Someday We'll Be Together

"Someday We'll Be Together" is an R&B/soul song, written by Johnny Bristol, Jackey Beavers, and Harvey Fuqua in 1961. The song was originally recorded as a regional hit single by Bristol and Beavers, who performed together as "Johnny & Jackey", for Fuqua's Tri-Phi label. Eight years later, Bristol produced a cover of the song as a single for Diana Ross & the Supremes, released by the Motown label on October 14, 1969. It is noted for being the final Supremes song featuring Diana Ross, who left the group for a solo career in January 1970 and was replaced by Jean Terrell. Despite this distinction, "Someday We'll Be Together" was originally recorded with the intent that it would become Ross' first solo single; therefore, her bandmates Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong do not appear on the record.

Diana Ross & the Supremes' "Someday We'll Be Together" reached the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for one week, from December 20 to December 27, 1969. As "Someday We'll Be Together" topped the American pop chart in the final 1969 issue of Billboard magazine (dated December 27) , the single was not only the final number-one hit for The Supremes, but also the final American number-one hit of the 1960s. "Someday" was preceded as the Billboard Pop Singles number-one by "Leaving on a Jet Plane" by Peter, Paul & Mary, and was followed by the first American number-one hit of the 1970s, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" by B.J. Thomas.

The single also charted at number-one on the Billboard R&B Singles for two weeks, from December 6 to December 27, 1969. "Someday We'll Be Together" therefore appeared in Billboard as both the final R&B number-one of the 1960s and the first R&B number-one of the 1970s. It was both preceded and succeeded by other Motown singles: "Baby I'm For Real" by The Originals preceded "Someday", while The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" followed it.

1 About the song
2 Credits
3 References
4 Sample
5 See also

[edit] About the song

[edit] Original recordings

The song was written by Johnny Bristol, Jackey Beavers, and Harvey Fuqua in 1961; and Bristol and Beavers recorded the song together as "Johnny & Jackey" for the Tri-Phi label that same year. "Someday" was a moderate success in the Midwestern United States, but gained little notice in other venues.

Tri-Phi was purchased by Motown Records in the mid-1960s. Fuqua, Bristol, and Beavers all joined Berry Gordy Jr.'s by-then famous record company, and "Someday We'll Be Together" became part of Motown's Jobete publishing catalog. Beavers soon departed for Chess Records, although both Bristol and Fuqua stayed on as songwriters and producers for the label.

In 1969, Bristol was preparing a cover version of "Someday We'll Be Together", to be recorded by Motown act Jr. Walker & the All-Stars. Bristol had already recorded the instrumental track and the background vocals by Maxine Waters and Julia Waters when Berry Gordy happened upon the tracks and heard them. Gordy thought that "Someday" would be a perfect first solo single for Diana Ross, who was making her long-expected exit from the Supremes at the time, and had Bristol sequester Ross into the studio to record the song.

Unable at first to get the vocal performance he desired from Diana Ross, Johnny Bristol decided to try something different: he would harmonize with Ross, helping her to get into the mood needed for the record. On the first take, the engineer accidentally recorded both Ross's vocal and Bristol's ad-libs. Bristol and arranger Wade Marcus liked the results, and Bristol had his vocal recorded alongside Ross' for the final version of the song. Bristol's ad-libs and words of encouragement to Ross can be heard in the background throughout the song.

[edit] Release

When Berry Gordy heard the completed song, he decided, instead of making it the first Diana Ross solo song, to release it as the final Diana Ross & the Supremes song. Ross' first solo single instead became "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)".

While the explicit subject of the song was that of Ross comforting a long-distance lover, "Someday We'll Be Together" allowed for a number of other implications as well. Most obvious was the suggestion that "someday", Ross and her bandmates Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong would "be together" once again (although, ironically, neither Wilson nor Birdsong sing on the record). In concert, Ross would suggest that the repeated chorus of "someday...we'll be together" seemed to present a message of hope for such contemporary troubles as civil rights and the protests and demonstrations over Vietnam.

"Someday We'll Be Together" was included on the final Diana Ross & the Supremes' album, Cream of the Crop. The song was a number-one hit on both the Billboard Pop Singles chart and the Billboard R&B Singles charts, and charted at number thirteen in the United Kingdom. "Someday's" b-side, "He's My Sunny Boy", was recorded by Ross, Wilson, and Birdsong for the Love Child album in 1968; Smokey Robinson was writer and producer of the track.

[edit] Other cover versions

Bill Anderson and Jan Howard recorded a cover version for the country music market. Their version reached No. 4 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Singles chart in the summer of 1970.

Other cover versions included those by rock artist Vonda Shepard, Scottish pop singer Jimmy Somerville, orchestra leader Bert Kaempfert, The Pointer Sisters and country singer Lorrie Morgan. [1]

The song "If" from Janet Jackson's album janet. samples the signature guitar riff from this song.

[edit] Notable live performances

Fittingly, "Someday We'll Be Together" was the final number at Diana Ross & The Supremes' farewell concert on January 14, 1970 at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. After the completion of the show, Jean Terrell was presented onstage to the audience as Diana Ross' replacement, and Diana Ross & The Supremes officially split apart.

Diana Ross reunited with Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong one last time: on March 25, 1983 while taping the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever television special, on which they performed "Someday We'll Be Together." The number was cut short after Ross pushed Wilson onstage during their performance. Within moments, a number of the other Motown performers flooded the stage, including Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, and others. Wilson then invited Berry Gordy to join everyone onstage, but Ross snatched her microphone and invited Gordy down herself. The special was edited to remove the incident before the program aired, but the Ross/Wilson fight still made its way to various newspapers and magazines.

[edit] Credits

Lead vocals by Diana Ross
Background vocals by Maxine Waters and Julia Waters
Male vocal by Johnny Bristol
Arranged by Wade Marcus

Preceded by "Leaving on a Jet Plane" by Peter, Paul and Mary	Billboard Hot 100 number one single December 27, 1969	Succeeded by "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" by B. J. Thomas

[edit] References

Posner, Gerald (2002). Motown : Music, Money, Sex, and Power. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-50062-6.
Wilson, Mary and Romanowski, Patricia (1986, 1990, 2000). Dreamgirl & Supreme Faith: My Life as a Supreme. New York: Cooper Square Publishers. ISBN 0-8154-1000-X.
Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs: 1944-2005," 2006.

[edit] Sample

"Someday We'll Be Together" - Supremes version

Released in 1969 as a single from Cream of the Crop

Problems listening to the file? See media help.

Hidden category: Single articles with infobox field chart position

Someday We'll Be Together

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Contents

[edit] About the song

[edit] Original recordings

[edit] Release

[edit] Other cover versions

[edit] Notable live performances

[edit] Credits

[edit] References

[edit] Sample

[edit] See also

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