love child

"Love Child"
Single by Diana Ross & the Supremes
from the album Love Child
Released	September 30, 1968
Format	Vinyl record (7" 45 RPM)
Recorded	Hitsville U.S.A. (Studio A); September 17, September 19, and September 20, 1968
Genre	Psychedelic pop, Psychedelic soul
Length	3:03
Label	Motown M 1135
Writer(s)	R. Dean Taylor, Frank Wilson, Pam Sawyer, Deke Richards
Producer	The Clan (R. Dean Taylor, Frank Wilson, Pam Sawyer, Deke Richards, Henry Cosby)
Diana Ross & the Supremes singles chronology
"Some Things You Never Get Used To" (1968) "Love Child" (1968) "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" (with The Temptations) (1968)
Music sample "Love Child"

"Love Child" is a 1968 hit single released by the Motown label as a single for Diana Ross & the Supremes, although Diana Ross is the only member of the group present on the recorded release; it is the group's 11th number one song in America.

The number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart for two weeks, from November 24, 1968, to December 7, 1968 and reaching number two on the soul chart for three weeks, the song is notable for its then controversial subject matter of illegitimacy. It is also notable for knocking The Beatles' massive "Hey Jude" off the top spot in the United States, the last of five Beatles/Supremes replacements at number one on the US pop chart during the 1960s.^[1] The Supremes debuted the song Sunday, September 29, 1968 on the CBS hit variety program The Ed Sullivan Show ^[2][3]in what was one of the final performances the girl group would make on the show.

History

Recording

In 1967, Diana Ross & the Supremes, having dropped Florence Ballard, acquired new member Cindy Birdsong, and added Ross' name to the billing. Following this string of changes, the Supremes had mixed success on the pop charts. "Reflections" peaked at number 2 on the Billboard pop charts and "In and out of Love" peaked at 9, but the group's next two singles did not make the pop top twenty. Motown label chief Berry Gordy held a special meeting in a room at the Pontchartrain Hotel in Detroit, which was attended by a team of writers and producers at the label, including R. Dean Taylor, Frank Wilson, Pam Sawyer, Deke Richards, and Henry Cosby.

The group, who named themselves The Clan, set to work on a hit single for Diana Ross & the Supremes. Instead of composing another love-based song, the team decided to craft a tune about a woman who is asking her boyfriend not to pressure her into sleeping with him, for fear they would conceive a "love child." The woman, portrayed on the record by Diana Ross, is herself a love child, and, besides not having a father at home, had to endure wearing rags to school and growing up in an "old, cold, run-down tenement slum." The background vocals echo this sentiment, asking the boyfriend to please "wait/wait won't you wait now/hold on/wait/just a little bit longer.

As was often the case with many of the records released under the "Diana Ross & the Supremes" name, Supremes Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong do not appear on the record. Motown session singers The Andantes perform the background vocals, with all lead vocals by Diana Ross, who would leave the group in a year for a solo career.

The resulting track had a decidedly different feel than previous Supremes singles, not only because of its change-of-pace subject matter, but also because of The Clan's production, which gave the melodramatic tale a driving, almost hedonistic rhythm.

Reaction and response

The public responded immediately to "Love Child" when it was released as a single on September 30, 1968; the song rose to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and outsold all of the group's previous or subsequent 45 releases. In the UK singles chart, the song peaked at no. 15. "Love Child" became the title track of Diana Ross & the Supremes' Love Child album, released on November 13, 1968. The song was covered by Sweet Sensation as a major pop hit, and later by the rock group Broadzilla, as well as Canadian pop group One 2 One.

Janet Jackson sampled "Love Child" in her 1994 single "You Want This".

Credits

• Lead vocals by Diana Ross
• Background vocals by The Andantes: Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps
• Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers
• Arranged by Paul Riser

See also

• Hot 100 No. 1 Hits of 1968 (USA)
• Illegitimacy in fiction

References

• Chin, Brian and Nathan, David (2000). "Reflections Of..." The Supremes [CD Box Set]. New York: Motown Record Co./Universal Music.
• 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.