Diana Ross & The Supremes, Reflections, Motown 665, 1968
For their 12th album, The Supremes were rebranded as Diana Ross & The Supremes, beginning what would be a three year departure process for the lead singer, Ms. Ross.
Having accomplished step one with the renaming, step two could take place with the solo shot of Ms. Ross on the back cover. Future Supremes albums would see their covers more and more Diana centric.
Step three would be finally replacing original lead singer Florence Ballard with look alike Cindy Birdsong. This album features the last recordings Florence made for Motown. Cindy was a very good replacement in virtually every respect except one: she couldn’t sing like Florence. The bulk of this album is by Diana Ross & The Andantes, the venerable Motown studio singers who sang on hits by virtually every great Motown star through the early 70s. This was their first appearance on a Supremes record though, and the sound is jarring. It’s not bad, it’s just not The Supremes.
This album came out a few months after the hit single title track. So the cover of Ode To Billy Joe is a nice touch seeing as that’s the number one record the blocked Reflections from hitting #1.
Today’s Summary:
Cost: $3, $461 Remaining
