Supremes - 1975 LP

[marybrewster]

I recently recieved a fantastic Supremes Fan Club Newsletter from 1974. J RANDY mentions that MSC recorded 17 songs for The Supremes 1975 LP.

I'm only able to track 16:

He's My Man
Early Morning Love
Where Is It I Belong
It's All Been Said Before
This is Why I Believe in You
You Can't Stop a Girl in Love
Color My World Blue
Give Out, BDGU
Where Do I Go From Here
You Turn Me Around

I Can Never Recover
Can We Love Again
SHOOP
Dance Fever
Seed of Love
BOOGIEMAN

What's missing?

[jobeterob]

I don’t know the answer but half of these songs were really good and half were awful. I did not enjoy HMM, EML, TIWIBIY, and YTMA. But the other cuts on the album made me think the supremes had a chance to re-establish themselves - but it was not to be

[marybrewster]

I figured it out, #17 was THE SHA-LA BANDIT.

[lucky2012]

I don’t know the answer but half of these songs were really good and half were awful. I did not enjoy HMM, EML, TIWIBIY, and YTMA. But the other cuts on the album made me think the supremes had a chance to re-establish themselves - but it was not to be

I was underwhelmed on first listen when I bought the album in 1975. I agree about half being good [but not great] - It's All Been Said Before, Color My World Blue, You Can't Stop a Girl in Love, Give Out But Don't Give Up, You Turn Me Around.

Where Is It I Belong and This Is Why I Believe In You are awful and should have been left off the album.

I do like The Sha La Bandit, the version with all three having leads.

[marybrewster]

I figured it out, #17 was THE SHA-LA BANDIT.

[blackguy69]

So in your opinion take out all the Mary leads. If anything you’re consistent. I personally think none of these songs spelled out hits. I would replace where is it my heart belong with can we love again. I would add Bend a little and Mr boogie

I don’t know the answer but half of these songs were really good and half were awful. I did not enjoy HMM, EML, TIWIBIY, and YTMA. But the other cuts on the album made me think the supremes had a chance to re-establish themselves - but it was not to be

[RanRan79]

"Mr. Boogie Man" was funky. I love that one. So was "Dance Fever". I would have gladly replaced "Where Is It I Belong" and "That's Why" with both of these.

[sup_fan]

I was underwhelmed on first listen when I bought the album in 1975. I agree about half being good [but not great] - It's All Been Said Before, Color My World Blue, You Can't Stop a Girl in Love, Give Out But Don't Give Up, You Turn Me Around.

Where Is It I Belong and This Is Why I Believe In You are awful and should have been left off the album.

I do like The Sha La Bandit, the version with all three having leads.

see i do think most of the Ivey Woodford tracks are better than good. are they at the level of You Can't Hurry Love or Love Child? no. are they at the level of Stoned Love or Touch Me In the Morning? no. i think they're as good though as Nathan Jones or Remember Me. they're excellent updates of the girl group sound. in 75 you had Donnie and Marie, Capt and Tennille, Olivia Newton-John and other lighter pop sounds. IMO this was the best direction to take the group and I&W should have produced the entire lp. re-introduce the Sups to the Top 40 and pop market. You Can't Stop a Girl is every bit as strong of a pop tune as pretty much anything else hitting the charts. give them some basic promotion and it could have worked.

then as a follow up album, take a couple of the disco tunes and go more dance. the Holland productions of Where Do I Go, I can never recover and Early Morning [[though i'm not a huge fan of that one) along with HMM, Mr Boogie and maybe another few tunes and you'd have a pretty solid dance album. problem is there's a bit of a quality gap between the I&W tunes and what the Hollands eventually got to with the HE and MS&S albums. the guys just weren't quite there in 75. I Can Never Recover is IMO the strongest. Where Do I Go is good but needs something. it's not quite memorable enough. not like the chorus and all of the parts of Walking. that's really when they sort of hit their stride with the girls and with disco.

