apparently "Let My Heart Do The Walking" did nothing over there on the main singles chart
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apparently "Let My Heart Do The Walking" did nothing over there on the main singles chart
No it didn't but i think the main reason was because Mary had fallen out with the BBC the year before whilst promoting "he's my man". As a result the BBC did not put the follow up single "early morning love" on the radio 1 playlist. They had heavily played "he's my man". Indeed Tony Blackburn had it as his record of the week, but after the disagreement the BBC stopped supporting the Supremes and all subsequent singles were not playlisted and they were not invited back on to "top of the pops" or other variety shows to promote their singles.
What was this falling out about??
Let My Heart Do The Walking was a tremendous return to form for them. great track. it should have been bigger but it did hang in there on Billboard for 13 weeks, kind of a slow burner.
I'm sure Mary's friendships with Dick Clark, Don Cornelius etc helped get them booked on TV. She was highly regarded by many in the industry.
I know that. After leaving Philly they had a couple of stagnant years before returning with great success in the late 70's. Their career kind of died in the States due in no small way to the ladies basing themselves in Europe, They made some great songs and were excellent on the live circuit but they could never replace the Supremes in my heart.
It's perhaps best not to go into too much detail , especially at this time of year but lets just say that during this particular tour the Supremes were not at their best and Mary knew it but did not approve of being told by certain people. Let' s remain positive. Merry Christmas!
Just asking as u mentioned it. Happy holidays !!
I didn't know about a scuffle with the BBC and Radio One and all that over there...never saw it mentioned anywhere..I always wondered why "Heart" hadn't registered over there
Merry Christmas, Marv, and everyone here! It's Time To Move On....to 2016!..go, Mary!!
Jimi same to you. I enjoy your contributions to the site .
thanks..Happy New Year to everyone and to ALL The Supremes as well..
Motown released 8 albums featuring Jean Terrell as lead singer of the group and that is a lot of music. Furthermore every single Motown released with Jean singing lead hit the Hot 100 whether it was in the upper reaches or bottom reaches of the chart they all hit from Up the ladder to the roof #10 thru Bad Weather #87 everybody got the right #21, Nathan Jones 16, Touch 71, Floy Joy 16 Automatically 37, You Wonderful Love 54, I guess Ill miss the man 85. In addition River Deep Mt. high #14 and You Got to Have Love in your Heart #54. That's quite a bit for BG who washed his hands of the Jean Terrell group. Merry Christmas everybody.
I forgot "Stoned LOve" their biggest hit #7 #1 r and b this week.
absolutely.. the fans never washed their hands of the girls , post-Jean,bringing 'Let my Heart.." into the Pop Top 40..
The first record I ever bought was Up The Ladder To The Roof when I was 11. I had to backtrack to the earlier group. Jean Terrell was a great lead singer. I also loved hearing Mary Wilson sing lead. Visually the 60's group was very glamorous with very deliberate choreography. Times changed by the 1970's and Terrell did not offer the visual excitement of the prior group, in my opinion, although Mary & Cindy seemed to excel more visually at this time. Jean had a very distinctive voice. Once Scherrie Payne joined they were very visual and glamorous once again but with the trio all moving to the disco beat. I had always wondered why it took Jean from 1973 until 1978 to release her A & M LP. It was very good but I read she refused to tour to support it. She may have had the talent but she must have lacked the drive to succeed in show business. Very curious as to why she didn't record solo at Motown. Mary Wilson[[Red Hot) & Scherrie Payne[[Fly) both had a solo 45 from Motown even when Motown was not doing well and a few years after the group ended. It is a curiosity.
Here is an ad for the Smokey Robinson Special:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHErT_1GuKs
Additionally, for those that may have missed it, here is the link to another thread on this topic:
http://soulfuldetroit.com/showthread...binson+special
Jim - There was never any danger of Jean being offered a solo deal at Motown. She was thoroughly disillusioned with the music business. her relationship with Mary had gone from cordial at best to downright hostile. Berry Gordy had not spoken to her in months, promises made to her had not been fulfilled and all she wanted to do was move out of the limelight. When she returned to record her solo album for A&M she quickly realised she had made a mistake and refused to go out' on the road to promote what was an excellent album. It was far stronger than Marys effort and even Scherrie and Susaye's. It is such a pity that it turned out that way but we do have some excellent music to remeber her by and we can all hope we eventually get the lost and found cd that would be welcomed by many people on this forum.
What was always perplexing, save for "Right On" peaking at #25 [[or was it #20), The Supremes '70s had difficulty selling albums. For me personally, at least 5 of their albums were quite good. Despite many fans calling " written and produced by Jim Webb", Jean Terrell and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, it remains a personal favorite. So as far as quality material, I think Motown gave them great songs. Sometimes you have consider that the public just wasn't interested.
Save for The Supremes [[original)/Diana Ross & The Supremes, the other Motown female groups just couldn't sell albums...despite the quality. And, of course, you make a lot more money from album sales.
