"Diana Ross & The Supremes Forever Came Today" Mono/Stereo "Classic Motown"
"Diana Ross & The Supremes Forever Came Today" Mono/Stereo "Classic Motown"
I think that to truly appreciate the beauty of "Forever Came Today," you really have to consider it on its own merits and completely out of the context of Motown/Supremes singles. When the song is discussed, it's always in the context of how the record fit in with the other songs on the album, "Reflections"; or it's placed in the context of hits like "You Keep Me Hainging On" and all the other hits that came before "Forever." I know, because this is what I've been doing for years. And it completely does this record no favors.
For years, I didn't particularly like this song because...well, because it didn't sound Motown/Detroit enough for me. It sounded too Los Angeles for me. The background vocals weren't done by Mary and Flo or Mary and Cindy. Also, the song is particularly challenging in a way- it's not a simple little Pop ditty and it's not a Soul classic. But in the last few years, after reading other's points of view on this song on the Soulful Detroit board, I started to listen to this record from a completely different perspective. And you know what? I found this is an excellent record.
"Forever Came Today" features some of Diana Ross's most accomplished and impassioned singing- which, to be honest, you could say that just about all the singles she did with The Supremes! But singing is on par with acting, only you're using your vocals to create a character and Diana Ross has crafted the perfect character to convey the narrative here. Now, the background vocals? Meh. Or, on a bad day, FEH! But hey, Motown's using their in-house session singers, The Andantes wasn't really anything new. Motown and record companies since the dawn of Rock 'N' Roll had been using profession, trained session singers to give records a sheen of perfection. Was it always for the best? No. And here it definitely was a minus. Nothing at all against The Andantes, but when Motown used their trained voices on the records of the various female groups, it completely stripped the personality of the individual groups away. (OK, enough on that.)
If this had been a record done for another record company, and NOT by The Supremes, I have a feeling people would think of it in completely different terms- and they'd mostly be positive. "Forever Came Today" features some of the most beautiful lyrics on an HDH song. You can hear that they, along with everyone else on the planet, had been spurred to scale higher peaks by all the new sounds hitting airwaves in the Summer of Love, 1967. From a purely creative standpoint, they hit their stride with this one- oddly, though, the trio wasn't happy to find Motown had gone and did whatever they did to release this after the songwriters had left Motown. It would be interesting to hear what the song would have sounded like if HDH had finished it they way they intended.
Forever Came Today (Brian Holland-Lamont Dozier-Edward Holland Jr) published Jobete 02-Jan-68
The Supremes; recorded L.A. / Hitsville-GW, completed 23-Jan-68 ; produced by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier
29-Feb-68; 45 (M): Motown MOT 1122 A
Apr-68; LP (M): Motown M665 Reflections
Apr-68; LP (S): Motown S665 Reflections
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