfits and singing [[well, lip-syncing) about illegitimacy and premarital relations I really didn’t know what to think, and was actually amazed that it went to the top, thanks more to the music and production than to the “socially relevant” lyric, although I’m sure that helped, since the glitz’n’glam image of the group and its songs about romance and heartbreak had by then become awfully dated. [[Of course, after that came an even worse slump but that’s another story.)
i think it's a great song and love it. but i will admit that it's a bit contrived. with Marvin's What's Going On not only was it a dynamic new sound from him but it was genuine. from his heart and you knew he truly cared about this
Diana's performance is classic but it's hard to reconcile their glamour girl and sequin image with this new sound and song. True during this time the girls endorsed Humphrey and they added the MLK speech to Somewhere. but still i never got a sense that the "group" wanted to do something different and important. It did seem that when Jean joined, the shift to more focus on peace love and humanity was genuine and therefore it worked. LC was a calculated effort to hit #1. and add some street cred. i think you could have had totally different lyrics about heartbreak and loss and kept the instrumental track and still probably have had a hit
I saw these guys at one private event few months ago [[https://bstars.eu/ organised it if I'm not mistaken)
I´m very glad that we have a live version of the song with all three real Supremes on Farewell, because it is a monster Hit, sadly only recorded by Diana Ross in the studio, so I prefer in studio versions Syreeta´s and I´m curious of The Blackberries version, which I never heard.
Diana does a superb vocal on this classic. Since no other Supreme was within miles of the recording studio it should really be considered a Diana solo. The 'other one' likes to claim it was one of her favorite records to make. Guess that hypnotist wasn't too good!
Billboard, for many purposes, does consider it and Someday We'll Be Together as Diana Ross songs for tallying #1 records.
It’s credited to DIANA ROSS & The Supremes. Technically she does get the credit. With that being said, and Billboards rules, I’ve only seen articles and publications site 6 number ones. But technically she is credited for 8.
He doesn’t like that Billboard rule
I was just listening to it full blast in stereo. Damn, it’s so good. The Funk Brothers were such masters. To think they threw that thing together [[written, recorded, mixed, and released) within a week’s time is pretty damn impressive and for it to go number one and become their best selling single up to that time is even more impressive.
One thing that hits me when I do play the track today: that intro and then the drama building up before Diana sings it. It takes you to an apartment in the ghetto where a woman is struggling to deal with what's become of her as she's out there lonely in the world with a child.
Understandably, radio stations weren't sure of playing it [[black and "white") because of the subject matter. Only when Berry threatened to pull all of his Motown catalog away from radio stations did they play it!
This was serious territory that Motown before had never attacked. But yeah when you put it like that, I see why it can be seen as the powerful performance Motown ever produced.
Yes indeed!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h26kog21fmE
Thanks for posting Marv. I had my brother separate out the “background”. M and C sound pretty damn good.
I don't think including the missing verse would have made any difference to the song's success. The Syreeta demo doesn't have the "I'll always love you" on the fade out which I think really enhances the record.
I find Syreeta's version to be kind of a hodgepodge. She seems to rush through the lyrics and to me the verses don't make as much of a throughline as in the Supremes' version. Her voice and delivery is flawless but to me her version of the song just doesn't make sense somehow.
She sounds alright. She just does not sound forceful enough for this type of song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_sxDAxiiiI
An extended mix of LOVE CHILD with the rare verse originally left out of the hit version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCb3VSLX38U
If I remember correctly, Syreeta didn't cover Love Child, she recorded the demo of it. Who knows how fast it was done in order to get it to Diana Ross to learn! I can't imagine that Syreeta recorded it expecting it to ever be heard, rather it was to be a vocal guide. I think we're pretty lucky that it was released and we are able to hear it at all.
It was a great record...still is....that note the background singer hits! I always thought it sounded a tad bit slowed down on GHVol.3....I loved the song. I liked the 2nd performance I the pink suits better than the first....I remember when FAREWELL was released... I was so excited to see LC listed on the clear label sticker on the back of the shrink. Played it and thought OMG! what have they done! the racey Vegas arrangements ruined so much of the well known songs.
Did Syreeta record it as a demo for Diana?
I liked Syreeta's version, it wasn't amazing, but it was not bad at all. But, "Love Child" is Diana & The Supremes' song. :cool: