Track Listing

1. Like You Babe - Florence Ballard, George Kerr
2. Yesterday - Florence Ballard, George Kerr
3. Until Tomorrow - Florence Ballard, George Kerr
4. It's Not Unusual - Florence Ballard, George Kerr
5. The Impossible Dream - Florence Ballard, George Kerr
6. It Doesn't Matter How I Say It (It's What I Say That Matters) - Florence Ballard, George Kerr, Richard Tee
7. Let's Stay In Love - George Kerr, Florence Ballard
8. Walk On By - Florence Ballard, George Kerr
9. Goin' Out Of My Head - Florence Ballard, George Kerr, Richard Tee
10. Sweetness - Florence Ballard, George Kerr
11. Everything Wonderful - Florence Ballard, George Kerr
12. Love Ain't Love - Bert De Coteaux, Florence Ballard, Robert Bateman
13. Forever Faithful - Florence Ballard, Robert Bateman
14. My Heart - Florence Ballard
15. Buttered Popcorn - Berry Gordy Jr., The Supremes
16. (Ain't That) Good News - Marc Gordon, The Supremes, Hal Davis
17. Hey Baby - Berry Gordy Jr., Florence Ballard, The Supremes
18. Heavenly Father - Berry Gordy Jr., The Supremes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26430 in Music
• Released on: 2001-04-16
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds
• Running time: 49 minutes

Customer Reviews

A Supreme Star Shines Like An Angel
All I can say is WOW! It's taken 33 years to get Flo's 1968 album released, and words can't express how happy I am that the day has finally come that the fans can hear it the way it was meant to be heard. I'd recommend it for any Supremes fan, any Florence Ballard fan.

Jeff Willens (who mixed Disc 4 of the Supremes box set) did the mixes, and they are clean and full. Although I didn't see a credit for him on the packaging (which leaves a lot to be desired), Jeff deserves kudos for his exceptional job mastering this album. I am truly full of emotion. Completely enchanted.

If you've heard bootlegs of this album before, you still haven't heard it until you've heard this CD. For me, it makes me think of 1968, a piece that works like a bookend to the Supremes Reflections LP. A series of recordings filled with hope of a huge career in showbusiness. I think of the broadway play Dreamgirls, based loosely on the Supremes, focusing on Florence's character, and the fictional success and acclaim she receives from the launch of that solo career. Most of all, I think about the legacy that Flo, Mary and Diana left the world, collectively as the Supremes, and individually as Supreme Artists who each, in their own way, gave us the best they had.

It doesn't matter how she says it, it's that they released it that matters. Hey baby, we are forever faithful to you Blondie. Ain't that good news?

Andy Skurow

Flo honoured at last
Florence Glenda Ballard, born 30th June 1943, the eighth of thirteen children, did pretty well for someone from the Brewster Housing Project in Detroit, as did some of the Primettes, the group she founded from the neighborhood in 1957. They became the Supremes and conquered the world.

Unfortunately, the pressures of fame and fortune affected "Blondie" adversely. She developed alcohol, diet pill and drug dependencies, had weight problems and became increasingly unreliable. Berry Gordy's decision that Diana Ross should be the Supremes' lead singer didn't help, as it didn't suit Flo's temperament to be sidelined in such a way. She didn't, for example, turn up for the recording session for My World Is Empty Without You and session singer Marlene Barrow had to deputize, and she had a number of rows about her role within the group with Berry Gordy and Diana Ross.

On 29th June 1967, while the Supremes performed at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas NV, Flo was ousted from Motown for her "unprofessional behaviour." The official line was that the strain of constant touring had led her to retire.

She signed as a solo artist to ABC, but due to the terms of the annulment of her contract was not allowed to mention her former status as a Supreme, a problem the present compilers seem not to have had. Work began on an album to be called You Don't Have To in March 1968, and the sessions produced a single, It Doesn't Matter How I Say It (It's What I Say That Matters), with a version of Goin' Out of My Head on the flipside.

It Doesn't Matter How I Say It was arranged by Richard Tee and had more of a Motown type of sound than most of the album tracks, where the producer George Kerr struggled to find the right setting for her voice and style. Unsympathetic arrangements of standard material such as the flipside plus The Impossible Dream and It's Not Unusual were not entirely conquered by Florence's testing vocals, and there was some lack of direction. Yesterday and Walk On By were presumably designed to explore Florence's vocal range, while the likeable Like You Babe instead mimicked the stylings of Stax Records. Just as Mary Wells couldn't recreate the Motown magic elsewhere, and just as the Crystals couldn't find a hit without Phil Spector, so Florence Ballard struggled away from the Hitsville production line she had rebelled against.

