“Baby Love” is a 1964 song recorded by American music group the Supremes for their second studio album, Where Did Our Love Go, and was written and produced by Motown’s main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland (H–D–H). “Baby Love” topped the Billboard pop singles chart in the United States from October 25, 1964 through November 21, 1964, and in the United Kingdom pop singles chart concurrently. Beginning with “Baby Love”, The Supremes became the first Motown act to have more than one American number-one single, and by the end of the decade, would have more number-one singles than any other Motown act (or American pop music group) with 12, a record they continue to hold. It was nominated for the 1965 Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording, losing to Nancy Wilson’s “How Glad I Am”. It is considered one of the most popular songs of the late 20th century. “Baby Love” was ranked #324 on the Rolling Stone list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. (More from Wikipedia)
Holland-Dozier-Holland is a songwriting powerhouse; besides writing some of Motown’s best-known hits, they wrote most of the songs on entire albums for some of the biggest stars on the label. For the Supremes’ second album Where Did Our Love Go (1964), not only did Holland-Dozier-Holland write the group’s three Number 1 hits that appear on the album (as well as 10 of their 12 Number 1 hits overall) – “Where Did Our Love Go”, “Baby Love”, and “Come See About Me” – they also wrote 5 of the 9 other songs on the album. About Where Did Our Love Go, Wikipedia says: “With the release of this album, the Supremes became the first act in Billboard magazine history to have three number-one hits from the same album. It was the album that introduced ‘The Motown Sound’ to the masses. It was also, at the time, the highest ranking album by an all female group.”
(April 2015/1)
