50th Anniversary: Singles Collection 1961-1969 [Box set]

Diana Ross | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 24, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 2011
• Number of Discs: 3
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Motown
• ASIN: B005JLN9XU
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,685 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

For the first time ever, on the occasion of the group's 50th anniversary, every single from the legendary Diana Ross & the Supremes is now in one package--the 3-CD box set 50th Anniversary: The Complete Singles 1961-1969, featuring every A- and B- side, from the very beginning to their triumphant farewell, when lead singer Diana Ross left for a solo career.

Included are the group's 14 No. 1 Pop and R&B hits, from "Where Did Our Love Go" to "Someday We'll Be Together," and the smashes in-between--the iconic "Baby Love" and "Stop! In The Name Of Love," the controversial "Love Child," "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me," a duet with the Temptations. With these hits, the Supremes--Ms. Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard, who was replaced in 1967 by Cindy Birdsong--broke down social barriers and became cultural icons. They were the first American group to have five consecutive No.1 pop hits, representing Motown as a classic American success story, and were a beacon of beauty and class during a tumultuous decade.

Because it's "Complete," the beautifully packaged 3-CD box set also includes the early, though beloved, flops, when the "girls" were known around Motown as the "no-hit Supremes"--among them the rarities "Buttered Popcorn," featuring Flo, and "Your Heart Belongs To Me," a thinly veiled love letter to a boyfriend in Vietnam issued in 1962, well before the topic was reflected in popular music. It also includes rare alternate pressings, promotional releases including a group interview and a theme to a cult film, and much more. Also included: the much sought-after foreign language singles.

Diana Ross & the Supremes - 50th Anniversary: The Complete Singles 1961-1969 is housed in packaging similar to the acclaimed series The Complete Motown Singles, accompanied by a booklet filled with detailed information about each single, reproductions of spectacular-looking picture sleeves from around the world, and classic and rare photos of the world's greatest female group of all time.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 50th Anniversary Worth Remembering, October 25, 2011

By 

L. Boki "L. Boki" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: 50th Anniversary: Singles Collection 1961-1969 (Audio CD)

Okay, most hardcore Diana Ross and The Supremes and/or Motown heads have these tracks on one compilation or another. The special alternate versions especially are highlighted on the "Motown Singles" series. Not given the fan fare that say The Beatles 50th Anniversary would be like, this is probably the pinnacle of how Motown will celebrate the anniversary of a group that totally changed my life. So it is a must have in my opinion. It doesn't come by cheaply. And it shouldn't. There is a consistency of themes in the palettes of pink and fuschia similar to "The Supremes Box Set". In fact, on my little display, I am going to place "The 50th Anniversary" collection, the special tinbox that ugh Walmart sold a few years ago and "The Supremes" boxset.

I wished there was even more backstory on the singles but you do get ample information. For once, Billboard is NOT the begin and end of all chart rankings. They reference Cashbox chart positions quite often. "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" was a #1 single! As was "Reflections" (okay that is a bit of a stretch but as charming as it was for its time, who in hades remembers "Ode to Billy Joe", as anything more than a one hit wonder. "Reflections" may very well make it into the Grammy Hall of Fame. "Ode to Billy Joe" will not.

But, for me, this box set is less about the music and more about the total package. That's what I fell in love with that faithful summer of '64 (what a magical year in my life that one was....). Sure, I fell in love with the song first. But it was hearing and seeing them on shows like The Lloyd Thaxton Show (remember that one), Hullabaloo, Shindig, Ed Sullivan (okay I believe that is the only show listed here that they appeared) made the whole thing coalesce. A shout out to Barbara Martin who is prominently figured into the opening credits. (I have often wondered if she had regrets. According to the interview in the "Meet the Supremes: Expanded Edition", she didn't). For once, no co-mingling with The Suprms 70s. (They really were a different group.)

For me The Supremes were as popular as The Beatles. They ironically both began in 1961 and ended in 1970. Just like The Supremes, when John Lennon was sadly murdered in 1980, there could never be a Beatles reunion. And when Flo died in 1976, a mere 4 years earlier, that meant no reunion of The Supremes either, for me. "Return to Love" was its own magical entity. I saw that fabulous show in Detroit. And despite what you may have heard, it was flawless. When Diana stated there were 8 Supremes, that is true. So any configuration of The Supremes deserved some level of validation. But back to the point at hand. By rights, NARAS should at least give The Supremes their long overdue "Lifetime Achievement Award". This year would be ideal. There should have been a great documentary prepared for this year. But sadly, though they still are an important catalog seller for Motown/Universal, they don't have the cache of say The Beatles. Remember, though they were a pop act. At the end of the day, they were a black pop act. The Beatles were a white pop act. There are a lot more white people in the world than black people. So The Beatles legacy is an easier plight.

Don't get me wrong, recent limited editions of "Where Did Our Love Go: 40th Anniversary" sold out! Motown/Universal is carefully repackaging, in sequence it seems, all of their studio albums. They are now up to the soon-to-be released "More Hits By...........".
At this pace, I hope I am around when they get to "Love Child" because that may finally reveal the more societal based tracks that were nixed in favor of less demanding fare.

