Originally Posted by
roger
I think that Motown were genuinely surprised by the lack of success that DIANA ROSS's first solo effort "Reach Out And Touch" had compared with the first SUPREMES effort without her "Up the Ladder To The roof".
These are the respective chart positions .. Billboard for the US .. Guinness Book Of Hit records for the UK
"Up The Ladder To The Roof"
US "Pop" : 11 weeks, peaking at #10
US R&B : 13 weeks, peaking at #5
UK : 15 weeks, peaking at #6
"Reach Out And Touch"
US "Pop" : 9 weeks, peaking at #20
US R&B : 9 weeks, peaking at #7
UK : 5 weeks, peaking at #33
I think people at Motown were genuinely concerned that Diana's solo career was going to stall.
Indeed, those who have the 1970 volume of "The Complete Motown Singles" should check out the last track on Disc 52 which is a special disc sent out to Motown's distributors by Barney Ales complaining about the "underperformance" of "Reach Out And Touch", stating that everybody knew it was "a number one record" and implying that they weren't doing their job properly.
On this basis I can see that there may have been confusion amongst the record buying public about who was actually in the group. I had no such confusion, being a 16 year old Motown obsessive living in Sheffield, England, but then, when I think about it, being on a tight budget, I bought "Up The ladder To The Roof" at full price immediately upon release. It was only after a few months had gone by that a copy of "Reach Out And Touch" entered the collection [[a cheap ex-juke-box copy as I recall).
Roger
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