6/15/2023 0 Comments I hear a symphony![]() īillboard called the song a "blockbuster" as well as a "well-written rhythm ballad with pulsating beat and top vocal work." Cash Box described it as a "rhythmic, medium-paced romancer about a lucky gal who’s head-over-heels in love with the special guy of her dreams." In a 1968 interview, Diana Ross said that this was one of her favorite songs to perform, even though its key register posed some challenges. "Symphony" was released as a single in place of another Holland-Dozier-Holland Supremes song, " Mother Dear", which had been recorded in the same style as their earlier hits. The result was "I Hear a Symphony," a song with a more complex musical structure than previous Supremes releases. Holland-Dozier-Holland therefore set about breaking their formula and trying something new. We will release nothing less than Top Ten product on any artist and because the Supremes' world-wide acceptance is greater than the other artists, on them we will only release number-one records. In mid-1965, the producers came to realize they had fallen into a rut when the Supremes' " Nothing but Heartaches" failed to make it to the Top Ten, missing it by just one position and breaking the string of number-one Supremes hits initiated with " Where Did Our Love Go." Motown chief Berry Gordy was displeased with the performance of "Nothing but Heartaches," and circulated a memo around the Motown offices that read as follows: The Supremes enjoyed a run of hits through 19 under the guidance of writer/producers Holland–Dozier–Holland. On the UK singles chart, the single peaked at number thirty-nine. Written and produced by Motown's main production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland, the song became their sixth number-one pop hit on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in the United States for two weeks from November 14, 1965, through November 27, 1965. ![]() The people at that label understood the answers to questions that we’ve forgotten how to ask." I Hear a Symphony" is a 1965 song recorded by the Supremes for the Motown label. It’s a beautiful piece of pop music.ĭecades later, it’s still baffling that the Motown assembly line could crank out something that transcendent on command. But as the song goes on, it gets more and more full, the strings and horns and pianos all working together in mechanistic harmony, proving the song’s point. Early on, everything is subtle, like the tingly violin that mirrors Ross’ melody. Everything on “I Hear A Symphony” seems to be holding back just a touch even the obligatory honking-sax solo feels restrained. Ross is in such a dreamy, happy place that she imagines orchestral melodies even when they’re not there: “A thousand violins fill the air now.” And Holland-Dozier-Holland created that feeling themselves by creating their own smooth and dreamy melody. The song’s central idea isn’t exactly a complicated one. There’s just a hint of pleading paranoia in there - “don’t let this feeling end” - but mostly she’s in dazed disbelief over how good she has it. Her vocals, always warm and precise and inviting, take on a whole new tenderness, a sense of free-floating bliss. Where Diana Ross once sang about being hopelessly alone, she sings about romantic bliss, about losing herself in another person. It’s got the driving beat, the genteel flourishes, the murmured baby, babys. “I Hear A Symphony” is, very recognizably, a Supremes single. ![]() So of course it put the Supremes back at #1, where they belonged. They ended up with the best Supremes single yet. For “I Hear A Symphony,” Holland-Dozier-Holland subtly reworked that formula, like a championship team adjusting game plans at halftime. They took him seriously.ĭuring that five-single run, Holland-Dozier-Holland had figured out a remarkably durable formula for Supremes singles: a four-four beat, a few shimmering melodic embellishments, cooed backing vocals that used the word “baby” a lot, Diana Ross singing warmly and sweetly about sadness. ![]() He told Holland-Dozier-Holland, the team responsible for writing and producing the Supremes’ singles, that the Supremes should only release #1 singles. For Motown founder Berry Gordy, this was unacceptable. The trio had pulled off the insane feat of landing five consecutive singles at #1, but a sixth, “Nothing But Heartaches,” hadn’t quite made it to the top 10. That’s where Motown was with the Supremes in the waning days of 1965. Imagine watching your single go to #11 and thinking that it’s a problem. In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.
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