Bad Weather

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“Bad Weather”
Single by The Supremes
Released 1973
Format Vinyl single
Recorded 1973
Genre Soul
Length 3:02
Label Motown
Writer(s) Stevie Wonder
Producer Stevie Wonder
The Supremes singles chronology
"I Guess I'll Miss the Man"
(1972)		 "Bad Weather"
(1973)		 "He's My Man"
(1975)

"Bad Weather" is a song composed and produced by Stevie Wonder and released as a single by Motown vocal group The Supremes in 1973. The song was then lead singer Jean Terrell's last charted single as member of the Supremes and one of the only times brief group member Lynda Laurence was featured on a Supremes single.

Contents

[edit] Overview

[edit] Recording

By 1973, the Supremes' recording career was starting to show signs of strain partially because of group members parting. At that point, the lineup of Jean Terrell, Cindy Birdsong and Mary Wilson had broken up due to Birdsong's pregnancy. When recording for the group's 1972 album, Floy Joy wrapped up, Birdsong left on maternity leave and was replaced by former Wonderlove background singer Lynda Laurence on the cover of the Floy Joy album. This lineup of the group set on recording the lowly-received album, The Supremes - Produced, Arranged and Composed by Jimmy Webb but that album tanked because Motown refused to promote it. Undaunted, Laurence counted on her former mentor Stevie Wonder to help the group find a new sound. Wonder composed and produced the single "Bad Weather" under a funkier sound that the group had not been accustomed to.

[edit] Reception

When the song was first issued to radio in the summer of 1973, the song caught some positive buzz mainly from the Supremes' R&B fan base and the group performed it to a receptive audience on Soul Train. But the buzz wore down as Motown again refused to promote it. The song barely charted on the Billboard charts peaking at number 87 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 74 on the R&B singles chart. The song only barely peaked at the top 40 of the UK singles chart peaking at number 37. Shortly after this single was released, Terrell and Laurence left the Supremes and Mary Wilson ended up rehiring Cindy Birdsong and Scherrie Payne to replace them in 1974. The next Supremes project, however, would take two more years to come out, in which by then, the group scored a huge disco single with "He's My Man" with Payne on lead.

[edit] Credits