Someday We'll Be Together

"Someday We'll Be Together" is a 1969 hit song released as a single for Diana Ross & The Supremes. It was released by the Motown label on October 14, 1969. It is noted for being the final Supremes song featuring Diana Ross, who left the group for a solo career in January 1970 and was replaced by Jean Terrell. It reached the #1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for one week, the week of December 27, 1969, making it not only the final #1 hit for The Supremes, but also the final #1 hit of the 1960s.

About the song

Recording the song

The song was written by Johnny Bristol, Jackey Beavers, and Harvey Fuqua in 1961; and Bristol and Beavers recorded the song for the Tri-Phi label that same year. In 1969, Bristol, by then a songwriter/producer at Motown, was preparing a cover version of the song, to be sung by Motown artist Junior Walker. Bristol had recorded the instrumental track and the background vocals by Maxine Waters and Julia Waters, when Motown chief Berry Gordy heard it, and thought it would be a perfect first solo single for Diana Ross.

Unable at first to get the vocal performance he desired from Diana Ross, Johnny Bristol decided to try something different: he would harmonize with Ross, helping her to get into the mood needed for the record. On the first take, the engineer accidentally recorded both Ross's vocal and Bristol's ad-libbed. Bristol and arranger Wade Marcus liked the results, and Bristol had his vocal recorded alongside Ross' for the final version of the song.

Release

When Berry Gordy heard the completed song, he decided, instead of making it the first Diana Ross solo song, to release it as the final Diana Ross & The Supremes song. While the explicit subject of the song was that of Ross comforting a long-distance lover, "Someday We'll Be Together" allowed for a number of other implications as well. Most obvious was the suggestion that "someday", Ross and her bandmates Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong would "be together" once again (although, ironically, neither Wilson nor Birdsong sing on the record). In addition the repeated chorus of "someday...we'll be together" seemed to present a message of hope for such contemporary troubles as civil rights and the protests and demonstrations over Vietnam. Ross' first solo single instead became "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)".

"Someday We'll Be Together" was included on Diana Ross & The Supremes' final album, Cream of the Crop, which, since another Ross-led Supremes single or album had not been planned, was made up mostly of vault material recorded, in some cases, over three years prior with former Supreme Florence Ballard on vocals.

Notable live performances

Fittingly, "Someday We'll Be Together" was the final number at Diana Ross & The Supremes' farewell concert on January 14, 1970 at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. After the completion of the show, Jean Terrell was presented onstage to the audience as Diana Ross' replacement, and Diana Ross & The Supremes officially split apart.

Diana Ross reunited with Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong one last time: on March 25 1983 while taping the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever television special, on which they performed "Someday We'll Be Together." was cut short after Ross pushed Wilson onstage during their performance. Within moments, a nmber of the other Motown performers flooded the stage, including Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, and others. Wilson then invited Berry Gordy to join everyone onstage, but Ross snatched her microphone and invited Gordy down herself. The special was edited to remove the incident before the program aired, but the Ross/Wilson fight still made its way to various newspapers and magazines.

Refrences

• Posner, Gerald (2002). Motown : Music, Money, Sex, and Power. New York: Random House. ISBN 037–550062–6.
• Wilson, Mary and Romanowski, Patricia (1986, 1990, 2000). Dreamgirl & Supreme Faith: My Life as a Supreme. New York: Cooper Square Publishers. ISBN 081–541000-X.

Credits

• Lead Vocals by Diana Ross
• Background Vocals by Maxine Waters and Julia Waters
• Male Vocal by Johnny Bristol

• Written by Johnny Bristol, Jackey Beavers, and Harvey Fuqua
• Produced by Johnny Bristol
• Arranged by Wade Marcus

Sample

• Download sample of "Someday We'll Be Together", as embodied on the 1970 Diana Ross & The Supremes Greatest Hits Vol. 3 LP.

External Links

Lyrics