Someday We'll Be Together is a song made popular as the last of twelve number-one singles for Diana Ross & the Supremes on the Motown label.
It is the final Supremes song featuring Diana Ross, who left the group for a solo career in January of 1970.
Despite this distinction, "Someday We'll Be Together" was originally recorded as Ross' first solo single and, as such, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong did not sing on the recorded release although both appear on the B-side, "He's My Sunny Boy."
The single topped the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart for one week. Reaching number-one on the American pop chart in the final 1969 issue of Billboard magazine (dated December 27), the single was not only the final number-one in 12 chart-topping pop hits for The Supremes, but it also holds the distinction of being the final American number-one hit of the 1960s.
Overview[]
In 1969, Bristol was preparing a cover version of "Someday We'll Be Together," to be recorded by Motown act Jr. Walker & the All-Stars.
Bristol had already recorded the instrumental track and the background vocals by Maxine Waters and Julia Waters when Berry Gordy happened upon the tracks and heard them.
Gordy thought that "Someday" would be a perfect first solo single for Diana Ross, who was making her long-expected exit from the Supremes at the time and had Bristol sequester Ross into the studio to record the song.
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-libs.
Bristol and arranger Wade Marcus liked the results, and Bristol had his vocal recorded alongside Ross' for the final version of the song. Bristol's ad-libs and words of encouragement to Ross can be heard in the background throughout the song.
When Berry Gordy heard the completed song, he decided to release it as the final Diana Ross & the Supremes song. Ross' first solo single instead, released early 1970, became "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)."
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 such that Ross and bandmates Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong would one day "be together."
Further, in concert, Ross would suggest that "someday, we'll be together" in regard to contemporary troubles like civil rights and the ongoing demonstrations and protests against the Vietnam War.
Release[]
"Someday We'll Be Together" was included on the final Diana Ross & the Supremes album "Cream of the Crop."
The song was a United States number-one hit on both the Billboard Hot 100 popular singles chart and the R&B singles charts, as well as charting in the top twenty at number 13 on the UK Singles Chart.
It also peaked on the Netherlands' MegaCharts at #19 in 1970. "Someday's" B-side, "He's My Sunny Boy," was recorded by Ross, Wilson and Birdsong for the Love Child album in 1968 and written and produced by Smokey Robinson.
The song also charted at number-one on the Billboard R&B Singles for four weeks, from December 13, 1969 to January 3, 1970.
"Someday We'll Be Together" therefore appeared in Billboard as both the final R&B number-one of the 1960s and the first R&B number-one of the 1970s.
Notable Live Performances[]
The girl group made their final live appearance on the CBS variety program "The Ed Sullivan Show" with Diana Ross as lead singer on Sunday, December 21, 1969, the final Sullivan performance of the 1960s.
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, becoming the new "The Supremes."
Diana Ross reunited with Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong reunited in 1983, performing the single for the "Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever" television special.
Chart History[]
Single | U.S. Pop Singles | U.S. R&B Singles | U.S. Cashbox Hot 100 Singles | U.S. Adult Contemporary Singles | U.K. Pop Singles | Netherlands |
Someday We'll Be Together | #1 | #1 | #1 | #12 | #13 | #19 |