You Keep Me Hangin On Research Papers

The Supreme’s are an, “American pop-soul vocal group whose tremendous popularity with a broad audience made its members among the most successful performers of the 1960s and the flagship act of Motown Records.” The members of the group were Diana Ross, Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong. They were a Motown label’s primary crossover act and they helped change the public image of African Americans during the civil rights era. “It took a while to create the distinctive look and sound that ultimately made them famous. Gordy unsuccessfully paired the group with different musicians and songs for three years until he finally stumbled upon the right formula. In 1964 Holland-Dozier-Holland gave the Supremes their first number one single

The performance was tapped as mentioned earlier in The Hollywood Palace on October 22nd 1966 (fun fact, I was born on October 22nd). The performance aired on October 29th 1966. They performed You Keep Me Hangin’ On, Somewhere from West Side Story, and What Now My Love with Herb Alpert and Gilbert Bécaud. The instrumentation in You Keep Me Hangin’ On includes guitar, drums, bass, trumpet and trombone. For Somewhere, it was a full orchestra that played in the background for them. I’m not sure if everything was pre recorded for them or if they had a live band behind the stage performing with them. Either way it was a wonderful performance, “Part of it was their glamorous image —the sparkly beaded and crystal-covered dresses, big hair turned up to eleven and their ballroom queen aesthetic, pushed by the marketing genius and Motown founder known as Berry Gordy Jr.” They had a large lift in the stage that revealed them as they strutted to the front of the stage. They had on sparkly tight dresses that when they danced the sparkle of the dress played with the reflection that the lights reflected back. They had a powerful stage presence, especially Diana

It rose to be #1 on the US Billboards and also managed to be the top spot on the US R&B Singles Chart. The song was written and produced by Holland-Dozier Holland who was the producer of the group, later on the piece would also be put in the album The Supremes Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland. The studio mix of the piece features more prominent and louder backing. Somewhere, like I said above, is from the musical West Side Story written by Leonard Bernstein. The Supremes recorded the piece in their album There’s A Place For Us. In their mix recording you can hear more of the instrumentation in the orchestra instead of a more prominent string section that is only accompanying. There’s also more unification in the rhythm between the singers. The way the live recording impacts you more is the way Diana Ross is more free about her rhythm and sings truly to her heart rather than just reading the notes and