walking upstream…
Diana Ross
photo: raph_ph · cc by 2.0 ↗Diana Ross
sourcesWikipedia · Michigan Rock and Roll Legends
Diana Ross grew up in Detroit's Brewster-Douglass housing projects, harmonizing on street corners with the friends who'd become the Supremes before Motown built its glossiest hit machine around her airy, unmistakable voice. As the group's lead singer she helped invent the template for the modern girl group — matching gowns, chart-topping precision, crossover ambition — before going solo in 1970 and becoming one of the defining voices of the Motown Sound on her own. Her poise and glamour turned pop stardom into a masterclass in composure, one that generations of singers, Beyoncé included, would later cite as a blueprint.
the sound in question
1970
Ain't No Mountain High EnoughDiana Ross
walk the tributaries ↓
The Shirelles1960s · Girl group / R&B / Pop
Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard were teenagers at Detroit's Brewster projects when they started singing together, drawing directly on the Shirelles — the girl group whose sweetly yearning harmonies had just defined the sound of the moment.
listen: upstream & here
1960
Will You Love Me TomorrowThe Shirelles
1964
Where Did Our Love GoDiana Ross
listen forThe Shirelles' 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow' sets the template in 1960 — soft, close harmonies riding a gentle beat, a lead vocal that sounds vulnerable rather than belted; hear the Supremes take that same intimate blueprint and polish it to a sheen on 'Where Did Our Love Go,' the record that turned Ross's group into Motown's biggest act.
Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers1950s · Doo-wop / Rock and roll
The future Supremes were teenagers modeling themselves on doo-wop's teen idols, and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers — whose collegiate dress and youthful harmonies made them rock and roll's first teen sensations — were a direct reference point for the group's own early style.
listen: upstream & here
1956
Why Do Fools Fall in LoveFrankie Lymon and the Teenagers
1964
Baby LoveDiana Ross
listen forLymon's featherweight lead on 1956's 'Why Do Fools Fall in Love' turns adolescent heartbreak into pure charm; that same bright, bouncy innocence carries through the Supremes' 'Baby Love,' where Ross sings with the same wide-eyed energy Lymon brought to doo-wop's teenage version of pop stardom.
The Drifters1950s–60s · R&B / Doo-wop / Soul
The Supremes toured alongside the Drifters early in their career, absorbing the group's uptown sound — lush strings and R&B grit folded together — a combination Motown's producers would soon refine into the polished Sound of Young America.
listen: upstream & here
1959
There Goes My BabyThe Drifters
1965
Stop! In the Name of LoveDiana Ross
listen forThe Drifters' 'There Goes My Baby' was a landmark in 1959 for draping a string section over a heartbroken R&B vocal, a sound nobody had tried before; hear that same marriage of orchestral sweep and urgent lead vocal fully bloomed on the Supremes' 'Stop! In the Name of Love,' Motown's uptown sound at its most commanding.