There’s been a lot of Beatles in the press in the last couple of years from “Now and Then” to the remaster of Let It Be to Get Back to talk of a Beatles cinematic universe with biopics about each of the individual members. A couple of streaming services have Beatles films coming out really soon like Martin Scorsese’s Beatles ’64 premiering on Disney+ on 29 November and the long-awaited Brian Epstein biopic Midas Man launching on Amazon Prime on 30 October. Beatles fans are being fed and we’re loving it!
A question that I think about a lot is who were the female Beatles? Some groups have been called the female Beatles and I’ll list a few candidates here:
- The Liverbirds are called the Female Beatles because they were an all girl beat group from Liverpool
- Fanny have been called the Female Beatles because they were very influenced by them and wrote their own songs.
- The Bangles have been compared to The Beatles.
- Some people would even argue The Go-Gos were the Female Beatles.
However, I have a different answer for who the Female Beatles were and hear me out, it’s The Supremes. They’re from the exact same era as The Beatles so I think it’s a fairer comparison. Plus The Supremes were before Fanny and before The Bangles and before The Go-Gos and they had more commercial success, that’s the main reason why I compared The Beatles and The Supremes. The commercial success! Some people really get heated up over music and it’s silly to berate someone for disagreeing with you over something that trivial. It’d be like getting into a beef over pizza toppings or whether coffee or tea is better. You can respectfully disagree and state your case logically and politely.
What are you talking about? Are you on crack?
I got a lot of hate for expressing this opinion with a lot of smartasses responding: “But they didn’t play their own instruments!” Did Elvis? Did Frank Sinatra? Does Mick Jagger? Does Tom Jones? Does Rod Stewart? Does Morrissey? Does Iggy Pop? Did Jim Morrison? Did Mama Cass? Did Joey Ramone? Does Debbie Harry? Did Tina Turner? Did Cher? Heck, The Beach Boys used session musicians and no one’s calling them talentless hacks, and they’re not the only ones! A lot of California groups like The Byrds, The Mamas and The Papas, The Turtles, The Monkees, The Fifth Dimension, The Grass Roots, The Doors, and The Carpenters had members of The Wrecking Crew play on their songs. Even if you look across the pond, Britain had its incredible session musicians like Nicky Hopkins, Clem Cattini, Bobby Graham, Big Jim Sullivan, Vic Flick, Brian Locking, Arthur Greenslade, John McLaughlin, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones playing on recordings by artists like The Kinks, Donovan, Herman’s Hermits, The Dave Clark Five, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Van Morrison & Them, Cat Stevens, The Hollies, Marianne Faithfull, and many more. Often, session musicians would go uncredited and were treated as hired hands. Also to get that signature 60s Wall of Sound, you needed session musicians. So session musicians weren’t something exclusive to soul and R&B, not at all! Not every musician is Mike Oldfield or Todd Rundgren. Session musicians don’t make a musician literally Milli Vanilli, that’s just common practice in the industry. Ray Davies of The Kinks said it well when he said this about session musicians:
“Session players are for the most part, anonymous shadows behind the stars. They do their job for a fee and then leave, rarely seeing their names on the records. Their playing never stands out, but if you take them out of the mix, the track doesn’t sound the same. You only miss them when they are not there.”
You may not know the session musicians’ names, but your favourite musicians do. If you really want to know your music, know more than just the faces of the music. Know the behind the scenes people too! Put respect on their names.
A lot of big YouTubers don’t edit their own videos and some hire researchers, does that mean they’re talentless hacks? No! It’s more efficient to hire people who are good at their job so the artist can focus on what they’re good at. Actors and directors don’t do everything in a movie, but that doesn’t mean they have no talent. Obviously indie musicians and creators don’t have the budget to outsource the work, but you know they would if they had the money.
Another rebuttal I got was “but The Supremes were more like The Spice Girls or a 90s boy band!” Again, no. The Supremes were not casted like The Spice Girls, Little Mix, TLC, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, or One Direction. They really did start off as friends singing together, not unlike The Beatles. Even then, casted isn’t necessarily a bad thing and doesn’t mean the group are talentless. The Monkees are pretty great. They were talented actors and good musicians, but unfortunately they were very restricted by the TV network and producers and businesspeople. Musicians not having creative freedom isn’t always their fault. A lot of rock bands are partially casted anyway because it was common practice to place an ad in a music magazine looking for band members or look within your network. Lots of rock bands audition new members, to be fair.
Honestly, one of my biggest pet peeves of classic rock fans is that so many of them can act so elitist and snobby about music and look down on anything that isn’t your typical rock band format: lead singer, lead guitarist, rhythm guitarist, bassist, keyboard player, and drummer. And these kinds of people scare people away from classic rock and make the whole fandom look like pretentious dickheads, and that’s not what I’m about here at all. There’s many ways to make a good song. If all music was just made one way, it would be boring. I love celebrating musicians who really can do it all and are incredible all-arounders, but I think the teamwork approach of talented vocalist, session musician, and songwriter(s) is a valid way of making a great pop song. And it’s gotten results. Motown got that down pat. Great vocalists. The Funk Brothers were amazing session musicians. James Jamerson’s bass playing is top tier. Holland-Dozier-Holland were easily one of the best songwriting teams of the 60s, hands down. They’re on the same level as Lennon/McCartney, Ray Davies, and Brian Wilson in my eyes.
