He's My Sunny Boy & I'll Set You Free

[franjoy56]

He's My Sunny Boy. from the Love Child album also the b side to Someday We'll Be Together features both Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong on backing vocals one of the few songs by them through that 1968-69 period I always felt that it would have made a great single top ten if it got promoted, do you guys feel that could have made the upper reaches of the pop chart, I know it was played on r&b radio in NY wwrl several times. I'll Set your Free also a Diana, Mary and Cindy track from the Love Child album was another great track, a very soulful track but I don't think it was pop worthy of a hit because it was not as pop friendly as HMSB, and for the Supremes other than Love Child a concept record, POP was the norm.

[Kamasu_Jr]

He's My Sunny Boy. from the Love Child album also the b side to Someday We'll Be Together features both Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong on backing vocals one of the few songs by them through that 1968-69 period I always felt that it would have made a great single top ten if it got promoted, do you guys feel that could have made the upper reaches of the pop chart, I know it was played on r&b radio in NY wwrl several times. I'll Set your Free also a Diana, Mary and Cindy track from the Love Child album was another great track, a very soulful track but I don't think it was pop worthy of a hit because it was not as pop friendly as HMSB, and for the Supremes other than Love Child a concept record, POP was the norm.

In a word, NO!

[ejluther]

I've always loved "I'll Set You Free" and would have liked to seen it released as a single...

[soulwally]

I've always had a soft spot for He's My Sunny Boy, love the brief horns break. I was gobsmacked some months ago when it cropped up among the incidental music to some UK reality-type show, can't recall which.

[davidh]

i always thought, i'll set ypou free, could have been a single.great album with lots of great tracks.one of their best

[rod_rick]

i always thought, i'll set ypou free, could have been a single.great album with lots of great tracks.one of their best

These are two of my favorites for as far back as I can remember from the Love Child album. Who knows as far as hit singles, Motown had afew hits on the Supremes they left in the can for years ie Bend A Lttle from the 70's had hit all over. I prefer these two over songs like The Composer & I'm Livin In Shame

[BayouMotownMan]

I love HMSB and it obviously did get consideration for single release. I think by late 1968 the sound was dated, it would have done better if released two years sooner. Love Child was what the group needed, a more adult sound with pertinent lyrics.

[Ryon6]

I believe that both Mary and Cindy are the featured backgrounds on the B-sides of the released singles. Starting with the single -

Some Things You Never Get Used To/You've Been So Wonderful To Me
Love Child/Will This Be The Day
I'm Livin' In Shame/I'm So Glad I Got Somebody Like You Around
The Composer/The Beginning Of The End
No Matter What Sign You Are/The Young Folks
Someday We'll Be Together/He's My Sunny Boy

At least, we get Mary and Cindy on the B-sides of the singles that featured either The Andantes or The Waters. The only B-side that I play the least is "The Young Folks", though it has a great message. "You've Been So Wonderful To Me" and "Will This Be The Day" are in the top 5 of favorite Supremes' B-sides.

I'll Set You Free is one of my favorites as well. I like the version that is on the Lost & Free comp best.

Tyrone

[BayouMotownMan]

Cindy is very audible on Will This Be The Day. I'm not sure about the other tracks but I don't hear the Supremes on I'm So Glad

[franjoy56]

Cindy is very audible on Will This Be The Day. I'm not sure about the other tracks but I don't hear the Supremes on I'm So Glad

I agree i don't hear mary and cindy on Im so glad i got..... nor do i hear them on the young folks.....however the love child album does Mary and Cindy justice as far as vocal input is concerned they are well represented at least 4 tracks and those two songs hmsb and isyf should have been released as singles certainly better than the composer, i am very partial to ilis and mary and cindy nailed the background on the hollywood palace..

[Bokiluis]

"He's My Sunny Boy" is another song that makes the "Love Child" album, the strongest Diana Ross and The Supremes studio album. As someone mentioned, the regal brass break is hot and triumphant. In my humble opinion, it would have also made a great single candidate. It may easily be the best record that Smokey wrote and produced for them. I don't feel as strongly about "I'll Set You Free". But as I stated, the "Love Child" album was the best work that was released after the name change. I only wished that thematically "I'm Living in Shame" could have been recorded in time and that Motown would have stuck to its original plan to make the "Love Child" album their most mature and topically consistent album as Diana Ross and The Supremes.