But I am soooooo far away from the point of this review, if you are a fan of Diana Ross and The Supremes, the "50th Anniversary" is a must have! It's as simple as that/

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Supremes' 50th Annyversary - A Wasted Opportunity, December 8, 2011

By 

Michael - See all my reviews

This review is from: 50th Anniversary: Singles Collection 1961-1969 (Audio CD)

So this is what we get from the Supremes'50th anniversary: a (fairly good) expanded edition of 'More Hits' and this singles collection - both distributed primarily via internet, not in the stores! No big gala shows, no TV features, hardly any response from the papers! Thus a year that could, should have gone out with a bang, especially with all the renewed interest in the group after 'Dreamgirls', has passed with as much as a whimper. It is beyond me that their label Motown/Universal seemingly does not have a clue how to market this truly remarkable event in the history of one of their biggest acts of the 60's.

Especially this box set is proof for the general lack of commitment on the executives'side. As far as I can tell, the whole set is merely a recycling of hip-os' 'Complete Motown Singles Collection', using the same mixes and adding next to nothing to the track infos available there, except the occasional error: For the forgettable 'Thank You Darling'(sung in German), the booklet offers a release date as late as october 65, while the single was advertised in German trade papers already in late spring and on the charts by summer that year. This is a mere footnote, of course, but the lack of recherche displayed here reminds me of the careless negligence with which 'This Old Heart Of Mine' was listed as the b-side of 'You Can't Hurry Love' on the 2002 Version of the Supremes' 'Anthology' - do the guys involved really know their product? Do they care about it? As long as people are out there who do, they should at least pretend to!

Sure, it is nice to have all the A's and B's collected on one set. But while the choice of tracks was predictable in a way due to the limitations of the concept, the producers still could have shown a little more care and imagination, and, for completists at least, a few additions would have made sense: canceled singles like the swinging 'Mother Dear' or the classy Bacharach tune 'What The World Needs Now', alternate b-sides of foreign market releases like the girls'reading of Sam Cooke's 'Only Sixteen', which was released as the b-side of 'I Hear A Symphony' in Sweden and became a hit on its own, going top 10 there. Or the X-mas-single 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town' which went No.1 in Singapore. Or their cover of Smokey's 'I Second That Emotion', a British top 20 hit. After all, the Supremes did not happen in the States alone, but all over the world, and quite often with other songs than just their U.S.hits!

But I don't want to comment further on the choice of tracks (everybody will have something to lament), or the sound which is very good (though to me, nothing still matches the richness and power of the original singles), or the cover artwork which seems to upset so many fans. What irritates me the most is this: Within these 60 pages of the lavish book, wasn't there any room for an introducing essay that could have dealt with the story of the Supremes, their accomplishments, their legacy? Yes, the track-to-track annotations cover the girls' timeline quite well, and yes, it's about the songs, and it's about the sound but, hey!

This is a 5 0 th A N N I V E R S A R Y E D I T I O N!

How often do we celebrate something like this? For this occasion, couldn't hip-o have invited a historian to put the Supremes' achievements into perspective? Or, instead of offering some brief quotations, why didn't they ask Holland-Dozier-Holland who worked with them during their most creative years? Or Berry Gordy? Or maybe even one of the girls? Couldn't they really get a decent soul to write some halfway polite linernotes about one of the greatest groups of the 60's? In this context, such an omission is not only thought- and heartless, it speaks volumes about how underappreciated - apart from Miss Ross - these women still are. Therefore, those five Stars I give are certainly not for the packaging but for the music inside which deserves every one of them - even if it comes wrapped in a kleenex!

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Too much of a good thing?, November 1, 2011

By 

Henando DeSoto "Hernando" (New York City) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: 50th Anniversary: Singles Collection 1961-1969 (Audio CD)

In the 1960's, I was a big Motown Fan, and a Big Fan of The Supremes, and a Big Fan of Holland-Dozier-Holland.

I always felt that the music coming from Motown was at least as good if not better than anything coming from England and so, there was no way that I was not going to buy this compilation, even though I already have most of these sides in Stereo on other compilations.

I wonder though, if this particular set was really worth the money. First of all, most of it is in mono (as were the most of the original singles); but it's a strange sort of mono, as if the stereo masters were used and mixed back down into mono. As the tracks begin, the first note is in stereo and then reverts to mono. I didn't like that effect. Why use mono when stereo is available? I've been spoiled by time and technology. I don't like mono and I don't remember mono as something good.

Yes, there were flipsides back in the day that were so good that they got plenty of play on the jukeboxes of the era, sides like "There's no stopping us now" and "Going down for the third time". Most of these are readily available on other compilations, if you want them that badly.

Here you also have the occasional rare track like the non-LP B-side "All I know about you" but that hardly justifies the lofty price. And there are unreleased bombs like "Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini machine" and "Surfer Boy". I wonder if I'll ever play either of those last two tracks one more than once.

Does anyone whose native language is not German need to here "Stop in the name of Love" sung in an alternate German version as it is here? Again, it's not worth the expense.

I expected all of the above, but I thought they would do a better job with the picture sleeve scans and photography. All the P/S scans are from European releases. I'm not European. I distinctly remember, starting with "Where did our love go" that all the Supremes singles came with picture sleeves. Where are they?

And just look at that cover photo! It's ugly. The photograph of Florence shows a lovely and quite shapely young woman but Diana and Mary look like an ad for cheap Dynel wigs! Those dresses are monstrosities (I think this photo been colorized after-the-fact) It's Terrible!

There's a scan of the "Where Did our Love Go" single on the inside of the cover. Would it have cost so much more to have issued a reproduction 45 as they did on the Motown singles series?

If you are an avid collector as I am, you will want this set anyway, but if you are just a casual listener, or, if you really only want the best of the Supremes, you'll be happier with the 2-Disc "Gold" collection.

and you'll save a good 80% off the price. too!