[sup_fan]

"Mr. Boogie Man" was funky. I love that one. So was "Dance Fever". I would have gladly replaced "Where Is It I Belong" and "That's Why" with both of these.

agree! they're really not half bad tunes! i might have cut the "we wanna boogie, we wanna rae gae" line with the backing vocals. but otherwise it's pretty good

and Mr Boogie is fun and great to hear Mary doing something other than a sleepy ballad

[jim aka jtigre99]

I was so excited to see the Supremes back in 1975! They certainly recorded a lot of songs for this first new album. After Jimmy Webb and the way Jean was starting to sound shrill, this album offered a spark that was missing. I loved hearing Mary finally doing more than a spotlighted lead and Scherrie was a dynamic singer who captured your attention. I liked most of the songs and agree that perhaps Bend A Little and Can We Love Again be added with Where is it I Belong taken out. The album cover also could be replaced with all of its pink drawn roses around them sitting all in white.

[sup_fan]

yeah i think the album cover isn't the greatest. the front pic just doesn't do justice to the group. not saying the girls had to wear the cliche sequins or some old DRATS gowns. but i just don't think they look "modern." Just like how some of the gowns being designed for the group at the time looked old fashioned too. they just didn't look fresh. the cover pic is too fuzzy and out of focus, the girls are looking off into space. you can hardly discern who was scherrie and who was cindy. if you look at the "real estate" of the front cover and estimate what % of that real estate is occupied by the girls themselves versus border, decoration, the sofa mary's on, etc, it's all wrong.

and the back imagine is hardly any better.

[marybrewster]

For a while there was a rehearsal [[?) vocal for THIS IS WHY I BELIEVE on YouTube. I always thought it fun and interesting to hear the studio chatter, and the ultimate progression of the song.

That said, this song starts out pretty solid, then just dies a slow death. It's like the writers couldn't figure out how to end it, so let's make the Supremes hoot and holler until the fade. Definitely should have been left off the LP.

[marybrewster]

yeah i think the album cover isn't the greatest. the front pic just doesn't do justice to the group. not saying the girls had to wear the cliche sequins or some old DRATS gowns. but i just don't think they look "modern." Just like how some of the gowns being designed for the group at the time looked old fashioned too. they just didn't look fresh. the cover pic is too fuzzy and out of focus, the girls are looking off into space. you can hardly discern who was scherrie and who was cindy. if you look at the "real estate" of the front cover and estimate what % of that real estate is occupied by the girls themselves versus border, decoration, the sofa mary's on, etc, it's all wrong.

and the back imagine is hardly any better.

I still don't think I I know who is Scherrie and who is Cindy on the front cover, lol.

The cover does nothing to compliment what's on the LP.

[sup_fan]

I still don't think I I know who is Scherrie and who is Cindy on the front cover, lol.

The cover does nothing to compliment what's on the LP.

haha i believe Cindy is on the left and Scherrie is on the right

[TheMotownManiac]

This was the best example of the revolving door debacle. I had to look real hard to tell the difference as well. The Supremes look like three strangers, this was that time. It Was it pretty album cover visually I felt, but absolutely the antithesis of what was needed. it made them look more matronly more out of touch almost like grandmothers.

I agree with Ran about boogie man and dance fever, both superior tracks that belong on the album for sure. I think the first single should’ve been it’s all been said before, tightened up a little bit vocally. Then he’s my man, with a brighter vocal from Mary or perhaps all Scherrie, Mary’s voice is just too flat phonically as it is to get any adds.

I thought this was such an improvement over Jimmy Webb that I was hopeful that the direction they were going in was good. And that they might possibly have a hit with its all been said before, even the way it was. He’s my man was a lost cause as a radio, single.

[REDHOT]

Well to this, day, i LOVED the album, i was very happy to hear more leads on Mary, and i thought she sound GREAT, I like it's All Been Said Before, but i liked He's My Man much better, it was a disco song, and at that time everybody was doing disco, Early Morning Love is my song, i wish Can We Love Again had been included.

