The classic Marvin Gaye hits with The Supremes on backing vocals
At one point, it seemed as though Motown had as many stars in its roster as the night sky itself. Of all those many stars, though, The Supremes gave Berry Gordy’s label more hit records than any other, firmly establishing the Motown sound in the popular consciousness forevermore – not bad, particularly for a band that started out as backing singers.
It wasn’t until 1961 that The Supremes officially signed to Motown Records, representing a musical rebirth from their original incarnation as The Primettes, but those early years at Hitsville USA were far from being successful. Despite numerous attempts, the trio couldn’t seem to land upon a hit, and thus Berry Gordy’s attention was best spent elsewhere. Interest in the band was certainly waning within the label’s offices, and so Diana Ross, Florence Ballard, and Mary Wilson were left without much to do.
Known, at one point, among Motown’s producers as the ‘no-hit Supremes’, the trio’s duties were soon relegated to providing backing vocals for other artists’ work. Between 1961 and 1964, Ross and the gang sang backing on nearly 40 different tracks, with artists ranging from Debbie Dean – the label’s first white artist – to Mary Wells, Motown’s brightest star at that point. Some of their most notable backing vocals, however, were for Marvin Gaye.
Had The Supremes never risen to the dizzying heights that they eventually did, after discovering the songwriting power of Holland-Dozier-Holland in 1964, Marvin Gaye might have been Motown’s defining star. From the soulful mastery of his early output to the profound political protest of What’s Going On years later, the vocalist gave the label a multitude of hits and, more than that, helped to elevate their sound outside the realm of the pop charts, even if he was often at odds with Berry Gordy.
Even Gaye, however, did not work in isolation at Motown. Behind his litany of beloved tracks, house band The Funk Brothers often provided the essential rhythms, and a revolving cast of backing singers helped to elevate the harmonies of the DC-born singer. Just before they made it into the big leagues themselves, it was The Supremes who took on that role as backing singers for Gaye.
Firstly, the trio appeared as backing for one of Gaye’s defining anthems, ‘Can I Get A Witness’, in 1963, peaking at number 22 in the US singles charts but, more importantly, making waves on the other side of the Atlantic in the dance clubs of northern England, where Motown was still struggling to take root.
Inevitably, Gaye was the voice that reigned supreme – pardon the pun – over the track, but The Supremes inarguably elevated its soulful quality, hinting at the universally beloved sound they would soon strike upon in their own right.
After the success of that first single, The Supremes also appeared as backing singers for Gaye on ‘You’re A Wonderful One’ the following year. That time, the single went even higher in the pop charts, reaching number 15 in the US, and cementing Gaye among Motown’s upper echelon of stars.
Only a few months after that Marvin Gaye single hit the airwaves, The Supremes would land their first major hit in ‘Where Did Our Love Go’, which shot to the top of the pop charts and spawned a wealth of follow-up hits in its wake, forever establishing the vocal trio among the defining stars of the Motown age, as well as ending their career as backing singers.
