The Supremes: A Saga of Motown Dreams, Success, and Betrayal

0306815867_ribowsky:6.125 x 9.25 4/22/09 11:05 AM Page i 0306815867_ribowsky:6.125 x 9.25 4/22/09 11:05 AM Page ii Also by Mark Ribowsky

He’s a Rebel: Phil Spector:

Rock & Roll’s Legendary Producer

Don’t Look Back:

Satchel Paige in the Shadows of the Game
A Complete History of the Negro Leagues:
1884–1955

Slick: The Silver and Black

Life of Al Davis

0306815867_ribowsky:6.125 x 9.25 4/22/09 11:05 AM Page iii A Saga of

Motown Dreams,

Success, and Betrayal

MARK RIBOWSKY

DA CAPO PRESS

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

0306815867_ribowsky:6.125 x 9.25 4/22/09 11:05 AM Page iv Copyright © 2009 by Mark Ribowsky

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address Da Capo Press, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142.

Designed by Pauline Brown

Set in 11.5 point Garamond by the Perseus Books Group Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ribowsky, Mark.

The Supremes : the saga of Motown, dreams, success, and betrayal / Mark Ribowsky.

— 1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references, discography, and index.

ISBN 978-0-306-81586-7 (alk. paper)

1. Supremes (Musical group) 2. Women singers—United States—Biography.

I. Title.

ML421.S86R53 2009

782.421644092'2—dc22

[B]

2008051422

Published by Da Capo Press

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

www.dacapopress.com

Da Capo Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S.

by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail [email protected].

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

0306815867_ribowsky:6.125 x 9.25 4/22/09 11:05 AM Page v For my son Jake,

who makes me feel 15 again

when he tells me to

turn the music down.

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” 0306815867_ribowsky:6.125 x 9.25 4/22/09 11:05 AM Page vii Contents

Acknowledgments

ix

Introduction

xiii

Prologue

1

one Three Girls from the Projects

7

two Moths to the Flame

23

three Notown to Motown

33

four Berry

46

five Priming the Pump

63

six Supreme Beings

74

seven Smokey Places

91

eight The “Others”

105

nine Splitsville in Hitsville

128

ten A “Lousy Song”

143

eleven One

156

twelve The Two Motowns

175

thirteen “Ecstasy to the Tenth Power”

189

fourteen “Baby, Just Pour”

205

fifteen A Symphony in Black and Mostly White 227

sixteen An Itching in the Heart

240

seventeen “Put the Money on Diana”

254

eighteen “She’s Outta Here”

267

nineteen A Distorted Reality

295

twenty Forever Came Today

314

twenty-one “This Must Be the Diana Ross Show” 332

twenty-two The Last Mile

347

epilogue Where Did Our Love Go?

376

Bibliography

409

Discography

413

Index

427

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” 0306815867_ribowsky:6.125 x 9.25 4/22/09 11:05 AM Page ix Acknowledgments

An archeological expedition back through the layers of Motown history requires the help of people who can shine a light through tunnels dark-ened by time. This book owes its existence to many such noble souls who made the path vividly bright and easy to follow.

There could not have been a better tour guide than Shelly Berger, who, as manager of the Supremes during their peak years, provided key insights and keen perspective on the business of overseeing the top female act of the ’60s. My heartfelt thanks to a real industry heavyweight who made it a lot easier for Berry Gordy to chase his dreams.

From inside the walls of the recording studio, equally invaluable were the overseers of the Supremes’ craft and artistry. As an admittedly fanatical student of how the greatest music of our time was made and who helped to make it, I was blessed to be given the opportunity to sit at the figurative feet of arguably the greatest producer and songwriter of our time—Brian and Eddie Holland. Soaking up the glorious minutiae of their Supremes sessions was the seminar of a lifetime—one that they presented with humor, detail, and patience for the sometimes dumb questions I asked as a rank outsider.

The genius of that recording process was the organically collaborative effort underpinning it. As the years have lengthened, the contributions of the Motown house band—known retrospectively as the Funk Brothers—have grown from obscure to Zeusian. The pity is that a dwindling number of these artists are alive to receive the long-delayed huzzahs due them. Thus, it was with pure joy that I took up the opportunity to spend long and wonderful hours with Jack Ashford, whose championing of the Funk Brothers’ role in those sessions was as spirited as the rhythm he kept with his tambourine and vibe riffs.