[BayouMotownMan]

Many of the fans love this album, but I remember being underwhelmed. Motown was stingy, giving us barely 30 minutes of music. Two more tracks could have been added for sure.

In one of Randy's newsletters, and I still have most, an executive at Motown told him that the first album with Scherrie would be a "test" album to see just how much audience the group still had. That is what this album sounds like all these years later...a test. Ten songs, five different producers resulted in an album without direction and somewhat desperation to find a hit sound. The ladies recorded enough material for two albums. Couldn't Cindy have been given at least a line in one song?

He's My Man was clearly the breakout song here and Motown took it's jolly time issuing it as the first single. They were even slower in issuing its follow up. The lp got little promotion and the only positive thing was that the ladies were on television again giving the set the promotion that Motown wasn't.

Brian Holland finally found a cohesive package with the wonderful High Energy set the following year. That album was fresh and elegant. Scherrie was the established new lead singer with Mary only doing the ballads...the way it should be. Having Scherrie and Mary do a duet on This Is Why I Believe In You only served to reveal that Scherrie was the better vocalist...she blows Mary off the song. When I listen to Don't Let My Teardrops Bother You, THAT was the real Mary Wilson, a seductive type of songstress.

Even though the 1975 album didn't go great guns, it did prove to Motown that the ladies had enough audience to warrant more recordings. It would be the inner group dynamic and extremely ineffective indoor management that would finally kill the group.

[thommg]

I never understood all the hate for This Is Why I Believe In You. That is one of my favorite songs on the album. I loved how it dissolved into an almost gospel like ending. I thought they sounded great on that number and, back in the day, included it on many mix tapes that I put together. Different strokes, I guess...

[sup_fan]

I never understood all the hate for This Is Why I Believe In You. That is one of my favorite songs on the album. I loved how it dissolved into an almost gospel like ending. I thought they sounded great on that number and, back in the day, included it on many mix tapes that I put together. Different strokes, I guess...

i've never hated it as much as others either. but i do think mary's voice isn't the right fit here, although she does sing with more energy than some of her other leads. still there's such a heavy backing tracking that the song really needed the lightness and flexibility of Scherrie's voice. similar to Driving Wheel. that too is an extremely dense and filled musical track and it's scherrie's nimble vocals that keep things moving

after hearing the unreleased tracks from Sup 75, i do think there were better options for the album that This is why. even if the reason they chose TIW was simply to add another mary lead to the album, again there were better options

[RanRan79]

I never understood all the hate for This Is Why I Believe In You. That is one of my favorite songs on the album. I loved how it dissolved into an almost gospel like ending. I thought they sounded great on that number and, back in the day, included it on many mix tapes that I put together. Different strokes, I guess...

I have two problems with the song:

1) When it kicks up into a gospel pace, Mary should have disappeared into the background. Scherrie clearly took the song and ran with it. There was no need for Mary after that. Most of Mary's adlibs were super annoying, as she is not matching Scherrie's energy. Now, could Mary have done the gospel-ly part alone? I think so, and I think the song would come across better with either Mary doing the whole thing, or, as I said, once Scherrie comes in, Mary moves out.

2) The background arrangement on the gospel-ly part. One of the greatest things about the MCS period is that all three cut the background. All three singing together could create a powerhouse blend. On "This Is Why", the background never keeps the intensity of the music and Scherrie's vocal. They go up a bit and then come down. It throws me off.

I have the studio rehearsal for this song but it's been forever since I last listened to it. I might have to give it a play. But to your point Thommg, I've been very hard on this song in the past, but I must agree it isn't a bad song at all.

[marybrewster]

Many of the fans love this album, but I remember being underwhelmed. Motown was stingy, giving us barely 30 minutes of music. Two more tracks could have been added for sure.

