While Duwop and American artists like The Four Seasons, Del Shannon, The Everly Brothers, and R&B groups like The Shirelles and The Drifters owned popular music charts in the earlier part of the ‘60s, by 1964 massive changes were coming with the arrival of what is famously called The British Invasion. A pivotal year in the world of music came out of the United Kingdom, a swarm of talented bands like The Dave Clark Five, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and of course, The Beatles. Some would say that the arrival of these foreign artists would inadvertently hurt American Surf Rock, and female Pop singing groups, among other styles, but standing toe to toe were Motown Record’s The Supremes.
Grabbing their first taste of success in the Summer of 1964 when their single “Where Did Our Love Go” hit number one on the US Charts, ironically, it was the midst of full-blown Beatlemania. Again, proving to be a force of power, The Supremes would dish out four more consecutive number-one singles (“Baby Love,” “Come See About Me” both in ’64, before “Stop! In the Name of Love” and “Back in My Arms Again” in ’65). Impressive, you could say that The Supremes were America’s Beatles at the time, and because of such, some of their artistic decisions mirrored one another.
For example, in late 1963 The Beatles put out their second album With the Beatles; featuring a heavy hand of Motown Record cover tracks such as “Please Mr. Postman,” “You Really Got a Hold on Me,” and “Money (That’s What I Want).” Admittingly inspired and influenced by many American artists such as Roy Orbison, Chuck Berry, and Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Beatles showed this consistently in their early years. Nonetheless, Motown Records’ Berry Gordy thought it might be a good idea for The Supremes to do their own cover album, but instead turned it around and did some Beatles songs. With a clever marketing strategy, and perhaps a little friendly competition with England, the efforts were realized in the 1964 album by The Supremes called A Bit of Liverpool.
Released on October 16, 1964, A Bit of Liverpool featured a total of eleven songs, five of which were Beatles originals, five others very recognizable hits of other British artists, and a Motown original like “Do You Love Me” which was a huge success for The Contours in 1962. In all, you had The Supremes singing Dave Clark Five hits like “Because” and “Bits and Pieces,” “The House of the Rising Sun” (which was a success for The Animals), and much more. The much more is an interesting mix of material… especially covers of Beatles songs like “You Can’t Do That” and “Can’t Buy Me Love” which showed off a bit more of the Rock-n-Roll side of The Supremes.
In all, the album failed to break into the US Top 20, peaking at number 21, but that does not mean it is not a very interesting venture by The Supremes. As stated, it sort of flipped things on their head considering it was usually British bands covering American artists’ music at the time. With A Bit of Liverpool, you hear Diana Ross, Florence Ballard, and Mary Wilson having a great time putting their unique spin on tracks. In fact, the recordings sound so natural, with no prior knowledge, you could easily imagine the tracks solely fitting The Supremes perfectly.
At this point a bit of a footnote in the history of the group, it is great to see that Elemental Music thought enough of A Bit of Liverpool to bring it back to the forefront with a new reissue of it to vinyl. Released on October 10, 2024, this new release offers listeners a limited edition pressing of the album from the original mono master. Something worth noting, it could be argued it is the way it should be; because you can truly appreciate the separation in the vocals and instruments for each recording. With this being said, the album is in the original format, sounds stunning on the high-quality 140-gram wax, plus includes the original cover and back artwork.
Overall, it is a fantastic listening experience that helps you see The Supremes for the multi-faceted talent they truly were. The only negative is that The Supremes also recorded “I Saw Him Standing There” (featuring Florence Ballard on lead vocals) and the Buddy Holly song “Not Fade Away” during the A Bit of Liverpool recording sessions, but both were left off the album. Fortunately for fans, they did find their way onto the 2008 release of Let the Music Play: Supreme Rarities. Something else to look into, it is highly recommended to pick up the new Limited Edition Mono reissue of A Bit of Liverpool on vinyl, because Cryptic Rock gives it 5 out of 5 stars.
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