Customer Reviews

50th Anniversary: Singles Collection 1961-1969

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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/

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!

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!

the songs are timeless the singing was Great, the surpremes lead by Diana Ross turned it out and are the mother of all female vocal groups. together with Holland, Dozier and Holland the Supremes made songs that are timeless and aren't going away any time soon. this is what the term classics mean and this is what making a musical statement truly means. you hear the growth and the depth over time. maturation and depth kicks in.the debate may be do you need a 3 disc set of the supremes or 2 disc, but no matter how you slice or dice it these are classic songs which speak for themselves. if Beyonce ever wants to learn or make a classic song and I say just one then this is a good place to learn and to start. timeless songs here.

As a Supremes-Fan since 1964 and a collector as well, I'm not really happy about the 50th Anniversary Singles Collection. Yes, the artwork is fantastic, but let's talk about the remastering: This is NOT the best possible sound-quality and Kevin Reeves, Sterling Sound New York is far away from being a good remastering-engineer. All songs sound in poor mono (from CD 1 up to CD 3), except the foreign language titles and "The Weight".

Kevin Reeves makes it unlistenable, because the peak volume of each song is extremly different, so you've to correct the volume from song to song ...

Some mistakes were found:
CD 3 "I'm Livin' In Shame" first version and second version are the same. But the first version (very beautiful and soft) you can find on "Lost & Found Diana Ross And The Supremes - Let The Music Play", Disc Two # 15. Also the beautiful alternate version of "Stop! In The Name Of Love" (The Supremes 4 CD-Box from 2000) is missing and the very good demo-version of "The Happening" (also on "The Supremes 4 CD-Box from 2000) is missing too.

It's NOT the Hip-O Select sound quality I was looking for. So, do it again, in true stereo and in a listenable peak volume balance. The 4 CD-Box and The Double-CD Anthology 2001 sound great and in a beautifully remastered 20/24 bit stereo

I love the old Motown stuff. I have an abundance of Motown recordings that I have enjoyed for many years. This is an excellent compilation here by the Supremes, it contains musical gems that are released here for the first time in 24 bit. "Remove This Doubt" is an example. Even though these are singles, I wish Universal Music had presented this material in STEREO. I was very excited when I purchased this compilation but the MONO issue gave me the blues.

First of all lets clarify that the artist on this recordings are THE SUPREMES which after the ousting of Florence Ballard when she rebelled against the agenda created by Diane Ross & Motown Berry Gordy that would turned the FEMALE TRIO (all members share lead & limelight equally) into the infamous LEAD & BACKUP SINGERS of "Diane Ross and The Supremes" that would welcome Florence Ballard's replacement Cindy Birdsong and became the platform for the Diane Ross "solo career" delivered to her on a silver platter in 1969.

This material has been hatched re-hatched and hatched all over again, the fact that some of the versions that weren't consider up to standard and were shelved now appear here yes, for those "diehard" fans will be a great addition to their collection if that's your gig. Now, THE SUPREMES) recorded, released and performed this songs night after night, TV show after TV show and got airplay in every Pop, R&B & Easy Listening Radio Stations in the world, let be there no confusion here, THE SUPREMES as they are INDUCTED at "The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame And Museum" are the accredited artist here as they are more important that the sum of any of their parts, INCLUDING Diane Ross!

Diane Ross today gravitates in obscurity and professional oblivion as her long trail of deceit is alive and kicking.