In one of Randy's newsletters, and I still have most, an executive at Motown told him that the first album with Scherrie would be a "test" album to see just how much audience the group still had. That is what this album sounds like all these years later...a test. Ten songs, five different producers resulted in an album without direction and somewhat desperation to find a hit sound. The ladies recorded enough material for two albums. Couldn't Cindy have been given at least a line in one song?

He's My Man was clearly the breakout song here and Motown took it's jolly time issuing it as the first single. They were even slower in issuing its follow up. The lp got little promotion and the only positive thing was that the ladies were on television again giving the set the promotion that Motown wasn't.

Brian Holland finally found a cohesive package with the wonderful High Energy set the following year. That album was fresh and elegant. Scherrie was the established new lead singer with Mary only doing the ballads...the way it should be. Having Scherrie and Mary do a duet on This Is Why I Believe In You only served to reveal that Scherrie was the better vocalist...she blows Mary off the song. When I listen to Don't Let My Teardrops Bother You, THAT was the real Mary Wilson, a seductive type of songstress.

Even though the 1975 album didn't go great guns, it did prove to Motown that the ladies had enough audience to warrant more recordings. It would be the inner group dynamic and extremely ineffective indoor management that would finally kill the group.

I LOVE that you still have all your Fan Club Newsletters! I've been trying to collect as many as I can over the years.

I seem to recall the same sentiment that "Supremes 1975" was a "test" to see what direction the group would go in. Of course there was talk that Marvin would record the group, but I think there was also mention of Stevie doing something, and possibly reteaming with Frank Wilson. I think Frank left Motown in 1976, so I'm not sure how that would have worked out.

[daviddh]

I liked the album.
Side two was good but side one needed tweaking with Bend A little, Sha La Bandit and Can We Love Again.

[Spreadinglove21]

Side two of the album is excellent and can stand with the best of Supremes album one side song line ups. Side one on the other hand is not very good.

This is Why I believe in You is not a track I care for. The arrangement and production are weak. Given the urgency of the lyrics it's needed more instrumental oomph. Mary's vocal is clompy. She often struggled with phrasing on more uptempo songs and comes off as stiff and awkward. However even if Scherrie had done the full lead, there's still the instrumentation and arrangment of the song.

I would have replaced Early Morning Love, Where is it I belong and This is Why with the following: Bend a Little, Can We Love Again and Sha La Bandit [[shared MCS lead version).

[sup_fan]

another issue with the disco tracks on Sup 75 is they're rather generic. I Can Never Recover is frankly the best and even though it's good, it's not the most memorable tune. and you could easily hear any number of female artists or groups singing it. same with Where Do I Go From Here and most of the others. HMM isn't as generic but it's a bit too campy too.

the material on side two is more pop-oriented, even with the dance beat on Color. but it's also more Supremes-like. the group was known for their pop sound and i think these tunes really could have "belonged" to the group. had the album really focused on all of the Ivey Woodford productions and if they'd been the single releases, i think there's a chance some could have been hits. not likely #1 but i think top 20 easily. and if motown had actually given a bit of a push, they could have gone higher

[marybrewster]

Never been a fan of "Where Is It I Belong". I find it clunky, boring, and depressing. Nestled smack in the middle up 2 upbeat tunes on wither side. Just when things get cooking on Side One; it just stalls. "The Sha-La Bandit" wouod have been a good replacement, especially as an intro to "It's ALL Been Said Before". Even "Color My World Blue" would have had better placement on Side One.

[marybrewster]

Perhaps Side One could have been Scherrie leads, ending with HMM, and Side Two could have been Mary leads ending with THIS IS WHY I BELIEVE IN YOU?

[blackguy69]

Kinda similar to High Energy. Scherrie had side 1 and Mary had side 2

Perhaps Side One could have been Scherrie leads, ending with HMM, and Side Two could have been Mary leads ending with THIS IS WHY I BELIEVE IN YOU?