Album of the Day — June 5
Diana Ross & the Supremes — Reflections
Diana Ross & the Supremes — Reflections
June.5.2020
Diana Ross & the Supremes
Reflections
1968
Released in March of 1968, Reflections is the 12th studio album by Motown Records premier girl group.
They were formerly known as The Supremes (Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard) but had been re-branded as Diana Ross & the Supremes.
But that wasn’t the only change.
While founding member Florence Ballard sang on three of the songs on Reflections, including the title track, she was fired and replaced by Cindy Birdsong, formerly of Patty LaBelle and the Bluebelles.
Reflections was the first album to top-line Diana Ross but it would be the last album The Supremes would record and work with the Motown creative team of Holland-Dozier-Holland.
Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland were the songwriting and production trio that helped shape and define much of Motown throughout the ’60s.
The Holland-Dozier-Holland and Supremes collaboration yielded some of the most famous and arguably best songs in pop history, including 10 of their 12 #1 hits, among them:
“Baby Love”
“Stop! In the Name of Love”
“You Keep Me Hangin’ On”
“Come See About Me”
“You Can’t Hurry Love”
Along with Motown stalwart Smokey Robinson, Holland-Dozier-Holland produced Reflections and the trio wrote five of the 12 songs. Other songwriters on the album include co-producer Robinson, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach, and the group even covered the 1967 Bobbie Gentry hit “Ode to Billie Joe”.
At a time when the industry was splitting in two, a singles business and an album business, Reflections made it clear where Motown stood. Motown was staying the course as a singles business as they began to release songs in 1967, months before the album.
The single “Reflections” was released in July of 1967, eight months before the album. The song rose to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #4 on the Billboard R&B chart … it might’ve made it to #1 on the Hot 100 were it not for the white-hot “Ode to Billie Joe” by Bobbie Gentry.
This made the choice for Diana Ross & the Supremes to cover “Ode to Billie Joe” six months later on Reflections peculiar. It’s a dutiful cover, but pointless. It has a sheen that removes the feeling of verisimilitude that Gentry provides.
The second single off Reflections, “In and Out of Love” was released six months before the album. This song was also a hit on both the Billboard Top 100 & R&B charts. But even in 1967, the shelf life of a pop song wasn’t six months.
I presume the idea was to weave in songs between the singles to make a patchwork of a full-length album. This meant that stitching, or filler songs, that would pull the hits together had to be strong in order for the album to sell.
Realistically, no one was going to purchase a Long Playing album (LP) for two singles that had already peaked.
Fortunately, the stitching on Reflections was very fine indeed.
“What the World Needs Now Is Love”, by Burt Bacharach and Hal David is a pleasant little earworm. First a Billboard Top Ten hit for Jackie DeShannon in 1965, after the summer of love in 1967, the song had a new meaning … and a new life.
This version on Reflections was the pitch-perfect song to be played at white suburban pool parties while sipping martinis as married couples in their 30’s attempted to be hip while their young children skipped about. This version was intended to be a single, but for unknown reasons, Motown pulled it.
The great Jimmy Webb’s “Up, Up and Away” (a Top Ten hit for The 5th Dimension a year earlier) is one of the strongest songs on Reflections. As innocuous as it sounds, it doesn’t take a genius to determine it’s about drug use. Given Motown’s pristine image and the song's proximity to the hit a year earlier its chances as a single were nil … but for my money, the strongest song on the album.
The songs chosen to sew the album together were strong songs and Diana Ross & the Supremes were artists of the highest caliber. Success is never inevitable in the music business, but Motown pulled out every punch to ensure Reflections wasn’t a failure.
Not surprisingly, critics were nonplussed about Reflections. John Lowe at AllMusic gave it three stars stating: “There’s nothing much to get excited about.” Rolling Stone also gave it a flat three stars.
But as everyone knows, fans and critics seldom agree:
“Reflections” — peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart.
“In and Out of Love” peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #16 on the Billboard R&B Chart.
“Forever Came Today” peaked at #17 on the Billboard R&B Chart and #28 on the were Billboard Hot 100.
All three singles charted in the UK.
Reflections, the album, peaked at #3 on the Billboard R&B and #18 on the Billboard 200 album charts & charted in the UK.
Having built Motown as a singles label, in 1968, Berry Gordy and Motown were still finding a way to navigate this new Long Playing (LP) records business model.
It was fortunate for him that his talent pool ran very deep. Without that, this kind of singles to album patchwork method he employed with Diana Ross & the Supremes on Reflections, and on other albums, with other artists, never would have worked.
But it works well on Reflections with Diana Ross & the Supremes.