I have seen a negative review on this CD which I don't understand. It complains of this CD's sound quality. This collection is a remastering of the songs as they were released as mono singles (the ORIGINAL hits) . These are the versions, that when current, we heard on the radio. These are the versions that we bought as 45's. The Supremes cuts that we've been listening to for the past 25 plus years have been the album mixes. As is noted in this CD's liner notes, the album mixes were sometimes completely different cuts of the same songs, including the vocals. Yes, the sound quality isn't as great as it is on the album releases but after sooo many years, I'm sooo happy to hear the songs as they sounded when I fell in love with them, oh, so long ago.

No sense repeating the extensive reviews regarding how influential and entertaining this music is. It's truly astounding, and the music is brilliant.

However...

In remastering these recordings, the audio engineers have apparently done what I always call a "boost and compress," which reduces dynamic range, increases overall apparent loudness, and often increases distortion. Back in the 60's, the tendency was to mix songs with vocals much louder than the accompanying music, and with very little deep bass. Nowadays the tendency is right the opposite, with electronically generated deep bass notes, and vocals barely peeking over the music. To give the Supremes a more modern sound, they seem to have compressed these tracks to bring up the music, especially the bass. The result is distorted and unnatural vocals, and compressed dynamic range, especially on the older songs. It's really a shame.

If you can't tell the difference between mp3's and CDs, you won't care. If you're an audiophile, you'll be disappointed.

This is truly a chronological compendium of all their major hits from the billboard Top 100.

Though Motown had definitely existed before the Supremes, when their first #1 song exploded on the scene in the summer of '64, we knew music would never be the same. They and similar gems from Motown (especially the Four Tops) achieved phenomenal chart success for over 6 years, an eternity in the pop music realm.

What pretty much every one of the Supremes' songs did was to provide a prescription for how to come to terms with one or another emotional/life situation - these three young women were like doctors of the soul for millions of teens (and probably older folks) in America and abroad.

Some earlier big Motown hits were by the Marvelettes "Please Mr. Postman", the Isely Brothers "Twist and Shout", Little Stevie Wonder "Fingertips Parts 1 & 2", Martha and the Vandellas "Heat Wave", and the Miracles "You Really Got a Hold On Me" and "Mickey's Monkey". Note that the Beatles covered no less than three of these on their early albums. The Fab Four were big fans of Motown . . . those swinging rhythms didn't exist in American rock at the time, but were all over the British charts. In general, white music in England wasn't stuck in Teflon beats like it was in the States.

There was incredible cross-fertilization and tribute going between the Beatles and Motown. The dense but beautiful, very rhythmic arrangements that were typical of very many Motown songs ended up influencing much of the sound of the 'Sgt. Pepper' and 'Magical Mystery Tour' albums, and in a big way. Sure they were still 'rock', but they had a swing and/or lilt to them that you didn't find in much if any of the folk-rock or early psychedelic music from the U. S., where everything was pretty much straight-eight. One notable exception, who unfortunately have been forever trivialized by the 'critics', was the pop-folk-rock duo Sonny and Cher.

It's kind of too bad the Beatles project got seduced into Phil Spector's 'wall of sound' concept for the often dismal 'Abbey Road' album, which was kind of the end of the (abbey) road for them. They should have kept on swinging instead of letting Uncle Phil make them sound like the Ronettes.

"Where Did Our Love Go?" sounded like nothing else ever had - it was the first girl group song that had an ample raw side to its beat and overall sound, other than possibly the Orlons. We were all used to the driving (and pretty) but dense Spector-like arrangements provided for groups like the Crystals, the Essex, and the aforementioned Ronettes. 'Where Did Our Love Go" had a beat that was bigger than any of them, but the more spacious arrangement gave you lots of room to move and dance, both in your head and in your body.