Well, Jean is an excellent vocalist. It is show business so one has to deal with the business aspect, as well. It must not have been for her even though she sings very well. Mary seems to know that you have to promote yourself and your product, even if it is something you may not want to do. I guess she saw that A & M was run similar to Motown and decided against promoting her music. Jean seemed to be very sharp, so I am surprised she didn't know what to expect replacing Diana Ross, public and media scrutiny, the record company. I am surprised that she didn't get along with Mary and equally surprised she came back and sang with the FLOs singing older songs that she never really did in the 1970's. I am sure all the singers have artistic temperament but surprised in Jean. I remember reading something that Jean said to Mary it was OK for her to play along with what the record company asked but not for her.I was happy to have Jean, Mary & Partners along with the at their best LP during 1978-9 even though it was not their best work, especially Mary.I think had her Gus Dudgeon LP materialized, she would have hit.
Nah that's bullshit, stop it! It had nothing to do with the public not being interested and everything to do with the availability of product! I remember after each debut of a Supremes new record in the 60s, you could find it in all the stores the next day or that same week. The Supremes performed "Bad Weather" for example on television several times and it could not be found in stores in Ohio and Michigan that next day, that next week or the next month! I finally found it in 1975 , 2 whole years after it's release. Motown was no longer supporting the Supremes at that time.
I agree the quality was there for the first 3 Jean led albums. If Motown had wanted to kill the Supremes at that point they wouldn't have given them such strong material. The quality of songs did plummet thereafter in my opinion. I know some of you disagree with me on that and of course that is your right, but after "touch" it was all downhill in my opinion. Jean was not happy with the material she was given to sing at this point and with her being at loggerheads with Mary she decided to cut her losses and quit. It is true to say the group were still visible on US TV.
Marv claims he was unable to purchase "bad weather". I am not in a position to disagree with on that because i wasn't there, but if true it all points to Motown failing to meet supply with demand.
They did make a huge promotion push with "high energy" a few years later but that was only partially successful . It would appear too little too late.
You don't have to agree or disagree because what I said and the inability to find the single "Bad Weather" is a fact! There was someone in NYC at the time that said they found it in a hardware store. That NEVER was the case with Supremes releases in the 60s. The material they recorded in the 70s was superb and in many cases better than what they were doing in the 60s.
!
I believe you, but I think you are blaming Motown for not making Bad Weather available. It was available and in distribution throughout the country with indie distributors. Alpha Distributors in NYC had it and it was up to the store buyers to have enough product in their store. Some of these store buyers are conservative and if an artists last record did not sell and had to be returned, then the buyer bought very few of the next release.
Locally, in my area, Bad Weather was sold to dee-jays as a disco record and they bought two at a time to extend them.
As far as getting the song played on radio, I honestly have to say that I don't remember hearing it that much. But the Supremes fan club headed by Carl [[who later transformed it into Mary's fan club) had many of the fans calling in requests for the song.
I can honestly say that I never had any trouble getting any of the Supremes albums or singles.
I also cant understand why a for profit company such as Motown, would spend a huge amount of money getting a song written, produced and recorded and then not try to get that expense recouped by promoting the record in every possible way. It just not sound very wise to deliberately try to bury the record.
If Berry truly hated the group or no longer had a use for them, he could have just released the group and use the money he saved recorded and producing them to promote a group or artist that he liked.
Regarding this mythical "huge promotional push" for High Energy. Scherrie said that she was at a radio station that had been called by a Motown rep and told to stop playing "I'm Gonna Let My Heart Do the Walking" and play Diana Ross instead. That is what Scherrie Payne said. I believe her.
If you want to get an idea of the games Motown were playing with it's artists in the 70s, take some time and listen to this interview with Bubba Knight. He was there and he knows! It is a long one so, when have time to listen and learn, please do so and stop making these comments that the public were just not interested anymore.......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6chkWmviKs
I'm not looking to fall out with you but it is a fact that Motown UK gave High Energy" lots of advertising space in the music publications. It would be very strange to spend such vasts amounts of money and then deliberately try to kill the product. Where is the financial sense in that?
My colleague at Motown UK visited the US office several times a year and he told me that Motown spent bucketloads of money on promoting High Inergy in the US. This is of course going slightly off topic. This is a Jean Terrell thread, but i was told that Motown execs were thoroughly fed up with Jean and Mary's constant fueding which possibly explains why Motown may have given up on them? Once Jean had gone he said they were happy to get behind the group again.
The 70's Supremes suffered from severe personnel changes that made it very hard to love the group. Album purchases were big deals and without Ross' familiar face on the cover, it was hard to "know" The Supremes. I think the first two are glorious albums but they were strangers on the covers. Everyone knows the strength of an act is measured by album and ticket sales because that is where the investment is. At Kreske's in Carlinville, IL, singles were 75 cents and we bought the song if we loved it. We bought the album if we loved the group and that didn't happen with The 70s groupings. On another board they were talking about how hit and miss both The Supremes and Ross solo were and it's true but Ross' albums sold better.