"Love Child" is a 1968 song released by the Motown label for Diana Ross & the Supremes. The first single and title track from their album Love Child, it became the Supremes' 11th number-one single in the United States.

The song became the number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart for two weeks, from November 30, 1968 through December 14, 1968^[1][2] and reached number two on the soul chart for three weeks. "Love Child" is notable for its then-controversial subject matter of illegitimacy.^[3] It is also notable for knocking the Beatles' "Hey Jude" off the top spot in the United States. The Supremes debuted the song on the season premiere of the CBS variety program The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday, September 29, 1968.^[4][5]

History

Recording

In 1967, Diana Ross & the Supremes, having dropped Florence Ballard, acquired new member Cindy Birdsong, added Ross' name to the billing. Following this string of changes, the Supremes had mixed success on the pop charts. "Reflections" peaked at number 2 on the Billboard pop charts and "In and out of Love" peaked at 9, but the group's next two singles did not make the pop top twenty.

This prompted Motown label chief Berry Gordy to hold a special meeting in a room at the Pontchartrain Hotel in Detroit, which was attended by a team of writers and producers at the label, including R. Dean Taylor, Frank Wilson, Pam Sawyer, Deke Richards, and Henry Cosby. The group, who named themselves The Clan, set to work on a hit single for Diana Ross & the Supremes. Instead of composing another love-based song, the team decided to craft a tune about a woman who is asking her boyfriend not to pressure her into sleeping with him, for fear they would conceive a "love child." The woman, portrayed on the record by Diana Ross, is herself a love child, and, besides not having a father at home, had to endure wearing rags to school and growing up in an "old, cold, run-down tenement slum." The background vocals echo this sentiment, asking the boyfriend to please "wait/wait won't you wait now/hold on/wait/just a little bit longer."

As was often the case with many of the records released under the "Diana Ross & the Supremes" name, Supremes members Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong do not appear on the record; Motown session singers The Andantes performed the background vocals. All lead vocals were by Diana Ross, who would leave the group in a year for a solo career.

Reaction and response

The public responded immediately to "Love Child" when it was released as a single on September 30, 1968, rising to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and outselling all of the group's previous or subsequent singles. The feat was repeated in Canada, where it also reached number one in the RPM 100 national singles chart.^[6] In the UK singles chart, the song peaked at number 15, and number three in Australia. "Love Child" became the title track of Diana Ross & the Supremes' Love Child album, released on November 13, 1968.

Personnel

• Lead vocals by Diana Ross
• Background vocals by The Andantes: Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps
• Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers
• Arranged by Paul Riser

Chart history

Year-End Charts

Track listing

• 7" single (30 September 1968) (North America/United Kingdom)

1. "Love Child" – 2:59
2. "Will This Be the Day" – 2:50

• 7" single (1968) (Netherlands)

1. "Love Child" – 2:59
2. "Misery Makes Its Home in My Heart " – 2:52

Cover versions

The song was covered by Sweet Sensation and peaked at #13 in May 1990 on the Billboard Hot 100^[7] and later by the rock group Broadzilla. It was also covered by Jamie Dean, La Toya Jackson, and sampled by her sister Janet in her 1994 single "You Want This." It was also covered by Booker T. & The MG's on their album "The Booker T. Set".

See also

• List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1968 (U.S.)
• Illegitimacy in fiction

Bibliography

• Chin, Brian and Nathan, David (2000). "Reflections Of..." The Supremes [CD Box Set]. New York: Motown Record Co./Universal Music.
• Posner, Gerald (2002). Motown : Music, Money, Sex, and Power. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-50062-6.
• Wilson, Mary and Romanowski, Patricia (1986, 1990, 2000). Dreamgirl & Supreme Faith: My Life as a Supreme. New York: Cooper Square Publishers. ISBN 0-8154-1000-X.

References