Greatest Hits (The Supremes album)

Infobox Album |
Name = Greatest Hits
Type = Greatest hits
Artist = Diana Ross & the Supremes


Released = August 29 1967
Recorded = 1963 - 1967
Genre = Soul/pop
Length = 55:02
Label = Motown
MS 2-663
Producer = Brian Holland
Lamont Dozier
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:uhua6joh7190~T00 link]
Last album = "The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart"
(1967)
This album = "Greatest Hits"
(1967)
Next album = "Diana Ross & The Supremes Sing Disney Classics"
(1967)

"Diana Ross & the Supremes: Greatest Hits" is a two-LP collection of singles and b-sides recorded by The Supremes, released by Motown Records in August 1967 (see 1967 in music). The collection was the first LP to credit the group by its new name of "Diana Ross & the Supremes". Although founding member Florence Ballard is pictured on all album artwork and sings on all the tracks, by the time the set was released, she had been fired from the group and replaced by Cindy Birdsong.

Overview

"Greatest Hits" includes fifteen Supremes singles, 10 of which went to Number One, among them were "Where Did Our Love Go", "Stop! In the Name of Love", "You Can't Hurry Love", and the most recent Supremes number-one, "The Happening" (a non-album track from the 1967 film of the same name). Also included are five popular Supremes b-sides: "Standing at the Crossroads of Love", "Ask Any Girl", "There's No Stopping Us Now", "Everything is Good About You", and "Whisper You Love Me Boy".

The packaging for the set includes liner notes by actress Carol Channing (which were originally written for an unreleased album "The Supremes and The Motown Sound: From Broadway To Hollywood") and paintings by Robert Taylor, including collectable 12 inch by 12 inch pin-up portraits of Diana Ross, Florence Ballard, and Mary Wilson. "Greatest Hits" was a number-one album on both the Billboard 200 and the Billboard R&B Albums charts in the United States, and also reached the top of the pop album chart in the United Kingdom as well.

Although not nominally credited because of their increasingly estranged relationship with Motown, all of the songs included were produced by the songwriting/production team of Holland-Dozier-Holland.

Track listing

"All songs produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier. All songs written by Holland-Dozier-Holland unless otherwise noted. Superscripts denote original album sources, referenced below."

LP One

ide 1

#"When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes" ^a –
#"Where Did Our Love Go" ^a –
#"Ask Any Girl" ^{a, b} –
#"Baby Love" ^a – 2:37
#"Run, Run, Run" ^a –

ide 2

#"Stop! In the Name of Love" ^b –
#"Back in My Arms Again" ^b –
#"Come See About Me" ^a – 2:42
#"Nothing But Heartaches" ^b –
#"Everything is Good About You" (James Dean, Edward Holland, Jr.) ^c –

LP Two

ide 3

#"I Hear a Symphony" ^c – 2:38
#"Love Is Here and Now You're Gone" ^e – 2:46
#"My World is Empty Without You" ^c – 2:33
#"Whisper You Love Me Boy" ^b – 2:40
#"The Happening" (Holland-Dozier-Holland, Frank DeVol) – 2:49

ide 4

#"You Keep Me Hangin' On" ^e – 2:40
#"You Can't Hurry Love" ^d – 2:45
#"Standing at the Crossroads of Love" ^a – 2:27
#"Love is Like an Itching in My Heart" ^d – 2:55
#"There's No Stopping Us Now" ^e – 2:55

Notes

Album sources

*^a from "Where Did Our Love Go" (1964)
*^b from "More Hits by the Supremes" (1965)
*^c from "I Hear a Symphony (1966)
*^d from "The Supremes A' Go-Go" (1966):
*^e from "The Supremes Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland" (1967)

*"The Happening" is new to album. The single "Reflections" was originally also intended for inclusion, but was heldover and replaced with "Standing in The Crossroads of Love". "Reflections" was included on the subsequent "Reflections" LP in March 1968.

Release information

*"Greatest Hits" was released overseas in some markets shortened to one LP. The tracklisting for this version includes only the major singles, omitting "Ask Any Girl", "Standing at the Crossroads of Love", "Whisper You Love Me Boy", "Everything is Good About You", "There's No Stopping Us Now", "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes", and "Run, Run, Run".
*"Diana Ross & the Supremes: Greatest Hits" is regularly referred to as "Diana Ross & the Supremes: Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2", as its 1969 single-disc follow-up is titled "Greatest Hits Vol. 3". The double-LP was issued by Motown as two separate halves in 1986. "Greatest Hits", "Greatest Hits, Vol. 3", and "The Supremes at Their Best" (A greatest hits collection for the post-Ross 1970s Supremes) were compiled and issued as "The Supremes: Gold" in 2005.

Personnel

*Diana Ross: lead vocals
*Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard: background vocals
*Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier: producers
*The Funk Brothers: instrumentation on all tracks save for "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone".

ingles history

*"The Happening" b/w "All I Know About You" (non-album) (Motown 1107, March 20, 1967)

Chart history

succession box
before = "Ode to Billie Joe" by Bobbie Gentry
title = "Billboard" 200 number-one album
years = October 28 - December 1 1967
after = "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd."
by The Monkees