Customer Reviews

The Supremes: Reflections - The Definitive Performances 1964-1969

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

At long last we have an official, remastered DVD collection of vintage performances of those fair maidens from the Motor City, The Supremes.

You can't go wrong with this budget-priced disc that showcases the glamour, poise, sophistication, beauty and unmistakable talent of these three (four) young ladies in their prime (or should that be primette??).

Every one of their Top Ten/Number One hits is here (with the exception of "Love is Like an Itching in My Heart" and "I'm Livin' In Shame").

The highlights are definitely the September 1966 Ed Sullivan Show performance of "You Can't Hurry Love" and the January 1967 Andy Williams Show appearance singing "Love is Here and Now You're Gone," though the latter would have been better had they sang live. All three look gorgeous in both clips, though. The low point would have to be the uninspired miming to "Stop! In The Name of Love" or the Mike Douglas Show debacle of "I Hear a Symphony" where Diana accidentally forgets the opening lyric and flubs another line.

My only complaint about this DVD is that a few of the clips should have been substituted with superior performances.

Yes, the "Reflections" clip from The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show is good but their earlier September 1967 rendering of the song on The Hollywood Palace may very well be the most electrifying performance of the Diana/Mary/Cindy era. The "Ernie" clip fails to showcase the background vocals that the "Palace" version boasts, with Mary Wilson clearly stepping up to the plate in the wake of Florence Ballard's departure. Mary is clearly wailing on this missing clip and all three girls look fantastic in their liquid silver gowns.

On a similar note, I was dismayed to find they chose to include the initial Ed Sullivan performance of "Love Child", from September 1968 to which they lip-synced, instead of the second one from January 1969. At the time, it may have seemed daring for the girls to perform sans makeup and wigs, dressed in street clothes. However, they delivered a much better version of the song a few months later when they sang it live with Mary and Cindy on backup instead of the studio singers who appeared on the record. This second version rivaled the studio version for drama and intensity, had better choreography and the girls looked much better visually in purple velvet pantsuits, which were casual enough to reflect the song's lyric yet still stylish enough to maintain their impeccable fashion sense.

These are minor complaints and we are lucky to have such a wonderful showcase from the 1960's Dreamgirls.

Now we need a Volume II that includes ALL their Ed Sullivan performances, the remaining Hollywood Palace appearances and whatever else the producers can legally get their hands on.

Please if any of you had read a review by a A J Wilson, claiming that this was a special edition with 3 discs, and an extra 17 performances. This is not true! it is exactly the same as the cheaper American version. Why they advertise this copy as the "Definitive DVD collection" as opposed to the American copy of "Definitive performances collection" is beyond me. I ordered this copy after seeing the review by A J Wilson, only to find its exactly the same as the cheaper American copy.

Diana Ross and the Supremes were one of the biggest musical acts of the 1960's, with 12 number one hits. They were everywhere, including countless televsion performances. And.....FINALLY...a selection of these performances is available on this DVD. These are the full songs...not just clips, and the sound and clarity are great.

Here are the Supremes, often imitated, but rarely suprassed....the beehive hairdo's, long eyelashes and the Motown dance moves. And, of course, there are the great songs, that still can still make you tap your feet and sing along. Seeing clip after clip of these songs, it's amazing to see just how many hits they had.

The clips are presented in chronological order, so you can see the evolution of the Supremes from excited young women in simple dresses at the beginng of their career to their sparkly glamour in the late 60's. But, as it is now legend, behind the scenes was not all glamour, and you can see the human side of the Supremes peek through their tight performances ...for instance, Diana messing up the lines at the beginning of "I Hear a Symphony" and a very tired Diana and The Supremes in "Someday We'll Be Together".

Unfairly, the backstage drama of The Supremes may have obscured their role in pop history, as nearly all successful singing groups had their own meltdowns. Hopefully, this DVD will help remind some, and introduce others, to these great performers. And, if we're lucky, get more of their performances on DVD

This was a pretty good buy. It's a great collection addition for fans of The Supremes and Ross. Some observations, though:

*I realize the lip-synching clips really were first presented that way, and that the DVD says that they went to the vault masters to enhance those performances in these clips; but I think that when the lip-synch performances first actually occurred, the performances sounded properly "echoed" through the TV studios being performed in front of the attending audiences, in typical '60s variety show style...here, there's a sterile sound where you hear just the records and no studio program "atmosphere."

*It's a pain to transition between clips, the way you first have to go through the opening credits and hear a loudly annoying "Stop!" interlude inbetween each cut.

*It was great to see more Supremes cuts than just those other well-known ones from "Sullivan" that haven't been widely commercially circulated to date. I do like the "You Can't Hurry Love" clip from Ed's show, which is always fun. And the live Sweden show performances. It'd be nice to see more of that show, and more Supremes or Ross clips from a lot of those other great shows like Tennessee Ernie Ford's, in hopeful future such DVDs.

*The DVD booklet claims that this is the first such package entirely devoted to The Supremes. Actually, no, because even here on Amazon there has been available for a long while the DVD of their live, televised Holland show from the same tour that included the Sweden performances on this DVD.

*The commentary and trivia were very well-done, paced and presented!

Great product. Would love to see their "TCB" and "GIT" NBC specials, with The Temptations from 1968 and '69, respectively, come out on DVD possibly in my lifetime, or at least within the next 60-odd years! ;)

After waiting for years we are finally able to purchase a DVD featuring the greatest girl group ever, THE SUPREMES.

