Love Child (The Supremes album)

Infobox Album | Name = Love Child
Type = Album
Artist = Diana Ross & the Supremes


Released = November 13, 1968
Recorded = February 17 - October 2, 1968
Genre = Pop/soul
Length = -
Label = Motown
MS 670
Producer = Berry Gordy
Frank Wilson
R. Dean Taylor
Deke Richards
Henry Cosby
Smokey Robinson
Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson
Marv Johnson
George Gordy
Harvey Fuqua
Johnny Bristol
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:7c841vdjzzha link]
Last album = "Diana Ross & the Supremes Join the Temptations"
(1968)
This album = "Love Child"
(1968)
Next album = "TCB"
(1968)

"Love Child" is a 1968 album recorded by Diana Ross & the Supremes for the Motown label. The LP was the group's first studio LP (excepting covers and tribute albums) not to include any songs written or produced by any member of the Holland-Dozier-Holland production team, who had previously overseen most of the Supremes' releases.

Overview

Several different producers and production teams worked on the "Love Child" LP. Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, the production team behind the Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell hit singles, wrote and produced the album's first single, "Some Things You Never Get Used To". The single peaked at number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100, the Supremes' weakest chart showing since 1963. Wanting to improve the group's waining sales, Motown CEO Berry Gordy, Jr. assembled a production team he termed "The Clan" (Frank Wilson, Deke Richards, Henry Cosby, R. Dean Taylor, and Gordy himself) to create a hit single for The Supremes. The result was "Love Child", which returned the Supremes to the Billboard Hot 100's number-one position. Staff producers such as Smokey Robinson, Harvey Fuqua, and Johnny Bristol also contributed to the album.

The tracks on "Love Child" show a markedly different sound for The Supremes, eschewing the soul-pop sound Holland-Dozier-Holland had masterminded for a more distinct, mature sound and lyric. During its four years as a Top 40 pop act, The Supremes had gone from playing local venues to performing in expensive supper clubs, and the change in sound reflected the group's new fanbase. The new Supremes recordings also, according to Supremes member Mary Wilson, emphasized " [lead singer Diana Ross'] voice at the expense of any good harmonies". [ Wilson, Mary and Romanowski, Patricia (1986, 1990, 2000). . New York: Cooper Square Publishers. ISBN 0-8154-1000-X. Pg. 220.] Wilson and third Supreme Cindy Birdsong do not in fact appear on either of the LP's singles (Motown session singers The Andantes instead sing backing vocals on these as well as on some other of the album's tracks), although Wilson and Birdsong are present on some of the album's tracks also.

Covered songs on the LP include Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers' "Does Your Mama Know About Me" (co-written by future comedian Tommy Chong) and Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell's "You Ain't Livin' Until You're Lovin'". Smokey Robinson's "He's My Sunny Boy" would later become the b-side to the final Diana Ross-led Supremes single, "Someday We'll Be Together" (1969), and Ashford & Simpson's "Keep an Eye" would later be rerecorded by Ross for her first solo LP, "Diana Ross." "Can't Shake It Loose" was co-authored by George Clinton for Pat Lewis, later occasionally of The Andantes, who recorded it for Golden World (1966); Clinton would later remake the song with his band Funkadelic as "Field Maneuvers", on the 1979 Funkadelic album "Uncle Jam Wants You".

Track listing

ide one

# "Love Child" (Henry Cosby, Frank Wilson, Pam Sawyer, Deke Richards, R. Dean Taylor) - 2:58
#"Keep an Eye" (Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson) – 3:08
#"How Long Has That Evening Train Been Gone" (Sawyer, Wilson) – 2:48
#"Does Your Mama Know About Me" (Tom Baird, Tommy Chong) – 2:54
#"Honey Bee (Keep on Stinging Me)" (Janie Bradford, Debbie Dean, Richards) – 2:22
#"Some Things You Never Get Used To" (Ashford, Simpson) – 2:25

ide two

#"He's My Sunny Boy" (Smokey Robinson) – 2:22
#"You've Been So Wonderful to Me" (Anna Gordy Gaye, George Gordy, Allen Story) – 2:34
#"(Don't Break These) Chains of Love" (George Beauchamp, Harvey Fuqua, Johnny Bristol) – 2:25
#"You Ain't Livin' Till You're Lovin'" (Ashford, Simpson) – 2:44
#"I'll Set You Free" (Gwen Fuqua, B. Gordy, Ivy Jo Hunter, Renee Tener) – 2:40
#"Can't Shake It Loose" (Sidney Barnes, George Clinton, Joanne Jackson, Rose Marie McCoy) – 2:09

Personnel

Performers

*Diana Ross: lead vocals
*Mary Wilson: background vocals
*Cindy Birdsong: background vocals
*The Andantes: background vocals
*Nickolas Ashford: background vocals on "Some Things You Never Get Used To"
*Valerie Simpson: background vocals on "Some Things You Never Get Used To"
*The Funk Brothers: instrumentation on all tracks save for "Does Your Mama Know About Me" and "Honey Bee (Keep on Stinging Me)", which were recorded with Los Angeles-area session musicians.

Production credits

*Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson: producers, "Keep an Eye", "Some Things You'll Never Get Used To", "You Ain't Livin' Until You're Lovin'"
*"The Clan" (Berry Gordy, Jr., Frank Wilson, Deke Richards, Henry Cosby, R. Dean Taylor): producers, "Love Child"
*Frank Wilson: producer, "How Long Has That Evening Train Been Gone"
*Frank Wilson, Deke Richards: producers, "Does Your Mama Know About Me"
*Deke Richards: producer, "Honey Bee (Keep on Stinging Me)"
*Smokey Robinson: producer, "He's My Sunny Boy"
*George Gordy: producer, "You've Been So Wonderful to Me"
*Harvey Fuqua, Johnny Bristol: producers, "(Don't Break These) Chains Of Love"
*Berry Gordy, Jr., producer: "I'll Set You Free"
*Henry Cosby, producer: "Can't Shake It Loose"

ingles history

*"Some Things You'll Never Get Used To" b/w "You've Been So Wonderful to Me" (Motown 1126, May 21, 1968)
*"Love Child" b/w "Will This Be the Day" (b-side later included on "Let the Sunshine In") (Motown 1135, September 30, 1968)

Chart history

Notes