Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer, actress, record producer and an occasional songwriter. Born and raised in Detroit, she rose to fame as a founding member and lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes. Following her departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross released her debut solo album, Diana Ross, which contained the hits “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)” and the #1 hit “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”. Ross also ventured into acting, with a Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominated performance in Lady Sings the Blues (1972). Ross was named the “Female Entertainer of the Century” by Billboard magazine. Ross has sold more than 100 million records worldwide when her releases with the Supremes and as a solo artist are tallied. She is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007 and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. (More from Wikipedia)
The Supremes were founded in 1959 by four teenagers – Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross, and Betty McGlown – under the name the Primettes; they started as a sister act to the Primes, who evolved into the Temptations. Barbara Martin replaced McGlown in 1960. Ross was going by the name “Diane Ross” initially; that was actually the name that her mother intended to give her, but through a clerical error, her birth certificate says Diana Ross. In order to distinguish themselves from other similar groups in that era, the Primettes hired guitarist Marvin Tarplin to accompany them so they would not have to lip sync.
When Diana Ross approached Smokey Robinson (who had been a neighbor previously) about getting an audition with Motown founder Berry Gordy, Robinson agreed to help but was more impressed with their guitarist; Marvin Tarplin quickly became the guitarist for his band the Miracles for more than a decade. For his part, Berry Gordy originally thought the girls were too young and inexperienced but finally signed them in January 1961.
* * *
Early on, Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and Diana Ross shared lead-vocal duties on their recordings. Berry Gordy though was always impressed mainly with Diana Ross; from Wikipedia: “In Berry Gordy’s autobiography, To Be Loved, Gordy recalled he was heading to a business meeting when he heard Ross singing ‘There Goes My Baby’ and Ross’ voice ‘stopped me in my tracks’.”
Even before the name was changed to Diana Ross and the Supremes in 1967, the heavy promoting of Diana Ross was causing turmoil in the Supremes and even in other Motown groups. Florence Ballard in particular felt that she was being pushed into the background; she gained weight and began drinking heavily, eventually failing to show up for rehearsals and arriving at concerts too inebriated to perform. She was eventually eased out entirely in April 1967 and was replaced by Cindy Birdsong of Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles. (Patti LaBelle performed on Dancing with the Stars in the current season).
Diana Ross left the Supremes in 1970 to start a solo career, though Berry Gordy had been thinking about that as early as 1966. Guinness World Records lists Diana Ross as the most successful female recording artist in history; combining her recordings with the Supremes and individually, Diana Ross has had 70 charting hit singles and sales of more than 100 million albums. In 1976, Billboard magazine named Diana Ross the “female entertainer of the century”.
* * *
As I wrote about Bob Dylan in my last post, his first album, Bob Dylan sold modestly; and Dylan became known as “Hammond’s Folly” around Columbia Records – John H. Hammond had decided to sign Dylan on the spot after hearing him perform on September 14, 1961 at the apartment of Carolyn Hester and Richard Fariña (two folksingers that I also wrote about last month), though he evidently made a formal audition first (no recorded evidence of that audition survives, unfortunately).
As can be seen from his example and that of Diana Ross and the Supremes, who were referred to at Motown Records early in their career as the “No Hit Supremes”, record companies give up on musicians pretty quickly; and any number of the Under Appreciated Rock Bands and Under Appreciated Rock Artists that I have written about over the years could potentially have had high-profile careers. This doesn’t seem to be true so much for, say, Hollywood actors, as many of them are able to hang around for years or even decades before making it big.
(April 2015/1)
