| Diana Ross and the Supremes It was more than a record-setting chart sweep that began when Where Did Our Love Go made Diana Ross and the Supremes into household names in the summer of 1964. It was really a love affair -- between three women and the world. Along with the charmed circle of Motown singers, writers, producers and players, they re-wrote the book on pop music in the Sixties and Seventies. Where Did Our Love Go, written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland, established a sound and a group in one giant step, with Diana Ross' bright, insinuating lead, and hypnotic repeating counterpoint from Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard. The Supremes left Detroit in early summer on a Dick Clark tour bus at the bottom of the bill, but with excitement mounting, they returned with their first No. 1 record of five in a row. Within a year, Diana Ross and the Supremes notched up six No. 1 pop singles, and they would post another six pop chart-toppers by the end of the decade. But the fact of that accomplishment is only one facet of the group's significance. The sound was so refreshing, the look so flawless, and the vibe so compelling that Diana Ross and the Supremes became no less than a defining reference point for America, for admiring musicians and fans worldwide, and for successive generations of female pop artists. The Motown Sound was a powerful hybrid. Holland-Dozier-Holland and the legendary Motown rhythm players used blues, jazz, R&B, classical and pop devices to craft a run of Supremes hits that was danceable, melodic and diverse; funky and classy, all at once. When British pop-rock invaded the world and obsoleted most American teen acts, Motown's mix of ghetto soul and pop polish rocketed Detroit's talented artists onto center stage. The Supremes' "Baby Love" was the only record by an American group to top the British charts in 1964. Motown's ingenious new fusion was the new sound that no one could duplicate -- and everybody in pop and R&B tried.
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