THE HIT HAMMER: The Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go"

(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 to the "Poor Little Fool" post)

The Supremes - "Where Did Our Love Go"

Hit Number 1: August 22, 1964

Stay at Number 1: 2 Weeks

When the Beatles arrived in America in the first half of 1964, they stole everyone's hearts and ran with them. They were an instant success, rattling off 5 #1 hits already in 1964. (They will have a 6th later) They were pretty much unstoppable on the charts, and if someone knocked them out of the #1 spot, they would just return in a little while with a different song. That's not to say that there wasn't good competition, the Beach Boys were around (literally) and the Beatles' fellow British Invasion acts were achieving great chart success too, but no one was a regular at #1 quite like the Beatles in the 1960s. However, the artists that gave them a real run for their money were the Supremes, probably the greatest girl group ever.

These three girls from Detroit gave Motown Records the most successful act to come out of there. They were, of course, fronted by Diana Ross, and though they definitely didn't raid the charts by storm quite like the Beatles did, they would become regulars on the charts, and we will see them several more times on this blog. The first of their many #1 hits was a song written by the songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, who wrote many other big Motown hits. The song, "Where Did Our Love Go", was written with the group in mind. On a surprising note, the Supremes were not sold on the song, and they wanted to record something more upbeat and fun like the Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman". They felt the song lacked a good hook. But the group was trying to break into the music business, so they figured they didn't have much of a say in the matter, and they went and recorded it anyway.

Another funny thing about the group's start is that they didn't have a true lead singer. Of course, that would obviously become Ross, but at the time all three of the girls in the group were potential lead singers. In fact, when the Holland-Dozier-Holland team wrote the song, they wrote it in the key that member Mary Wilson was most appropriate for. However Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records who is still kicking it today at the age of 90, assigned the lead singing role to Ross. Ross obviously had a very high range, and was told to sing the song in a lower register so that it would fit the formula that Holland-Dozier-Holland had in mind. Needless to say, everything worked out about as well as it possibly could. When Ross first heard the playback, she was ecstatic, running over to Gordy's office to inform him of how well everything sounded and that he needed to give it a listen. Gordy nodded his head, and said that the song was certainly top-ten material.

The song was indeed top-ten material, but it became much more than that on August 22, 1964, when it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 2 weeks, and put the Supremes on the map. Though it might not have been what they initially wanted, "Where Did Our Love Go" is still a great song and blows "Please Mr. Postman" out of the water. It's one of those songs that disguises its lyrics by putting a cheerful sound over it. Like, this is a really sad song. But you wouldn't know that by the way it sounds. I can almost hear Ross smiling as she sings the song. (Kind of like what she's doing in the video above) However, that makes the song BETTER. If this song was slow and quiet, it would be a real snooze fest. Which it definitely isn't. I really like the foot stomps that supply the beat, and of course I really enjoy Ross' voice. She has one of those distinctive, pretty voices that makes any song better just having her singing lead on it. It really isn't hard to see why "Where Did Our Love Go" launched this group's career, and it signifies what was to come of them. It might be their "signature song", though you could also give that to a couple of upcoming songs of theirs' in this blog as well. At the end of the day, Gordy made the right call as to who should sing lead for the Supremes. Diana Ross is one of a kind.

GRADE: 9/10

10 ALERT!!!:

The Drifters' ultimate classic "Under the Boardwalk" peaked at #4 while "Where Did Our Love Go" was at #1. It's a 10.