This is a picture of Diana Ross’s Supremes and Martha Reeves’s Vandellas. You’d think that the two biggest girl groups of the ‘60s would get along somewhat, but they were actually some of the biggest rivals of the decade.
The Supremes started off as the “no-hit Supremes,” as they were called by their Motown peers. Plagued by the inability to decide their lead singer and a string of misses, they begrudgingly sang “Where Did our Love Go” despite it being in a weird key for Diana and the members finding the song too “kiddie-ish.” Despite this, the song shot to #1 and began The Supremes’ 5 #1 hit song in a row streak.
It makes sense why The Supremes won the battle.
“Where Did Our Love Go” was a surprisingly angry and bitter song, released during the tumultuous era of the Civil Rights movement and after JFK’s death. The 1964 music scene was pretty gritty. Adding onto this, The Supremes were just more appealing to white audiences. The Vandellas were marketed as tough, hip, and streetwise, with a lead singer well-versed in jazz, gospel, and even opera. The Supremes were their more pop-friendly counterparts, decked in glitter and decadence with a lead singer that was coached into singing in a more pop style.
As Mary Wilson of the Supremes put it: “Just eight months after our first big hit, the Supremes were Motown’s greatest commodity. But as great as the Motown machine was, it could only work on a couple of acts at a time…Martha and the Vandellas, for example, saw their position erode.” Couple that with Diana’s turbulent relationship with Motown CEO Berry Gordy and you’ll begin to see why tensions were rising.
Jeanette Johnson of Candy and the Kisses (a group whose biggest hit was about a dance spawned from a Vandellas hit, funny enough) recalled witnessing Diana Ross and Martha Reeves arguing and cussing at each other for unknown reasons. Another isolated incident was Martha chasing Diana into a phone booth after one of their numerous arguments. Recalls Martha: “I was going to fight her.”
Despite this, Reeves affirms that there never was a feud between the two. “There might have once been a confrontation over some costumes, but Diana and I were never rivals,” she said.
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