Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong were on the top of the world in 1968. They were the crown jewels of Motown, easily beating out all other performers that worked for the label. “Love Child” was their eleventh number one record and they would have one more before they broke up.

“Love Child” was truly a team effort. It was written by four writers, who worked for Motown, Pam Sawyer, R Dunn Taylor, Frank Wilson and Deke Richards. This group of writers called themselves The Clan. By now, the writing team of Holland-Dozier-Holland had left Motown to create their own company and so, the Supremes had to rely on new writers. And there are five producers listed, one of them Berry Gordy Jr. himself. The others were three of the writers, Wilson, Richards and Taylor and Henry Cosby.

Berry Gordy gathered the writers together and sent to the Pontchartrain Hotel in Detroit, where he locked them in a room and told them they couldn’t come out until they had a song written, So, they went to work and “Love Child” was the result.

By now, Florence Ballard had left the group, having been fired by Gordy. As I explained back in 1967, she had been a problem for quite some time, always complaining about Diana Ross being in the spotlight and the other two girls in the background. Finally, Berry Gordy had had enough and told her she was done as a Supreme. Cindy Birdsong took her place. It is said in various places on the internet that Mary and Cindy did not even sing on this recording. Instead, the backup singers were a Motown group called The Andantes. The Andantes was comprised of Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barlow and Louvain Demps. If true, the Andantes never sang live with Diana and certainly not on the Sullivan show where Mary and Cindy did the backup singing.

“Love Child” was sung in public for the first time on the Ed Sullivan show. To emphasize that the theme of this song was different from others that the group had sung, they wore sweat shirts, cut-offs and bare feet while singing the song on the Sullivan show. This was a song about illegitimacy and was meant to be a social statement, something the Supremes had not done up until now.

1968 ended for the group with a television special with the Temptations called TCB, meaning, I’m assuming, “Taking Care of Business.” The show was a celebration of just how far the two groups had come from the days in the late Fifties when they were known as the Primes and the
Primettes.

With the loss of Holland-Dozier-Holland and Ballard, the Supremes just could not get the spark back that they had earlier in the Sixties. This would be their next to the last number one and by late 1969, Diana Ross will leave the group and that was pretty much the end of the Supremes.

“Love Child” entered the pop charts on October 26, 1968 and on November 30, it was number one where it stayed for two weeks. It’s biggest accomplishment was that it bumped “Hey Jude” out the number one spot.

This looks like the performance from the Ed Sullivan show.