Greatest Hits (Supremes album)

Diana Ross & the Supremes: Greatest Hits is a two-LP collection of singles and b-sides recorded by The Supremes, released by Motown Records in August 1967 (see 1967 in music). The collection was the first LP to credit the group by its new name of "Diana Ross & the Supremes". Although founding member Florence Ballard is pictured on all album artwork and sings on all the tracks, by the time the set was released, she had been fired from the group and replaced by Cindy Birdsong.

1 Overview
2 Track listing
- 2.1 LP One
  - 2.1.1 Side 1
  - 2.1.2 Side 2
- 2.2 LP Two
  - 2.2.1 Side 3
  - 2.2.2 Side 4
3 Notes
- 3.1 Album sources
- 3.2 Release information
4 Personnel
5 Singles history
6 Chart history

[edit] Overview

Greatest Hits includes fifteen Supremes singles, 10 of which went to Number One, among them were "Where Did Our Love Go", "Stop! In the Name of Love", "You Can't Hurry Love", and the most recent Supremes number-one, "The Happening" (a non-album track from the 1967 film of the same name). Also included are five popular Supremes b-sides: "Standing at the Crossroads of Love", "Ask Any Girl", "There's No Stopping Us Now", "Everything is Good About You", and "Whisper You Love Me Boy".

The packaging for the set includes liner notes by actress Carol Channing (which were originally written for an unreleased album "The Supremes and The Motown Sound: From Broadway To Hollywood") and paintings by Robert Taylor, including collectable 12 inch by 12 inch pin-up portraits of Diana Ross, Florence Ballard, and Mary Wilson. Greatest Hits was a number-one album on both the Billboard 200 and the Billboard R&B Albums charts in the United States, and also reached the top of the pop album chart in the United Kingdom as well.

Although not nominally credited because of their increasingly estranged relationship with Motown, all of the songs included were produced by the songwriting/production team of Holland-Dozier-Holland.

[edit] Track listing

All songs produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier. All songs written by Holland-Dozier-Holland unless otherwise noted. Superscripts denote original album sources, referenced below.

[edit] LP One

[edit] Side 1

"When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes" ^a –
"Where Did Our Love Go" ^a –
"Ask Any Girl" ^{a, b} –
"Baby Love" ^a – 2:37
"Run, Run, Run" ^a –

[edit] Side 2

"Stop! In the Name of Love" ^b –
"Back in My Arms Again" ^b –
"Come See About Me" ^a – 2:42
"Nothing But Heartaches" ^b –
"Everything is Good About You" (James Dean, Edward Holland, Jr.) ^c –

[edit] LP Two

[edit] Side 3

"I Hear a Symphony" ^c – 2:38
"Love Is Here and Now You're Gone" ^e – 2:46
"My World is Empty Without You" ^c – 2:33
"Whisper You Love Me Boy" ^b – 2:40
"The Happening" (Holland-Dozier-Holland, Frank DeVol) – 2:49

[edit] Side 4

"You Keep Me Hangin' On" ^e – 2:40
"You Can't Hurry Love" ^d – 2:45
"Standing at the Crossroads of Love" ^a – 2:27
"Love is Like an Itching in My Heart" ^d – 2:55
"There's No Stopping Us Now" ^e – 2:55

[edit] Notes

[edit] Album sources

^a from Where Did Our Love Go (1964)
^b from More Hits by the Supremes (1965)
^c from I Hear a Symphony (1966)
^d from The Supremes A' Go-Go (1966):
^e from The Supremes Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland (1967)

"The Happening" is new to album. The single "Reflections" was originally also intended for inclusion, but was heldover and replaced with "Standing in The Crossroads of Love" and included on the subsequent Reflections LP in March 1968.

[edit] Release information

Greatest Hits was released overseas in some markets shortened to one LP. The tracklisting for this version includes only the major singles, omitting "Ask Any Girl", "Standing at the Crossroads of Love", "Whisper You Love Me Boy", "Everything is Good About You", "There's No Stopping Us Now", "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes", and "Run, Run, Run".
Diana Ross & the Supremes: Greatest Hits is regularly referred to as Diana Ross & the Supremes: Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2, as its 1969 single-disc follow-up is titled Greatest Hits Vol. 3. The double-LP was issued by Motown as two separate halves in 1986. Greatest Hits, Greatest Hits, Vol. 3, and The Supremes at Their Best (A greatest hits collection for the post-Ross 1970s Supremes) were compiled and issued as The Supremes: Gold in 2005.

[edit] Personnel

Diana Ross: lead vocals
Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard: background vocals
Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier: producers
The Funk Brothers: instrumentation on all tracks save for "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone".

[edit] Singles history

"The Happening" b/w "All I Know About You" (non-album) (Motown 1107, March 20, 1967)

[edit] Chart history

Name	Chart (1966)	Peak position
Diana Ross & the Supremes Greatest Hits	U.S. Pop Albums Chart	1
Diana Ross & the Supremes Greatest Hits	U.S. R&B Albums Chart	1
Diana Ross & the Supremes Greatest Hits	UK Albums Chart	1
"The Happening"	U.S. Pop Singles Chart	1
"The Happening"	U.S. R&B Singles Chart	12
"The Happening"	UK Singles Chart	6

Preceded by Ode to Billie Joe by Bobbie Gentry	Billboard 200 number-one album October 28 - December 1, 1967	Succeeded by Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. by The Monkees