These problems were clearly addressed as the follow-up single, Love Ain't Love, was much stronger. Produced in August 1968 by Robert Bateman, who Flo knew from his work at Motown in the Supremes days, written by Van McCoy and arranged by Bert DeCoteaux, it had a far more confident and forward looking northern soul kind of sound that should have put her career back on track. Forever Faithful, the flipside, from the same sessions but written and arranged by Bob Bateman, whilst being another strong sound and performance also emulated the Motown style, and could have been an A-side in its own right.

Unfortunately, it also failed to chart except in Detroit, and ABC canned the album and dropped her from the label just nine months after signing her. Other record labels were allegedly reluctant to sign her for fear of falling out with Berry Gordy. She made some TV and public appearances before taking maternity leave (she was pregnant with twins, and had a third child in 1972), but her career never recovered.

By 1975 she had come off welfare, reconciled with her husband, bought a car and found a new home at 17701 Shaftsbury St. in Detroit. Plans were afoot to resume her singing career, but events took a tragic turn.

Flo was always extremely popular with the fans, and when she died prematurely on 22nd February 1976 at Mount Carmel Mercy Hospital of a coronary thrombosis, there was a widespread shock, and there are ripples of the outpourings of love from her fans still clearly evident from a cursory search of the internet today.

Finally, 33 years after they were recorded, most of the tracks she recorded for the album were released on this compilation, which also includes the ABC singles and four of the tracks from the early days of the Supremes on which she does sing lead. As a result, the valuable contribution she made to the Detroit music scene in its early days has been re-appraised and recognised.

Apart from the ABC singles, the four Motown tracks are of the greatest interest. Buttered Popcorn is a lively dance craze number which began life in 1961 as the B-side of Who's Lovin' You, but was switched after DJs favoured it in airplay. It was also on their debut album, Meet The Supremes. Ain't That Good News comes from the 1965 album We Remember Sam Cooke and is a real showcase for her vocal strengths. Both these tracks are in full stereo. Hey Baby probably comes from the same sessions as Buttered Popcorn. The song, by Berry Gordy, is fairly throwaway but is enlivened by a gutsy vocal and that great early Motown sound. It was previously unreleased as was the sweet, devotional Heavenly Father, from August 1961.

Berry Gordy may well have been correct in his commercial decision to make Diana Ross the group's focus and primary lead singer, but it is sad that Flo and Mary were not given a little more scope on the albums, especially Flo as she was the group's founder, original lead singer and energizer. Let us hope there are more examples of Flo's lead vocals in the Motown vaults to be discovered in the future.

I have found a couple of other released tracks on which she sang lead with the Supremes and there may be others. You Bring Back Memories was on the B-side of My Heart Can't Take No More in 1963, and is available on the CD Early Classics. Her version of Silent Night was on 1965's Merry Christmas and is on the Spectrum compilation Merry Christmas From Motown. She is also featured to dramatic effect in the closing moments of Long Gone Lover (on the album Where Did Our Love Go)

The first Supreme
While still at school, Florence impressed the Detroit locals, sometimes singing solo and sometimes with the Primes (an all-boys group that later became the Temptations). Florence was advised to form an all-girl group, which she did. Originally called the Primettes, it featured Florence as lead singer with Diana Ross and Mary Wilson among the three other singers. The fourth member (Betty McGlown) left and was replaced by Barbara Martin but when Barbara left, the group became a trio. The Primettes recorded one single for a small label but one side featured Diana as lead singer and the other side featured Mary as lead singer. The single flopped.

Eventually, the trio signed for Motown and became the Supremes. With Florence restored as lead singer, they recorded several singles but failed to chart with any of them. Diana
replaced Florence as lead singer while Holland-Dozier-Holland were brought in to supply the songs. I wonder what would have happened if Florence had been given the chance to record the new songs - or at least some of them. Anyway, Florence gradually became less important and was eventually sacked. She signed a solo recording contract in 1968 but her two singles (It doesn't matter how I say it, Love ain't love) failed to make an impact. An album in preparation was aborted when nearing completion. Florence was dropped from the label, eventually dying of a heart attack aged just 32.

This compilation features four early Supremes tracks with Florence as lead singer (Buttered popcorn, Ain't that good news, Hey baby, Heavenly father), together with tracks that had been recorded for possible inclusion on the aborted album. Among these tracks is Florence's cover of Yesterday, which sounds like it came from the heart - Florence could certainly relate to that song. Other covers include It's not unusual, The impossible dream, Walk on by and Going out of my head.

So it was that Florence never fulfilled her potential but it seems that she didn't get much of a chance. As the liner notes make clear, Florence was capable of far more than is evident from her recordings. I suspect that she would have been better appreciated in a different setting - pop and soul music was possibly not the best outlet for her talents. Nevertheless, that is what she recorded and what you get here. If you are a fan of the Supremes who likes to explore beyond the hits (as I am), you might enjoy this collection.