11/8/2022 0 Comments Snail mail lush rar![]() ![]() ![]() So maybe it’s a song about an era ending, or a beloved group disbanding. But the people at Motown were experts at finding songs that quietly pushed in new directions, that said more than what was on the lyric sheet. It’s a song from a woman who misses her ex and who promises that they will reunite one day. It’s not a song about the end of the ’60s, either. It’s not a song about the Supremes, of course. Instead, Motown founder Berry Gordy decided that he wanted one last Supremes #1, and that is exactly what he got. The song was originally intended to be Ross’ solo debut. The other two Supremes, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong, aren’t anywhere on it Motown session singers handle the backup vocals. “Someday We’ll Be Together” plays like a goodbye to all that. In the years ahead, plenty of the old titans, including Diana Ross, would stick around, but music would change, completely and irrevocably. So did the Turtles, the Dave Clark 5, and Peter, Paul & Mary. (Many years later, when I wanted to go see the Stones’ IMAX movie about their Steel Wheels tour, my dad would explain that he didn’t want “some guy with a big beard to hit me with a chain and steal my wallet.” Years after that, he would admit that he simply didn’t want to go and that he was just making excuses, but that one left an impression.) Simon & Garfunkel broke up in 1970. ![]() The Rolling Stones, of course, would not break up in 1969 (or ever), but the notorious murderfuck of the Altamont Free Concert in December would change public perception of both the Stones and the ’60s forever. There’s something weirdly beautiful about that, as if the people who defined this era were determined, in their own ways, to mark its end. (The Supremes kept going after Ross left and even scored a handful of hits, but the Supremes without Diana Ross weren’t really the Supremes.) So right when the ’60s came to a close, the two most popular pop groups in the world essentially blinked out of existence. Two months later, Motown announced to the public that lead Supreme Diana Ross would be going solo. In September 1969, John Lennon told the rest of the Beatles that he was leaving the band. You could argue that those two acts, more than any others, defined the pop music of the ’60s. The Supremes were the only act who came even remotely close they reached the summit 12 times. Over the course of the ’60s, the Beatles had 18 different #1 hits. In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present. ![]()
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