There is no greater rush for a rock devotee than to tap the memories of an actual Motown artist, much less one who is the sole surviving original member of the greatest male soul group of all time. My deepest appreciation goes to the Temptations’ Otis Williams, a man of endless good cheer who’s still kickin’ it and getting younger every day.

ix

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Other Motown luminaries whose voices resonated in the ’60s were kind enough to go on record again for these pages. Claudette Rogers, the still cute-as-a-button former wife and singing partner of Smokey Robinson in the Miracles, had to relive a lot of old pain and anxiety about Smokey’s adulterous affair with Diana Ross, and did so with amazing grace and calm. The Marvelettes’ Katherine Anderson, the Vandellas’ Annette Beard and Rosalind Ashford, and the Velvelettes’

Cal Street had to recount distressing memories of their groups being taunted by Ross and shoved aside by the rising Supremes, and did so with candid honesty, as they also did in behalf of the ominously troubled Florence Ballard. Representing the non-Motown universe, the Crystals’ Dee Kennibrew, La La Brooks, and Barbara Alston painstak-ingly recalled a classic clash with Ross on a Dick Clark bus tour from hell. A nonvocalist, but one of the most wired-in of Motown muckety-mucks, songwriter and office gadfly Janie Bradford was a font of terrific anecdotes—and phone numbers; she was, in a word (and title of the legendary song she penned), “money.” A multi-track thank you to all of these talented and empowered women for their aid.

A pivotal factor in Motown’s success was how it tethered its records to the top-rated radio stations and disc jockeys. Thus, a particular thrill for me was shooting the breeze with one of Detroit’s biggest deejays of the era, Robin Seymour, who provided uncompromising examples of how the game was played on both sides.

An absolutely essential component of this book was to find a close confidante of Florence Ballard herself; only she could channel the thoughts, secrets, and motivations she’d kept under wraps all her life.

Many members of Ballard’s large family have remained aloof from the media, and were never very close to her to begin with. However, it was my good fortune to come upon Flo’s cousin Ray Gibson, with whom she was tighter than any blood relative other than her mother, Lurlee, and her sister, Maxine. Ray, too, was reluctant to share intimate and scaldingly painful memories, having been down that route before with insensitive, sensationalism-seeking media types. Yet once convinced that this project wanted neither dirt nor caricature but, rather, a balanced portrait of a real woman, he illuminated the dark shadow that has always been Florence Ballard, and for that I am profoundly grateful.

Being able to contact such critical, firsthand sources was a matter of knowing where to look. For guiding me to the right places, a shout-out goes to longtime Motown miners such as authors Tom Ingrassia, Randall Wilson, John Clemente, and Marc Taylor; concert promoter and rock 0306815867_ribowsky:6.125 x 9.25 4/22/09 11:05 AM Page xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

xi

and roll collector John Grecco; and producer Harry Weinger, the grand poobah of the exhaustive
Supremes 2000
compilation box-set (an informational gold mine in itself ).

Digging into the very grooves of every Supremes hit, down to the cellular level of the Motown sound, was a labor of love perfectly suited to Allan Slutsky. An accomplished musician, conductor, and producer, this Funk Brother–by–extension—not just the guiding hand behind the magnificent movie retrospective
Standing in the Shadows of Motown
but also the author of the James Jamerson chronicle and songbook on which it was based—can probably tell Holland-Dozier-Holland a thing or two about their songs that even they don’t know, and my sincere acknowledgment is extended for so enlightening these pages.

In the end, the book in your hands is a triumph not only for its author but also for a visionary who saw the need for it to be written and skillfully steered it to fruition: my agent Michael Dorr, president of the LitPub Ink literary agency.

Having benefited from this diverse cache of quality people, I can claim, with only a small stretch, to know something of how the Supremes’ magic was made: by channeling the al chemy of many quality people. And anything that can make one feel like Holland-Dozier-Holland, no matter how slight, is a blessing.