Supreme being: A look back on the life of Diana Ross

Like many great bands, The Supremes started out under a different moniker. The Primettes were initially formed as a sister group to the male singing group The Primes (which included future Temptations Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams). When Berry Gordy signed the group to Motown in 1961, he demanded a name change. As the leader of the group, Florence Ballard chose The Supremes. Diana Ross was not a fan.

The Supremes put out eight singles between 1961 and 1963, but only once came close to cracking the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 (“When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes”). Their ninth single, written by Motown’s go-to team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland (aka Holland-Dozier-Holland), was “Where Did Our Love Go.” It went straight to number one.

It was no secret that Berry Gordy favored Diana Ross above the other Supremes, even though Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson were considered to be better singers. But once the songs started being tailored to Ross’s vocal range, you’d have to be hanging out in the Hitsville U.S.A. studio to know any better. This Holland-Dozier-Holland composition was the last to feature solo adlibs from Ballard and Wilson. Gordy was making it clear that this was Ross’s band.

This was the Supremes' fourth single of 1964, and their third straight number one hit. It was with this song that Ross and her bandmates were introduced to American TV viewers on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The song hit the top of the charts twice, unseated by and then supplanting The Beatles’ “I Feel Fine.”

You can’t hear this song without wanting to do the choreography (one hand on your hip, and the other outstretched to signal “Stop”). This was The Supremes’ fourth straight number one single, and it became a signature hit for Ross. Her 2013 concert tour was named for the song.

The Supremes' streak of number one hits ended after this song topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1965. Though Ross was the clear front-woman of the group by this point, Holland-Dozier-Holland somehow got away with working Ballard and Wilson’s names into the lyrics. If this was a Motown-approved strategy to market all three Supremes, it was short-lived.

The Supremes' previous single, “Nothing But Heartaches,” stalled out at number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100, and Berry Gordy was steamed. He chastised Holland-Dozier-Holland, informing them that the Supremes were Motown’s crown jewel and that they were only to release number one hits. Message sent. “I Hear a Symphony” returned the ladies to number one, and remains one of Ross’s personal favorites.

After failing to hit number one with “My Love Is Empty Without You” and “Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart” (and, really, how many hit songs do you know with the word “itch” in the title), Ross and The Supremes shot back to number one with a song that’s every bit as iconic as “Stop in the Name of Love.” Phil Collins got a UK number one hit out of the song in 1982.

Listen to this song right next to The Supremes’ previous number one hit, “You Can’t Hurry Love,” and you can hear a noticeable change in Motown’s production. This was one of the label’s first multi-track productions, and the process was especially helpful in boosting the strength of Ross’s vocals. The song was a top ten hit the following year for psychedelic rockers Vanilla Fudge.

By this point, they were now Diana Ross & The Supremes. Florence Ballard was gone (replaced by Cindy Birdsong), and, for the most part, Ross recorded with Motown’s session singers The Andantes. This was the band’s first number one hit under the new moniker (and its first chart topper not written by Holland-Dozier-Holland). The behind-the-scenes drama had boiled over into the tabloids; people knew it was only a matter of time before Ross went solo.

Ross was finally leaving The Supremes, and this song, with its wistful title, was intended to give fans a sense of closure and, perhaps, hope for a reunion at some point. Behind the scenes, things were nowhere near that rosy (Gordy was already auditioning Ross’s replacement). This song had been tabbed as Ross’s first solo release at one point, and, as far as its recording was concerned, it really was. After performing the single with Wilson and Birdsong at Las Vegas’ Frontier Hotel on January 14, 1970, Ross was officially on her own.

Ross’s first solo LP was released in the summer of 1970 to initial disappointment. The first single, “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand),” stalled at number twenty on the Billboard Hot 100, and the critical reception was mixed. It might’ve been a disastrous outing were it not for the second single, a cover of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” which became Ross’s first number one hit as a solo artist. The album is now considered one of Ross’s finest artistic achievements.

The release of “Diana Ross” might’ve been unexpectedly rocky, but her big-screen acting debut went downright swimmingly. Ross played blues singing legend Billie Holiday in “Lady Sings the Blues” to mostly rapturous reviews. Though Ross could not sing Holiday’s songs in the singer’s inimitable style, she captured the troubled spirit of the artist with surprising depth and sensitivity. The performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

A year after receiving her first (and, to date, only) Academy Award nomination, Ross became the first African-American woman to co-host the ceremony. She was joined by Burt Reynolds, John Huston, David Niven and, briefly, a streaker who bolted stark-naked onto the stage while Niven was presenting an award.

Ross returned to the Academy Awards in 1976 to sing the Oscar-nominated song “Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To).” Written by Michael Masser and Gerry Goffin, it was just about the only redeeming quality of the bizarrely awful movie (which Berry Gordy directed after firing Oscar-winner Tony Richardson).

Ross’s fourth (and final) number one hit of the 1970s starts off as a slow jam before erupting into a disco inferno at around the three-minute mark. Producer Hal Davis nearly offered the song to Marvin Gaye, but wisely realized it would be much more sensual with Ross handling the vocals. It might not be a precision-tuned earworm like her hits with The Supremes, but there’s not a single song in Ross’s catalogue that better showcases the full range of her vocal talents.

This was a disaster. The buoyancy and charm of the stage musical gets drowned in excess production value, while director Sidney Lumet, best known for gritty crime dramas like “Serpico” and “Dog Day Afternoon,” finds himself way out of his element. But even with the right director, the film’s biggest problem would remain: Diana Ross. She was in her mid-thirties, and was simply too old to play the girlish Dorothy. Reeling from the negative reviews, Ross wouldn’t take a dramatic role until the 1994 TV movie, “Out of Darkness.”

After receiving the worst reviews of her career for anything, Ross hooked up with Chic’s Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers for her tenth solo album, “Diana.” She needed a hit, and, boy, did she get one. “Upside Down” was a lean slice of funk that rocketed her back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, while the uplifting “I’m Coming Out” wound up becoming a gay anthem. The Supreme Ms. Ross was back on top.

Ballads don’t come any schmaltzier than this Ross duet with Lionel Richie, but the damn thing works. Richie wrote the single for Franco Zeffirelli’s young-love drama of the same title (starring Brooke Shields), and it’s long outlived that legendarily awful movie. Luther Vandross and Mariah Carey nearly got the song back to number one in 1994, but while they’re both fabulous singers, they couldn’t re-capture the Ross-Richie magic. 

This twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of Motown Records was full of happy moments: Smokey Robinson reuniting with the Miracles, the Temptations vs. the Four Tops in a good-natured battle of the bands and, of course, Michael Jackson moonwalking during his performance of “Billie Jean.” And then there was Diana Ross’s long-awaited reunion with The Supremes. The live performance was edited for the broadcast due to bad blood bubbling up onstage.

How’s this for a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class: The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, The Drifters and The Supremes. They were all inducted in 1988, and while the occasion failed (yet again) to reunite Ross with Wilson and Birdsong, the honor itself was more than deserved. The Supremes will always be Motown’s crown jewel, and Ross its queen.