Everybody involved in this release should be commended for a job well done. The video and sound quality are superb except for "Come See About Me" (from The Steve Allen Show) and "Nothing But Heartaches" (from Hullabaloo.) No problem on my end. The other selections are truly outstanding and this is indeed a priceless collection.

I just hope we don't have to wait another twenty years to see more SUPREMES DVDs in the market. Maybe the next release should be the TCB and GIT television specials with The Temptations which have never been available before. Also I would love to have ALL THE PERFORMANCES from the ED SULLIVAN Shows in one DVD. This should include all the songs the girls performed including the non-hit material. Come On UNIVERSAL! Give us more SUPREMES the sooner the better!

For years, I've been wanting a DVD consisting of (original) Supremes' performances, and finally this comes out. For that alone, this gets 5 stars from me! They are truly the best female group ever: the fragile, sexy Mary Wilson; the tall, demure Florence Ballard; and, the lively, energetic Diana Ross. The highlights of the DVD are the performances that are live. Among them:

Where Did Our Love Go
This was recorded shortly after the song became their first of many #1 hits. You get a sense of things to come. The girls look lovely and happy.

Come See About Me
This is the standout performance! What's so great is that it's a live performance with the funk brothers actually playing the music behind them. Also great is that the group stand and sing together into one microphone, which shows how well their voices blend together (and, how awesome a voice Florence has! The definitive background sound of the Supremes is because of her). This is the performance I play over and over again, and makes me wonder why Gordy later made the decision to make them less of an overall group, and more of a Diva-up-front, two-in-the-shadows group.

Back In My Arms Again
A good performance, but one with Diana on one platform in front, and Mary and Florence on another in the back. The camera remains focused on Diana. You can hardly make out Mary and Florence. And, their mic is on a much lower frequency, so you can barely hear the background vocals. I have a different live version of this song on tape (I'm not sure which TV show), where they share the stage and sing with the same frequency (and again, Florence jams!). Hopefully, that performance will be on volume 2 (I hope there is a volume 2!).

Nothing But Heartaches
Another of my favorites (but this is also one of my favorite Supremes' songs!). Unfortunately, the audio sounds muffled, but all three are given ample camera shots, and they look gorgeous. The choreography is somewhat rare for the Supremes.

I Hear a Symphony
This was sung on the same show as "Back In My Arms Again", with the same setup. However, though Diana's mic is still on a much higher frequency, you can hear the background vocals much better.

You Can't Hurry Love
A lively, energetic performance. Still, you get the sense that something is not right (or, perhaps one senses this because, in hindsight, we all know the group was now in turmoil behind-the-scenes, with Florence becoming more uphappy with the group's Diva-Diana direction).

All the other original member performances (Baby Love, Love Is Here and Now You're Gone) are lip-synched on stage. 'Stop In The Name of Love' is basically a music video filmed in a park. 'You Keep Me Hanging On' plays while the girls are shown playing ping-pong, and then joking in front of the camera--jockeying for position. They actually seem to be having fun together. 'My World is Empty Without You' is a lip-synched version of them in the recording studio.

The extras has a live performance of "Whenever The Lovelight Star Shines Into His Eyes". Diana actually seems nervous in the performance.

But definitely buy this DVD! A Supremes fan must!

Okay Dreamgirls fans, here is where it all began.

Most of the posters have described the content, so I'll just add some observations-

"Come See About Me" from a 1965 Detriot show called "Teen Town" is quite lively. As was the case when they did this on Ed Sullivan a few months earlier, Diana gets into what she's doing with some bug-eyed clowning (that she called "souling") that the Motown charm school would force her to stop doing a short time later. Plus, I've always loved Mary and Flo" "Hay hey hey heys" in this tune.

The version of "Stop in the Name of Love" is a real period piece, with some kids in a park surrounding our heroines diong the jerk and other popular dances of the day. Quite a howl.

The promotional "Love is Here and Now You're Gone" is one of the most interesting tracks here. Here, the gleesome threesome play table tennis as the song plays in the background, which soon degenerates into the tuneful trio making wild faces and doing some farfetched foolishness for the camera involving bubble gum and faux fisticuffs. A seldom-seen side of these sepia sirens (okay, I'm enjoying this a little too much).

Then there's the Ed Sullivan "Love Child" segment. This must have been jarring to audiences of the time as our heroines (temporarily) replaced their glamour-girl look for ghetto rags for the song's subject matter, and Diana has a hard time trying not to smile to match the theme of the tune. (Dreamgirl fans take note-this clip inspired the "I'm Somebody" segement in the movie).

With that said, enjoy it.

The clips in this DVD are great! Even if you aren't a die hard Diana Ross & the Supremes fan, just seeing the songs performed on the old variety shows bring back a lot of good thoughts.

I have been waiting so long for a DVD of the Supremes, and it's finally here! After seeing clips of their performances here and there, it is nice to see so many in one place. All of the performances are wonderful, but I especially like the "My World is Empty" clip from Anatomy Of Pop with the birds-eye view of Detroit and the girls recording in Motown Studio A with members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, truly an early music video! If you have visited Motown and stood in the middle of Studio A, you can really appreciate that performance! The thing I enjoy most about this DVD though is that there are plenty of early performances that truly show Flo and Mary's talent before Diana overshadowed the group. If you are a Supremes Fan or just interested in the history of Motown, you DEFINITELY need to purchase this DVD!

Apologies to the other reviewer B.Meredeth Jones .. there was a limited edition 3 disc set with extra performances that was put out in the UK for promotional purposes .. However it seems this release is exactly the same as the less expensive US edition .. Sorry for the confusion .. Occasionally the 3 disc set turns up on E-Bay .. Maybe Motown are holding the additional material back for a later release?