Meet the Supremes [CASSETTE]

One truly needs to be prepared to hear the young and raw voice of Diana Ross to appreciate this set. The songs and arrangements are pretty green, as well.

For me, the great treats here are the lead performances of Florence Ballard, leading the silly and exhuberant "Buttered Popcorn" (an absolute delight), and Mary Wilson, robustly featured on the Berry Gordy-penned "Baby Don't Go." Both of these feature a very doo-wop, girl-group sound, the first being more straight-ahead rock and roll, the second, rock and soul "ballad" singing.

Since "Buttered Popcorn" has been featured on several anthologies (because it was actually The Supremes' second release), that leaves "Baby Don't Go" as the main reason to covet this collection.

However, in spite of the spare production values throughout most of this set, and the developing talents of the songwriters, arrangers, and the performers themselves, this is still a valuable, historical musical portrait of emerging greatness.

I love this lp!!! This was the beginning of the most successful girl group ever!! I love this lp because of the rawness to it, the early Diana Ross voice and this is the only lp that Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard sang lead, and you can hear the voice of early member Barbara Martin on these tracks.

One of the most interesting historical facts about this album is that The Supremes were in fact one of Motown's first bonnified girl groups along with The Marvellettes,predating Martha & The Vandella's by at least a year or two. This debut album is,typical of early 60's Motown a collection of singles pieced together into what actually sounds like a pretty coherent album. Showcasing the same classic trio that would break through with the Holland/Dozier/Holland penned Where Did Our Love Go? a year later this only features a two songs written by the legendary Motown songwriting team and while both "Time Changes Things" and "I Want A Guy" are nice enough songs neither are powerful enough to suggest the greatness to come. What this album presents is the sound of a mildly softer version of The Marvelettes. Most of the music comes from the pens of Smokey Robinson and even Berry Gordy themselves. And they provide many of the albums highlites among them "Let Me Go The Right Way",the only tune here that musically strongly suggests how The Supremes would develope in the not to distant future. One of the best songs here is the lively 60's girl group soul confection of "Buttered Popcorn"-using the husky,Martha Reeves-like vocals of Florance Ballard who always lends her pipes to "Your Heart Belongs To Me" and a version of Smokey's "Who's Lovin You". Because she was considered the lead singer at this point,not to mention her doing just that on those and many other songs here that might've led to the complications between her and Diana Ross in later years but during these sessions she and Diana are clearly sharing the mic in the lead singing department. As for Diana she delivers a mornful but genuine teen melodrama in Gordy's own "Play A Sad Song",which finds her possessing little to none of the coy charm and cuteness that she'd make her vocal trademark later on. The album again ends with a Diana sang prom dance kind of romp in the lively "(He's) Seventeen". When weighed against some of The Supremes later triumphs this isn't by any means their best album and doesn't feature any of the songs at all currently associated with them. Because it embodies so many of the 50's doo-wop style affactations of earlier Motown releases it actually sounds like a completely different group than the one we all know. But for the kind of album it is every song is well produced,written and performed and if your a Motown and/or Supremes fan there's a lot on this album to love and enjoy. And who knows;it may even engender a little constructive nostalgia while your at it.