Supremes became 1st all-female group with No. 1 album - October 22, 1966

On this day in 1966, The Supremes became the first all-female group with a number one album - "The Supremes A' Go-Go" - on the Billboard 200. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Stay in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello History Lovers. I'm Eves and you're listening
to This Day in History Class, a show that uncovers
history one day at a time. Today it's October. The

(00:23):
day was October nineteen. The supremes ninth album, The Supremes Agogo,
reached number one on the Billboard Top two hundred. That
made the Supremes the first all women group to top
the US Billboard two hundred, a chart ranking the most
popular music albums in the States. The Supremes signed to

(00:45):
Motown Records in nineteen one, and they were the label's
most commercially successful act. They were styled in fancy gowns, wigs,
and makeup, and performed simple but graceful choreography. Motown executive
Berry Gordon capitalized on the group's crossover appeal. Many black
rock and roll acts fased difficulty in gaining popularity with

(01:07):
white audiences, and white musicians who covered their songs would
get more attention for the music than the original performers.
But the Supremes were popular with white audiences and topped
the pop charts frequently thanks to their pop appeal and
the way they incorporated rock and roll and R and
B into their music. They made it onto several talk shows,

(01:29):
idealizing Berry Gordon's vision of a respectable, versatile, and sophisticated
black musical group. Backed by the songwriting and production of
Brian Holland, Lamont Dogier and Eddie Holland, the Supremes achieved
pop fame. They made the top spot on the Billboard
Hot one hundred twelve times, and in nineteen sixty four

(01:49):
and nineteen sixty five they had five consecutive number one
pop hits. Songs like Where Did I Love Go, Baby Love, Come,
See About Me, and Stop in the Name of Love
made it to the top position, but their first eight
albums never made it to the top of the Billboard
two hundred, even though they sold pretty well. But on

(02:13):
October twenty two, nineteen sixty six, the Supremes Ago Goo
dethroned the Beatles album Revolver. Diana Ross, Florence Ballard, and
Mary Wilson made up the group at this point, after
they had gone through a couple of lineup changes over
the years. The Supremes Agogo remade on the Billboard two
hundred album chart for sixty weeks. The album included the

(02:35):
hits love, It's Like an Itching in My Heart and
you Can't Hurry Love. It went on to sell three
point five million copies worldwide. The Supremes were the only
female group to reach number one on the album chart
until March of Nino, when the Go Goes album Beauty
and the Beat made it to the top. Though the
Supremes were Motown's flagship act, the members of the group

(02:58):
faced a lot of personal and professional difficulties. Ballard left
the group and producers Holland Dozer Holland walked away from Motown.
Lead singer Diana Ross left the group to go solo,
and the cultural climate and shifts in the industry lead
to declining music sales for the Supremes. The lineup of

(03:19):
the group went through more changes until the Supremes disbanded
in ninety seven. I'm Eves Jeff Kote and hopefully you
know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
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