(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please refer down below)
The Supremes - "I Hear a Symphony"
Hit Number 1: November 20, 1965
Stay at Number 1: 2 Weeks
The Supremes had been on a hell of a run. When "Back In My Arms Again" hit #1 earlier in 1965, it became their fifth consecutive single to hit #1 to start off their career. It almost became expected that anything they would touch would turn to gold, and perhaps that was what Motown's founder and chief Berry Gordy was indeed expecting. After the single "Nothing but Heartaches" only made it to #11, Gordy was pretty upset with the performance, especially after what the group had been able to accomplish earlier. ("Nothing but Heartaches" is a 5) He released a memo around the Motown offices that read: "We will release nothing less than Top Ten product on any artist; and because the Supremes' world-wide acceptance is greater than the other artists, on them we will only release number-one records." That's asking for a lot, but his wish was granted for the moment with "I Hear a Symphony".
Motown's main production team, Holland-Dozier-Holland, was responsible for everything that the Supremes were putting out, and they realized they needed to come up with something great to please Gordy, and get the Supremes on top again. They came up with "I Hear a Symphony", a pretty nice little song, but not one of my favorite Supremes' hits. It's pretty different from the material they had released the prior months, and this is when Motown started getting more "Spectorish", if you will. Instead of putting out upbeat songs with a gleefully honking saxophone throughout, they started putting in more strings, with the songs not being quite as energetic. Sometimes that works out very nicely, and it's not like it DOESN'T work on "I Hear a Symphony", it's just a song that gets lost in the other Supremes' greats in my opinion. The content is pretty basic, as it's just your ordinary love song, except the singer says whenever her lover is near, she "hears a symphony". It's kind of repetitive, and seems like whoever was running the studio controls missed their cue to fade out the song. The only thing that saves this song from being completely washed from my memory is Diana Ross' voice. (Is that a surprise?)
However, the song is one of their more notable hits, and Ross revealed in 1968 that it's her favorite song to sing for the Supremes. The single also sparked an album with the same name which, as far as I can tell, seemed to be a great success too. If everyone involved is happy with how it turned out, and the way it sounded, then really that's all that matters I guess.
GRADE: 6/10
JUST MISSED:
Len Barry's "1-2-3" just missed out on the top of the charts, peaking at #2 behind "I Hear a Symphony". It's also a 6.
SONGS REFERENCED:
The Supremes' "Nothing but Heartaches"
The Supremes' "Back In My Arms Again" - https://rmparis12.wixsite.com/website/post/the-hit-hammer-the-supremes-back-in-my-arms-again
MY INSPIRATION / MORE INFORMATION:
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