Hits of Sixty Six

From Motown...The Supremes

The Supremes, always supremely made up

The Supremes became the first black female performers of the rock era to embrace a more feminine image.  Much of this was accomplished at the behest of Motown chief Berry Gordy and Maxine Powell, who ran Motown's in-house finishing school and Artist Development department.  Unlike many of her contemporaries, Ross sang in a thin, calm voice, and her vocal styling was matched by having all three women embellish their femininity instead of imitating the qualities of male groups.  The Supremes appeared onstage in detailed make-up and high-fashion gowns and wigs, and performed graceful choreography created by Motown choreographer Cholly Atkins.  Powell told the group to be prepared to perform before kings and queens.  Gordy wanted the Supremes, like all of his performers, to be equally appealing to black and white audiences, and sought to erase the image of black performers as being unrefined or lacking class. By 1965, the Supremes were international stars.  They toured the world, becoming almost as popular abroad as they were in the US.  By the end of 1966, their number-one hits included I Hear a Symphony, You Can't Hurry Love and You Keep Me Hangin' On.  That year the group also released The Supremes A' Go-Go, which became the first album by an all-female group to reach number one on the US Billboard 200, knocking the Beatles' Revolver out of the top spot.  Because the Supremes were popular with white audiences as well as with black ones, Gordy had the group cater to its middle American audience with performances at renowned supper clubs such as the Copacabana in New York.  Broadway and pop standards were incorporated into their repertoire alongside their own hit songs.  As a result, the Supremes became one of the first black musical acts to achieve complete and sustained crossover success appearing regularly on television programs such as Hullabaloo, The Hollywood Palace, The Della Reese Show, and, most notably, The Ed Sullivan Show, on which they made 17 appearances.

Motown's Four Tops

The Four Tops are an American vocal quartet, whose repertoire has included doo-wop, jazz, soul music, R&B, disco, adult contemporary, and showtunes.  Founded in Detroit, Michigan as The Four Aims, lead singer Levi Stubbs (born Levi Stubbles, a cousin of Jackie Wilson and brother of The Falcons' Joe Stubbs), and groupmates Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Renaldo "Obie" Benson and Lawrence Payton remained together for over four decades, having gone from 1953 until 1997 without a change in personnel. The Four Tops were among a number of groups who helped define the Motown Sound of the 1960s, including the Miracles, the Marvelettes, Martha and the Vandellas, the Temptations, and the Supremes.  The Four Tops were notable for having Stubbs, a baritone, as their lead singer; most groups of the time were fronted by a tenor.  The group was the main male vocal group for the songwriting and production team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, who crafted a stream of hit singles, including two Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits: I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) and Reach Out I'll Be There which soon became The Tops' signature song.

The Association from Los Angles, California

The Association were a pop musicical group in the folk or soft rock genre.  During the 1960s, they had numerous hits at or near the top of the Billboard charts and were the lead-off band at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival.  The original lineup consisted of Gary Alexander on vocals and lead guitar; Terry Kirkman on vocals and a variety of wind, brass and percussion instruments; Brian Cole on vocals, bass and woodwinds; Russ Giguere on vocals, percussion and guitar; Ted Bluechel, Jr. on drums, guitar, bass and vocals; and Bob Page on guitar, banjo and vocals. However, Page was replaced by Jim Yester on vocals, guitar and keyboards before any of the group's public performances. Their national break would come with the song Along Comes Mary, written by Tandyn Almer.  Alexander first heard the song when he was hired to play on a demo version and persuaded Almer to give the Association first crack at it.  The recording went to No. 7 on the Billboard charts, and led to the group's first album, And Then... Along Comes the Association, produced by Curt Boettcher.  A song from the album, Cherish, written by Kirkman, would become the Association's first No. 1 in September 1966.

The Monkees Hollywood, California

The Monkees were formed in 1965 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966–1968.  The musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork, and Englishman Davy Jones.  The band's music was initially supervised by producer Don Kirshner.  Described by Dolenz as initially being a TV show about an imaginary band...that wanted to be the Beatles, but was never successful, the actor-musicians soon became a real band.  As Dolenz would later describe it, The Monkees really becoming a band was like the equivalent of Leonard Nimoy really becoming a Vulcan. The Monkees' first single, Last Train to Clarksville was released in August 1966, just weeks prior to the TV broadcast debut.  In conjunction with the first broadcast of the television show on September 12, 1966 on the NBC television network, NBC and Columbia had a major hit on their hands.  The first long-playing album, The Monkees, was released a month later, which spent 13 weeks at number 1, and stayed on the Billboard charts for 78 weeks. Of the first album Mike Nesmith said: The first album shows up and I look at it with horror because it makes us appear as if we are a rock 'n' roll band.  There's no credit for the other musicians.  I go completely ballistic, and I say, 'What are you people thinking?' [The powers that be say], 'Well, you know, it's the fantasy.'  I say, 'It's not the fantasy.  You've crossed the line here!  You are now duping the public.  They know when they look at the television series that we're not a rock 'n' roll band; it's a show about a rock 'n' roll band.  Nobody for a minute believes that we are somehow this accomplished rock 'n' roll band that got their own television show.  You putting the record out like this is just beyond the pale.  Within a few months of their debut album, the Music SupervisorDon Kirshner would be forcibly dismissed, and the Monkees would take control as a real band continued to record their own music through to 1971.

Question Mark & The Mysterians, Bay City, Michigan

Question Mark and the Mysterians were an American rock and roll band formed in Bay City, Michigan, in 1962.  The group took its name from the 1957 Japanese science fiction film The Mysterians, in which aliens from the destroyed planet Mysteroid arrive to conquer Earth.  They were the first Latino rock band to have a mainstream hit record in the United States and may have been the first group to be described as punk rock. In 1962 the Mysterians came together as an instrumental act inspired by surf music and artists like Link Wray.  Larry Borjas played bass guitar, Borjas's cousin Robert Balderrama played guitar, and Robert Martinez played drums and his brother Rudy Martinez joined on vocals, calling himself Question Mark (written ?) and the band became ? and the Mysterians.  Just before the band was scheduled to start recording, Robert Martinez was drafted into the U.S. Armed Forces and Borjas decided to enlist with him.  The band then recruited Eddie Serrato to replace Robert Martinez on drums and Frank Lugo to replace Borjas on bass guitar.  The band also added fourteen-year-old Frank Rodriguez on keyboards, forming the classic lineup. Rudy (?) Martinez wrote the band's first and biggest hit, 96 Tears, with essential riffs and styling contributed by the other band members.  The song began as a poem called Too Many Teardrops, written four years before the band was formed.  The song was notable for its plaintive chorus and Rodriguez's catchy Vox organ riff.  Released as a single by Pa-Go-Go Records, owned by the group's manager, Lillian Gonzales.  Martinez visited numerous local radio stations to promote the single, and the song quickly became a regional hit in the Flint and Detroit areas.  When Cameo-Parkway Records released 96 Tears nationally, it became a number one hit single selling over one million copies and receiving a gold disc.  Over the ensuing decades, 96 Tears became part of the standard classic rock repertoire, and was recorded in dozens of different versions.

Wanderin' Spirit
March, 2014
"Hits of Sixty Six"

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