In this blog post I’ll share five reasons The Supremes were the Female Beatles. Sure, while they didn’t write their own songs or play their own instruments, they certainly had talent and a lot of cultural impact and that’s what I think makes them the Female Beatles. Writing your own songs and playing your own instruments is great, don’t get me wrong – I love to celebrate it, but you try doing what they did!
1. The Supremes were Motown’s best-selling act of the 60s
The Beatles were on top in the 60s, no doubt, but which girl group was on top in the 60s? The Supremes! They were the top selling girl group of the 60s. They were Motown’s most commercially successful act. They are the girl group with the most #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, at 12 chart toppers. There was some tough competition in the 60s so that is an incredible feat!
To put it in perspective, that’s the same number of #1s as Madonna and Taylor Swift. They’re only behind The Beatles, Mariah Carey, Elvis Presley, Rihanna, Drake, and Michael Jackson. There is no doubt you know at least one of these songs:
- “Where Did Our Love Go” (#1 US, #3 UK)
- “Baby Love” (#1 US, #1 UK)
- “Come See About Me” (#1 US, #27 UK)
- “Stop! In the Name of Love” (#1 US, #7 UK)
- “Back In My Arms Again” (#1 US, #40 UK)
- “I Hear a Symphony” (#1 US, #39 UK)
- “You Can’t Hurry Love” (#1 US, #3 UK)
- “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” (#1 US, #8 UK)
- “Love Is Here and Now You’re Gone” (#1 US, #17 UK)
- “The Happening” (#1 US, #6 UK)
- “Love Child” (#1 US, #15 UK)
- “Someday We’ll Be Together” (#1 US, #13 UK)
Love or hate The Supremes, you can’t argue with statistics. They were the biggest girl group of the time and they inspired a lot of female musicians. That success and that impact cannot be taken away from them.
2. The Supremes were from a working-class background
The Beatles were truly a rags to riches story, with most of the band members coming from humble beginnings. Except John, who was relatively posh, growing up in a very nice semi-detached house). Paul McCartney grew up in a council house, 20 Forthlin Road. George Harrison grew up in a small two-up two-down house, 12 Arnold Grove. That house didn’t even have an indoor toilet and it was heated by just a single coal fire. Ringo Starr grew up Dingle, a working class neighbourhood of Liverpool.
Similarly, The Supremes had humble beginnings, but thousands of miles away in Detroit, Michigan. Similarly, Detroit has a very working class and industrial history. Both cities were put on the map thanks to the music that came out of there: Merseybeat for Liverpool and Motown for Detroit. The members of The Supremes all grew up in the Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects in Detroit, the largest housing project in the city. Most of The Beatles had an Irish background, as in their ancestors emigrated from Ireland to England. Many Irish people moved to the UK because of the famine and for better economic opportunities. Similarly, The Supremes’ families came to Michigan as part of the Great Migration, when six million Black Americans moved from the South to the Northeast, Midwest, and California for better opportunities and to escape segregation and racist violence. Many black musicians from the mid 20th century have either been part of the Great Migration themselves or their parents were.
Florence Ballard started the group with her neighbour and friend Mary Wilson and the pair then recruited Diana Ross. Before they were The Supremes, they were The Primettes. Much like The Beatles it took a bit of time to find success and they had some members come and go. They were signed to Motown in 1961, but didn’t get a hit for years and were known as the “no-hit Supremes”. It wouldn’t be until 1964 that they’d get their breakthrough and from there, a stream of hits. Think about how The Beatles started off as The Quarrymen and later The Silver Beetles and they had members come and go like Pete Best and Stu Sutcliffe and they played in Hamburg and famously got rejected by Decca who said guitar groups were on the way out. It was definitely a lot more of a slow burn for The Supremes for sure, but you can see the pattern.
3. The Supremes were style icons
The Beatles were a very stylish band. They did eras long before Taylor Swift and they had distinct fashion eras with each album release. If I asked you to visualise how The Beatles dressed, you’d easily think of their iconic matching suits that they’d wear on tour, their slightly more casual style in 1965, their experimental/transitional looks in 1966, their more hippie looks in 1967, the Sgt Pepper costumes, their Asian inspired style in the late 60s,. Even if you covered their faces, you’d know that it’s a Beatles look. The hair alone! Guys copied it. It was a real cultural reset. Just like everyone wanted to be Elvis in the 50s and early 60s, everyone wanted to be The Beatles in the mid 60s. Not only would musicians try to look like The Beatles, they’d try to sound like them too.
