1964: The Supremes - Where Did Our Love Go?

That thing I said (in The Smiths post) about finding it harder to revere artists who were around as you were growing up has a slightly different version, and that's to do with the stars of the 60s during the 1980s. Bear in mind that the 80s were to the likes of McCartney, Harrison, Dylan, Diana Ross as nowadays is to the likes of Damon Albarn, Liam Gallagher and Mariah Carey. And they initially all seemed like slightly rubbish people of the present rather than legends of yesteryear. My first experience of Paul McCartney was The Frog Chorus, my first experience of Diana Ross was a cheesy power ballad called 'When You Tell Me That You Love Me'.

And it doesn't help that a lot of music criticism, even after you realise that The Supremes were basically the 2nd biggest singles band of the 60s and that Diana Ross has sung several of the most perfect songs that ever existed, is a little sniffy about her. They'll say that Martha Reeves was a better  singer, that other members of The Supremes were better singers, that she was lucky to get all the good songs and make insinuations about how she got  to be the star. As if those songs would be better if other people had sung them. And what with all those rubbish power ballads of the 80s and 90s and that terrible penalty at the 1994 World Cup, I believed the doubters for a long time.

Some people would still say Kelly Rowland was a better singer than Beyonce.

Others may have more range, more power, but Diana Ross was a great pop star and a wonderful singer. There's something really rather bizarre about her, isn't there, the way she carried herself, even 50 years ago, like a refined little old lady, the articulation, the catch in the light but still strong voice. I just ended up hearing too many great songs sung by Diana Ross to doubt her talents.

So, here's this album, then, never really seen at the top of Greatest Albums Lists. Because Motown were a singles label, right, and The Supremes were a singles band. 'Where Did Our Love Go?', as an album, includes several of their most famous songs. I was expecting the rest to be watered-down filler, but actually, no, there's real range and variety and there's not a bad song on the album. The most famous songs are the title track and Baby Love, followed by Come See About Me, but then there's Run Run Run and A Breathtaking Guy, Your Kiss of Fire and When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes. Everyone a winner! Songs written by Holland-Dozier-Holland, or Smokey Robinson, or Norman Whitfield. No drop off in quality.

Yes, yes, it has a little compilation feel to it, as some of the singles had already come out, but how's that different from The Strokes' debut or even, say, What's the Story, Morning Glory?

I'm asked the question before - what is it with so few soul albums being seen as great albums by the rock music press. They love the singles, but seem to set a higher standard for soul albums. Great rock and punk albums can just be great collections of songs without some great theme, but a soul album seems to need to be as deep as Songs in the Key of Life or What's Going On.  Incidentally, the latter has far fewer distinctly memorable songs than Where Does Our Love Go?

There hasn't really been anything else like Motown in the history of pop music, there have been prolifically successful songwriters for a while, and studios, like Stock Aitken Waterman, who hit a winning formula for a while, but the sheer numbers of Motown hits in the 60s which both achieved massive success at the time and are still seen as unique classics to this day is astonishing.

The Supremes were its biggest stars, just about, though there were plenty of great songs to go round. They had 12 US Number 1s, and some of the ones that didn't become big hits in the UK, like love Child and I Hear a Symphony,  are the best of the lot. There are a few Diana Ross tracks on the compilation too - my absolute favourite vocal performance is on 'I'm Gonna Make You Love Me', a duet with The Temptations, which has really become one of my favourite records.

I Hear a Symphony
Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Diana Ross
I'm Gonna Make You Love Me - The Supremes and The Temptations
Love Child
You Are Everything - Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross
Reflections
Run, Run, Run
You Can't Hurry Love
Come See About Me
Chain Reaction - Diana Ross
I'm Still Waiting - Diana Ross
You Keep Me Hangin' On
Stop! In the Name of Love
Baby Love
A Breathtaking Guy
Where Did Our Love Go?