CD Odyssey Disc 592: Diana Ross and the Supremes

Wow – where does a week go?

Answer – into a double disc, 50+ song anthology of the next artist.  If I didn’t know these guys before I certainly know them now.

Disc 592 is….Anthology: The Very Best of Diana Ross & the Supremes

Artist: Diana Ross and the Supremes

Year of Release: 1995, but music is from 1961 to 1976

What’s up with the Cover? This cover is a cautionary tale that says if you are going to wear matching outfits on stage, make sure the outfits don’t suck. These dresses look like they were made out of bed sheets.

How I Came To Know It: I honestly can’t remember.  Either Sheila bought this one, or I saw it on sale for cheap and couldn’t pass up that much music for the price.  Either way, here it is.

How It Stacks Up:  This is the only album by Diana Ross and/or the Supremes that we have, and with this many tracks, all we’ll ever need.  That said, ‘best of’ albums don’t stack up, so even if it weren’t, the question is moot.

Rating:  ‘best of’ albums don’t get rated on the Odyssey – click on other best of reviews for various ways I like to remind readers of this, or just take my word for it.

Many modern pop acts offend me, as I imagine a room full of swarthy songwriters hiding behind the pretty faces of the video generation, brought together by soulless record execs with steepled fingers.  For this reason I have a hard time reconciling how much I enjoyed an anthology of Diana Ross and the Supremes, which are exactly the same formula, fifty years earlier.

Not unlike today, Motown took some pretty girls with pretty voices (the Supremes), put them in matching outfits and then armed them with songs from some songwriting masters such as Barry Gordy, Smokey Robinson and the team of Holland-Dozier-Holland. Slightly artificial by singer-songwriter standards, perhaps, but damn if this isn’t some of the finest bubble-gum pop music I’ve ever heard.  Some of these songs are over fifty years old but they sound fresh as the day they were written.  In fact, pop hopefuls on reality TV singing competitions still routinely choose songs like “My World Is Empty Without You,” and “River Deep, Mountain High” to this day.

Whatever artifice went into the experience, the result is alchemy in the hands of Diana Ross and the Supremes.  These women can belt it out, with just the right amount of sass and vulnerability, delivering in 1964 and 2014 with equal strength.

The music has a symphonic quality in places, with horn sections playing lightly behind the voices, and the whole of it has that snap and swing that gives Motown its irresistible charm.

The star of the act is, of course, Diana Ross and while I’ve given her talents short shrift in the past, listening to these songs made me a believer.  She is by no means a power house singer like we see too much of these days, but her tone is always sweet and full.  She never sounds shout-y, or like she’s trying to over-sing it.  Ross has the casual confidence of someone who knows she can sing, and doesn’t have to prove it for your votes.

The anthology I have is immense and a bit daunting.  It took me a whole week of walking to and from work to get through the 52 songs and two and a half hours of music. Picking out individual tracks is difficult, partly because of the sheer number of songs.

Later songs are definitely a big inspiration to disco music in the seventies.  “Keep Me Hangin’ On” and “Reflections” could both be lifted directly from 1966 Detroit to 1978 New York without any problem, and that’s a testament to Holland-Dozier-Holland who seem to be able to write classic hits like most of us order a coffee.

I’d heard huge hits like “Where Did Our Love Go?” and “Baby Love” so many times I had a hard time getting excited about hearing them again.  These are good tracks, but in terms of holding my interest other tracks had more interesting musical structure.

Out of the mega-hits (which are particularly packed from 1964 to 1966) I prefer “Come See About Me” for the way it constructs a clever melody and puts some swing in there that would move the hips of the dead.

On the issue of dates, I’d also like to give these CDs a shout-out for putting the songs in chronological order.  That’s how an anthology should play out, so you can enjoy the growth of the artist’s style through the years.

Lyrically there are a lot of songs about good old fashioned love, but there were a few that I found pretty racy as well.  Two favourites of these are “Buttered Popcorn” and “I’ll Try Something New.” I won’t bother printing the lyrics out, because it will just seem like an innocent night at the movies or a whimsical romantic gesture, but when you hear them sung the innuendo is pretty clear.

At the other end of the spectrum is the great “Send Me No Flowers” the anthem of a spurned woman telling her ex not to bother sending her flowers to assuage his own guilt over ending the relationship.  And although “Things Are Changing” is a bit heavy handed with the ‘sisters are doin’ it for themselves’ message, in 1965 it was a pretty important message about women empowerment.

The record peters out a bit at the end, with the bulk of the good stuff in the early to mid-sixties, and the only track I really liked from the post-Diana Ross lineup was “Up the Ladder to the Roof.” That said, the sheer number of great pop songs that the Supremes delivered through the 1960s is an incredible legacy that is still fresh and funky today and made the majority of my week long sentence a joy to serve.

Best tracks: Buttered Popcorn, Let Me Go the Right Way, Long Gone Lover, Send Me No Flowers, Come See About Me, Stop! In the Name of Love, Back In My Arms Again, Too Hurt to Cry and Too Much in Love to Say Goodbye, You Can’t Hurry Love, You Keep Me Hangin’ On, Reflections, I’m Gonna Make It (I Will Wait For You), Love Child, I’m Gonna Make You Love Me, I’ll Try Something New, Up The Ladder to the Roof

Yes - 15 selections, but remember, I had 52 to choose from.