Supreme's Mary Wilson still feeling something special

Mary Wilson of The Supremes knew immediately that she had something special with Diana Ross and Florence Ballard.

“We knew it the first time we hit a note together,” said Wilson during a recent telephone interview. “It just kind of magically happened. When we started recording then we realized it even more. I knew that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

That’s what she’s been doing and will join Eddie Holman, The Original Tymes and Harold Winey & The Clovers on December 10 as part of the Legends of R&B and Doo Wop Live in Concert at the Highlander Auditorium in Upland.

“We were only 13 years old, and it was just a hobby back in those days you,” she said. “We weren’t really thinking about a career. I figured I would be a nurse, that kind of thing that kind of thing. I think from first time on stage I knew it was something very special, and we continued to do shows, lots of live shows. We would always be the local group, and pretty soon we were like ‘wait a minute they are making money at this.’”

From there it was looking around for a record company, which finally happened within a couple of years.

“When we started recording, I knew I just wanted to do that for the rest of my life,” she said. “When we had our first record, ‘Where did our Love go,’ that’s when we became aware that this could be big. We may have known we were good, but it’s not until other people realize it that it works.”

She credits her association with Motown that proved to be special.

“Motown was so wonderful in terms of having so many creative people,” she said. “I felt good because we were with a top writing team, there was Berry Gordy, and all those people there like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations. With all those creative people around, we didn’t have to decide anything. Now, having said that, before we went to Motown we made all our own decisions such as what dresses to wear, the look we had, we picked our own songs. When we went to Motown, they were going to do everything.”

Of course, they didn’t like every choice.

“There were some songs we didn’t like, such as ‘Where did our love go,’” she said. “It was sort of bubble gum music, and we wanted to have soul music and R&B so we wanted to have something like ‘Heat Wave.’ But we weren’t as soulful as we wanted to be so they gave us the material they thought fit us.”

She points to “Stop in the Name of Love” as the song that really made their statement.

It became our anthem for vocals and the meaning and the choreography,” she said. “People remember. No matter where I am, people will do the hand movements. We were making a strong statement with our look – the gowns and the coiffed hair. Television became the medium and because of our look and image, we got put on TV a lot so people could see us all over the world.”

And while the Beatles came along and changed a lot, the Supremes were well situated.

“The Beatles coming to America had the image and we had the image and we had it and all of a sudden they hit and while there have been many other great artists, they didn’t have the image that we had,” she said.

Of course, the heyday is over but there’s no shortage of fans and fame even to this day.

“I can walk anyplace and people recognize me so that’s kind of good,” she said. “And working with these guys on the show is great because we used to tour with all those great groups on the Chitlin Circuit. I just love what I am doing.”