Three Detroit teenagers who made twelve number ones

The Supremes began as a sister act. In 1958 Florence Ballard, a junior high school student in Detroit’s Brewster-Douglass housing projects, met Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks of the Primes. Their manager Milton Jenkins created a sister group called the Primettes. Ballard brought in her best friend Mary Wilson, Williams recruited Diana Ross, and Betty McGlown completed the first lineup. They began by performing hits by Ray Charles and the Drifters at sock hops and talent shows, and guitarist Marvin Tarplin allowed them to sing live instead of lip-synching.

After they won the Windsor–Detroit International Freedom Festival on July 4, 1960, they wanted a record. Ross asked an old neighbor, Smokey Robinson, to help them reach Motown’s Berry Gordy. Robinson liked them, but he liked their guitarist even more and hired Tarplin for the Miracles. Gordy heard them a cappella and told them to come back after high school. They recorded “Tears of Sorrow” for Lu Pine Records, which found no audience.

They signed to Motown in 1961 as the Supremes, and by early 1962 Ross, Ballard and Wilson continued as a trio. In the mid-1960s, with Ross as lead singer and Holland–Dozier–Holland writing and producing, they reached the mainstream. Among their songs are “Where Did Our Love Go”, “Come See About Me”, “Stop! In the Name of Love”, “You Can’t Hurry Love”, “You Keep Me Hangin’ On”, “Love Child” and “Someday We’ll Be Together”. They had twelve number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, and Billboard ranked them the 16th greatest Hot 100 artist of all time.

In 1967 Berry Gordy renamed them Diana Ross & the Supremes and replaced Ballard with Cindy Birdsong. Ross left in 1970 for a solo career, and Jean Terrell took her place. The lineup kept changing until the group disbanded in 1977, eighteen years after it formed. Their breakthrough is considered to have made it possible for later African-American R&B and soul musicians to find mainstream success.