Songs from the middle and late-60's Motown period often featured minor-key melodies that perfectly matched the stories being portrayed. They were transparent enough, and full enough that everyone could feel what was going on. All hints of abstraction between form, text and feeling were minimized to an extent rare in music of any kind, let alone pop. The best of the songs put you where they wanted you, in the blink of an eye, and you stayed until the song ended. Singers, songwriters, session musicians, producers and engineers together did an incredible job. In my opinion, this type of song constituted most of the Supremes' 4 and 5-star efforts ["Come See About Me", "Where Did Our Love Go", "Stop! In the Name of Love", "Love is Like and Itching in My Heart", "Love is Here . . .Now You're Gone", "My World Is Empty Without You, Babe", "Reflections", "I Hear a Symphony", "Love Child"].

"Love . . . Itching" is still one of the best songs for getting inventive dance moves working.

"My World is Empty" lays down a beat and a serious, compassionate groove that holds you up, hopefully helping you to get over the extreme sadness of a breakup.

"Love is Here . . ." might be one of the most emotionally stirring songs/recordings ever. The melodic/rhythmic variety of the different sections continually stuns the listener as the anthem-like song proceeds through its paces. This is truly a songwriter's dream, and one of Motown's best overall performances from start to finish. Note that I didn't "get" this one at age 15 when it charted. It rubbed me the wrong way, sort of like the way girls' jump-rope songs sometimes made boys squeamish.

"Reflections" put the Supremes squarely into the musical image world of the love generation, but sings/tells in a brilliant, philosophical fashion of an aspect of its darker side: love lost, nagging memories, and time stretching out as if it's an endless torment. It was one of the more seething, passionate songs of that brief, glorious period in time.

There are quite a number of their really good songs, which (for whatever reason) never reached out and grabbed me. "Baby Love", "You Keep Me Hanging On", "Back in My Arms Again", "Nothing But Heartaches", "You Can't Hurry Love", "The Happening", "In and Out of Love", "When the Love Light Starts Shining in His Eyes". To be honest and fair, they're all at least 3 - probably some easily rate as 4 star efforts.

Each time I play this CD, I'm amazed at how one group put forth so many hit records in a row: 25 Top 40 hits in 5.5 years including 12 #1's. Each hit record is reproduced here faithfully and exactly as they originally sounded as they topped the charts. That's why I scratch my head at why Motown, famed for it's greedy, shameless re-issues, would stoop so low as to bastardize the sound of these classics on "The 1's" - or, the most recent collections (unless you are impressed by having the guitar intro on You Keep Me Hanging On move from speaker to speaker and want the Diana & the tambourine on You Can't Hurry Love in one speaker and the bass with Marlene and Mary on the other.... but why? I don't know). This is the true sound of the group as the public snapped them up by the millions and the producer's intended. The Ultimate Collection is the ONLY way to go if you want to hear exactly what the writers, arrangers and producers intended when creating these classics. You will LOVE it!

The Supremes were a brilliant group but there was plenty of sadness behind the scenes. Florence Ballard was the original lead singer. Several singles were released without success, after which Diana Ross replaced Florence as lead singer. Songwriters Holland-Dozier-Holland were brought in at the same time and nobody will ever know which change was the most significant. Florence eventually left the Supremes, to be replaced by Cindy Birdsong. Diana Ross left to go solo in 1970, at which point this compilation ends.

The Supremes had just one British number one hit (Baby love) but they had many number ones in the American pop charts. Many of those were also top ten hits in Britain, but even those that weren't became famous anyway.

A glance at the track listing shows several classic songs, including Baby love, Stop in the name of love, Back in my arms again, I hear a symphony, My world is empty without you, You can't hurry love, You keep me hanging on and Someday we'll be together. Anybody who has listened to sixties pop music will know all these songs and at least some of the others. Furthermore, some songs have been cover hits for others, keeping the music alive for future generations. I particularly remember Kim Wilde's version of You keep me hanging on, but there have been others.

There have been many compilations of Supremes music, including double CD's and boxed sets, but this single CD contains all the essentials. If you only want one CD of their music, this is the one to buy.