[franjoy56]

I agree I'm Livin in Shame should have been on the Love Child album it fit the concept of the ghetto and living above the rest and certainly being ashamed of momma, it was out of place on the Let the sunshine album but No matter what sign you are was right at home on that album Let the sunshine in/ aquarius and moon stars and astrology.

[Bokiluis]

Yeah, it's kind of a mystery that after sequestering a writing team to compose "Love Child"....why not keep them focused on writing a follow-up so that there is another single in the can? The "Love Child" album was shaping up to be their "Cloud Nine". The Temptations had "Runaway Child, Running Wild" as a logical follow-up. It was released only 3 mos after "Cloud Nine". "I'm Living in Shame" was released only 4 mos after "Love Child", the single. Had Motown already begun manufacturing the "Love Child" album that it was too late to add "I'm Living in Shame"? Still, despite the mishap, the "Love Child" album is still one of my favorites and one of their best reviewed as Diana Ross and The Supremes.

[Zantellor]

Yeah, it's kind of a mystery that after sequestering a writing team to compose "Love Child"....why not keep them focused on writing a follow-up so that there is another single in the can? The "Love Child" album was shaping up to be their "Cloud Nine". The Temptations had "Runaway Child, Running Wild" as a logical follow-up. It was released only 3 mos after "Cloud Nine". "I'm Living in Shame" was released only 4 mos after "Love Child", the single. Had Motown already begun manufacturing the "Love Child" album that it was too late to add "I'm Living in Shame"? Still, despite the mishap, the "Love Child" album is still one of my favorites and one of their best reviewed as Diana Ross and The Supremes.

I'm Living In Shame is shameful.It has no message .It is a rediculous song . I guess Motown was searching for another social statement to follow up Love Child. How this song was ever recoded and released amazes me. The lyrics to He's Seventeen are better

[ejluther]

I, too, am curious about the thought process [[or lack thereof) behind "I'm Living In Shame". I bet most people already know this but ILIS is really nothing more than a retelling of the movie IMITATION OF LIFE [[about a light-skinned black girl who passes as white and turns her back on her mother) that was made twice, once in 1934 and again in 1959. The 1959 Douglas Sirk-directed version was especially successful and remains highly regarded in some circles. Of all the social problems in the world in 1969 it is surprising that Motown went with this redundant and soapy option for the follow-up to "Love Child". I suspect its relative "safeness" had a lot to do with that decision. After all, were they really going to have Diana Ross & the Supremes sing about drugs or war?

[detmotownguy]

I'm Living In Shame is shameful.It has no message .It is a rediculous song . I guess Motown was searching for another social statement to follow up Love Child. How this song was ever recoded and released amazes me. The lyrics to He's Seventeen are better

Wow Zantellor nice to see you here! We have chatted b4 on another forum; will send u a message.

I find this song almost to the point of embarassing. The social statements were done well by the Tempts. Those were great years living in Detroit.

[BayouMotownMan]

I really enjoy the stereo mix of Livin' In Shame and I feel it earned its Top Ten showing. The lyrics were a bit soapy, but when it came time to release a follow-up to Love Child, obviously this one was the best of what was available. Diana does a great vocal as do the Andantes backing her. I think all of the tracks on the Love Child lp could have attained some level of success as singles, but not with the impact as the title track. Following a mega-hit with another mega-hit is a difficult thing to do. The Supremes were good at it for a number of years, but their time was running out

Diana actually was very close to her mom and disliked the lyrics to Shame. They only performed it in the act for a very brief period.

[franjoy56]

The Love Child album had other songs that would have served as great singles. HMSB
one as well as ISYF and How long has that evening train been gone, and if a song was released sooner while Love Child was hot I think they would have had another top 5 hit, because after Livin in Shame they were back in the flop department again.

[REDHOT]

I really like Change Of Love,and yes Mary and Cindy sound great on Will This Be The Day and You Been Wonderful To Me,Love It,
Please stay positive

[Ngroove]

Personally, on their "Love Child" album, to me, "He's My Sunny Boy", and "You've Been So Wonderful To Me" are tops, a lot "sunnier" than the pretty darn depressing, and overly melodramatic by comparison, lead title single.