Similarly, The Supremes had an impact on fashion. In the vintage community, one of the most celebrated female musicians when it comes to style is Diana Ross. Just like British rock and roll is very image focused, Berry Gordy was very image focused too, for better or worse (Diana Ross was anorexic and he picked on Florence Ballard for not being “skinny enough”). Motown had a charm school that media trained the musicians and taught them etiquette and elocution. Their posture and stage presence had to be perfect. The goal was to turn working class musicians into sophisticated, polished, graceful, elegant stars. Say what you will about respectability politics, but this strategy worked and Motown had a lot of crossover success in the 60s. The Supremes were the first black group that really used fashion and style to market themselves to a multiracial audience.
A big part of image was dress and style. In the mid 60s, it was common for groups to have matching stage wear. The Supremes typically went for beautiful sequinned dresses with shiny dangling earrings and voluminous bouffant hair, big fake lashes, and pink lipstick. It photographed beautifully and was made for that retro starburst filter. For black female boomers, The Supremes were their icons. Finally someone close to their age who they could relate to and say “I wanna be like her!” I love their wiggle dresses, regency style dresses with the gloves, and that mock Beatle look with the suit jacket and the tie. Here’s a look at a few of their dresses from the 60s, keep in mind though that a lot of the years are wrong. Their influence still lives on with Mary Wilson being quoted as saying that “Millennials love our style” and “Our glamour changed things.” This article in The Independent says it well!
4. The Supremes inspired multiple movies based on them
The Beatles were in movies themselves, like their idol Elvis was: A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, Magical Mystery Tour, and Let It Be as a group. But there was other media inspired by The Beatles like a Beatles cartoon series aired on ABC from 1965-1967. While Disney couldn’t get The Beatles to be in The Jungle Book, they got Chad Stuart from Chad & Jeremy to play one of the mop-topped vultures. The Beatles were the inspiration for parody group The Rutles, created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes, and that became a whole franchise of its own. This was before Weird Al! The Beatles were no doubt an influence on the 1996 film That Thing You Do!, that follows a rock band called The Oneders.
Similarly, The Supremes were a big inspiration. I know this isn’t related to movies, but I had to mention The Flirtations song “Nothing But A Heartache”, a big hit in the Northern Soul scene. That group were from South Carolina and before they recorded that song they were in a Supremes soundalike contest. When I played that song for my dad, who is a die-hard fan of 60s R&B and soul, he thought it sounded just like The Supremes. Listen to the song and judge for yourself! Anyway, there were a couple of movies inspired by The Supremes, but they weren’t biopics. They were more like Velvet Goldmine style films, heavily based on real musicians, but with some creative liberties taken so these characters are legally distinct from any real musicians. We all know Brian Slade is a stand-in for David Bowie, but he’s not exactly David Bowie. The Supremes inspired the 1976 film Sparkle and the 2006 film Dreamgirls. The settings are different, the names of the group members are different, but the trajectory of the group and the storyline is quite similar.
5. Diana Ross went on to have a successful solo career
Diana Ross was the favourite of the group and chosen as the star of the show (she was in a relationship with Berry Gordy and had a child with him so…). The group ended up going by Diana Ross & The Supremes later on in their career. Diana Ross went solo in the new decade, right around the same time The Beatles had broken up and the band members went on their separate ways. She had successes with “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, “Touch Me In The Morning”, “Theme From Mahogany”, “Love Hangover”, “Upside Down”, and “I’m Coming Out”. She collaborated with Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, and Smokey Robinson. Her 80s song “It’s Your Move” became a meme of sorts thanks to vaporwave musician Macintosh Plus remixing it as “Lisa Frank 420 / Modern Computing (リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー Risa Furanku 420 / Gendai no Konpyū)” on the album Floral Shoppe. One great example of a song that wasn’t a hit at the time, but it experiences popularity later. Talk about sleeper hit! Sadly for Florence Ballard, she was really screwed over and had a lot of struggles with her mental health and trauma because she was sexually assaulted as a teenager, so she was fired from the group and wasn’t allowed to use The Supremes name to market any solo work. Mary Wilson did not have much success as a solo artist as well. So it’s maybe not the perfect comparison, but you get the point.
Similarly, The Beatles had their solo careers and easily the most successful of the four was Paul McCartney. Not only did he have one successful band, he had two with the other being Wings. He has also collaborated with a lot of musicians over the years: Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash, Brian Wilson, Eric Clapton, Kanye West, Rihanna, and most recently Dolly Parton. And that’s not counting the compositions he wrote that other musicians have performed. That said, the other Beatles had some great moments. Ringo Starr’s “It Don’t Come Easy” is a good song. If I had to pick a favourite John Lennon song, I’d pick “Instant Karma” even if it’s cliched. Personally, I love George Harrison’s solo work. George was the first Beatle to top the charts post-breakup with “My Sweet Lord”. And now his album All Things Must Pass has passed over a billion streams on Spotify. Incredible!
In Conclusion
I think it’s fair to say that The Supremes really were that amazing. But this is all just my opinions and my thoughts. You don’t have to agree with me. In fact, I encourage disagreement, as long as it’s polite and constructive. If I want to change someone’s mind or at least share my point of view, I do it with reason and so I back up my beliefs.
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