LP Review: The Supremes A' Go-Go

This thing (mostly) stinks

Released: August 25, 1966
Runtime: 31:31

I Hear A Symphony was a warning that Holland-Dozier-Holland had great new ideas, but not enough time to record a whole album’s worth of those ideas. For every banger like “I Hear A Symphony” there was a lackluster imported track like “Stranger In Paradise”.

The Supremes A’ Go-Go expands upon that worrisome trend. There are even fewer new songs here. Plenty of covers too. Instead of covering outside tracks, though, the Supremes pad out the album by covering songs made famous by other Motown artists. It’s a bit of a flex, but it turns out kind of limp.

(Although in some fairness to H-D-H, a lot of times they recorded the same song with different artists at essentially the same time. However, you can tell which recordings were designed to be killer singles and which were destined to be filler fluff.)

For the life of me, I cannot understand how this is the Supremes album that topped the pop charts. It also dominated the R&B album charts with four weeks at the top spot.

Counting only “major” releases (i.e. not live albums or outright cover albums like We Remember Sam Cooke) this is my least favorite 1960s album by the Supremes. It’s not the worst one it just feels like the laziest one.

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THE KILLERS

Okay, I kind of lied. I do know how this album could reach #1.

It begins with three straight absolutely great songs: “Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart”, “This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)”, and “You Can’t Hurry Love”.

“Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart” gives you some drum n bass right up in ya face from the start and doesn’t fucking let up. The only semblance of respite is the oddly appropriate vibe calmly chiming throughout the song.

Speaking of dancing? Watch the ladies get down at the 1:30 mark below.

I keep hammering it home in these columns because I love disco music (it is my first musical love… yes I grew up in the 1990s, not the 1970s, but that’s life), but holy shit it’s so obvious in retrospect to see which songs were giving us club culture.

This is one of them.

The louder it plays, the better it gets. Perfectly designed for the magisterial sound systems of downtown nightclubs to come in the 1970s, even if H-D-H didn’t even know it at the time.

“This Old Heart Of Mine” is a cover of the Isley Brothers hit. The Isley’s version is far superior because it is a perfect pop song. The Supremes’ version pales only in comparison. It is still a fine piece of work.

Besides, the Supremes also had their own perfect pop song: “You Can’t Hurry Love”.

No one else should have ever covered this song because it is perfect the way it is. You cover this song (PHIL COLLINS) and you’re blemishing the unblemished.

The perfection begins and ends with that damn bass. James Jamerson went to fucking town on this bad boy. Completely contradicting my earlier statement, every time I hear this song, I’m like, “Damn, this song needs to be re-recorded by every punk, garage, and grunge band.” That bass is so vicious I wanna hear some crunching guitar on top of it.

Then I remember, nope, this song is already perfect. But that bass definitely sounds like something the Buzzcocks could sink their teeth into.

Now there is more to the song than the bass. Diana Ross’s lead vocal is grippingly sweet, naive, and desperate at the same time. This is very much a showcase for her, but Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard keep things moving with their backing vocals being a bed for Ross’s insistence that love come her way. They also probably deliver the best part of the song, besides Jamerson’s bass obviously.

The song builds to an emotional and musical climax as Ross pleads and demands, but then Wilson and Ballard shout, NOW WAIT! and all the music collapses to just the bass as Ross regains her composure.

It’s fucking brilliant.

SONG SCORES

Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart: 9/10
This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You): 7.5/10
You Can’t Hurry Love: 10/10

And from there the album drops off mightily.

THE FILLER

The rest of these tunes meander between serviceable, toss-offs, and filler.

Only “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” manages to even approach the energy of the opening three songs.

“Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)” is an abomination. The Four Tops filled that song with their sense of desperation plus misery, while the Supremes just go through the motions on it.

“Money (That's What I Want)”—Motown’s first hit single way back in 1960, I believe—was some gritty R&B under the helm of Barrett Strong. Under the Supremes, it’s just… bleh. Y’all sure y’all want money? Cuz it sounds like y’all are just fine without the cash. You’d like some money, but you don’t need the money. Strong sounded like he was fiending for money.

I want to slam my head on the desk when I hear the Supremes turn “Get Ready” into wallpaper. Yes, the same “Get Ready” that was a dramatic stomper by the Temptations.

And on and on and on it goes. It’s a catastrophe of mediocrity. Full proof that even the greats can mail in a performance at a moment’s notice.

SONG SCORES

Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over): 2/10
Baby I Need Your Loving: 1/10
These Boots Are Made for Walkin': 6/10
I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch): 2/10
Get Ready: 0/10
Put Yourself In My Place: 0/10
Money (That’s What I Want): 0/10
Come And Get These Memories: 2/10
Hang On Sloopy: 3/10

ALBUM GRADE: D-

I can’t give an album with “You Can’t Hurry Love” on it an F, but man does it deserve an F. I really do not like this album.

As mentioned on my review for I Hear A Symphony, if Motown had just waited six damn months and put together the best tracks from these two albums, they’d have had one of the absolute best albums of the decade akin to More Hits By The Supremes.