"Someday We'll Be Together" is a song written by
Johnny Bristol,
Jackey Beavers
Robert Lewis "Jackey" Beavers (June 19, 1937 – October 28, 2008) , and
Harvey Fuqua
Harvey Fuqua (July 27, 1929 – July 6, 2010) was an American rhythm and blues singer, songwriter, record producer, and record label executive.
Fuqua founded the seminal R&B/doo-wop group the Moonglows in the 1950s. He is notable as one of th ...
. It was the last of twelve
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
number-one
pop singles for
Diana Ross & the Supremes
The Supremes were an American girl group and a premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as the Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and the most successful ...
on the
Motown label. Although it was released as the final Supremes song featuring
Diana Ross, who left the group for a solo career in January 1970, it was recorded as Ross' first solo single and Supremes members
Mary Wilson and
Cindy Birdsong do not sing on the recording. Both appear on the B-side, "
He's My Sunny Boy".
The single topped the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 pop singles chart for one week, in the final 1969 issue of ''Billboard'' magazine (dated December 27). It would be the last number one hit of the 1960s.
Background
Original version
The song was written by
Johnny Bristol,
Jackey Beavers
Robert Lewis "Jackey" Beavers (June 19, 1937 – October 28, 2008) , and
Harvey Fuqua
Harvey Fuqua (July 27, 1929 – July 6, 2010) was an American rhythm and blues singer, songwriter, record producer, and record label executive.
Fuqua founded the seminal R&B/doo-wop group the Moonglows in the 1950s. He is notable as one of th ...
in 1961; Bristol and Beavers recorded the song together as "Johnny & Jackey" for the Tri-Phi label that same year. "Someday" was a moderate success in the Midwestern United States, but gained little notice in other venues.
Tri-Phi was purchased by
Motown in the mid-1960s. Fuqua, Bristol, and Beavers all joined
Berry Gordy
Berry Gordy III (born November 28, 1929), known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr., is a retired American record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record l ...
's by-then famous record company, and "Someday We'll Be Together" became part of Motown's
Jobete publishing catalog. Beavers soon departed for
Chess Records, although both Bristol and Fuqua stayed on as songwriters and producers for Motown.
Supremes version
In 1969, Bristol was preparing a new version of "Someday We'll Be Together", to be recorded by Motown act
Jr. Walker & the All-Stars. Bristol had already recorded the instrumental track and the background vocals when Berry Gordy happened upon the tracks and heard them. Gordy thought that "Someday" would be a perfect first solo single for Diana Ross, who was making her long-expected exit from the Supremes at the time, and had Bristol sequester Ross into the studio to record the song.
Unable at first to get the vocal performance he desired from Ross, Johnny Bristol decided to try something different: he would harmonize with her, helping Ross to get into the mood needed for the record. On the first take, the engineer accidentally recorded both Ross's vocal and Bristol's ad-libs. Bristol and arranger Wade Marcus liked the results, and Bristol had his vocal recorded alongside Ross' for the final version of the song. Bristol's ad-libs and words of encouragement to Ross can be heard in the background throughout the song. When Berry Gordy heard the completed song, he decided to release it as the final Diana Ross & the Supremes song. Neither of the Supremes' remaining members, however, sang on the record. Ross's first solo single instead, released in early 1970, became "
Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)
"Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" is the debut solo single of singer Diana Ross, released in April 1970 as the first single from her solo self-titled debut 1970 album by Motown Records.
Background
Diana Ross, having just left The Suprem ...
".
Even though the implicit subject of the song was that of Ross comforting a long-distance lover, "Someday We'll Be Together" allowed for other interpretations, one being that Ross and bandmates
Mary Wilson and
Cindy Birdsong would one day nostalgically "be together" again. Further, in concert, Ross would suggest that "someday, we'll be together" in regard to contemporary troubles such as
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...
and the ongoing
demonstrations and protests against the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
.
Release
"Someday We'll Be Together" was included on the final Diana Ross & the Supremes album, ''
Cream of the Crop
''Cream of the Crop'' is the eighteenth studio album released by Diana Ross & the Supremes for the Motown label. It was the final regular Supremes studio album to feature lead singer Diana Ross. The album was released in November 1969, after ...
'' (1969). The song was a
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
number-one hit on both the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 popular singles chart and the
R&B singles
The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...
chart, as well as charting in the top twenty at number 13 on the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
. It also peaked on the Netherlands'
MegaCharts at #19 in
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...
. "Someday's"
B-side, "He's My Sunny Boy", was recorded by Ross, Wilson, and Birdsong for the ''
Love Child'' album in 1968 and written and produced by
Smokey Robinson.
"Someday" charted at number-one on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 popular singles chart for one week, on December 27, 1969. It also charted at number-one on the
Billboard R&B Singles chart for four weeks, from December 13, 1969, to January 3, 1970. "Someday We'll Be Together" therefore appeared in ''Billboard'' as both the final Hot 100 ''and'' R&B number-one of the 1960s, and as the first R&B number-one of the 1970s.
Notable live performances
The girl group made their final of several performances throughout the decade with Diana Ross singing lead on the 1960s decennial finale of ''
The Ed Sullivan Show
''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the '' CBS Sunday Night M ...
'' that aired live Sunday, December 21, 1969, on
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
.
"Someday We'll Be Together" was the final number at Diana Ross & the Supremes'
farewell concert on January 14, 1970, at the
Frontier Hotel
The New Frontier (formerly Hotel Last Frontier and The Frontier) was a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The property began as a casino and dance club known as Pair O' Dice, opened in 1931. It was sold in 1941, and inc ...
in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
. After the completion of the show, Jean Terrell was presented onstage to the audience as Diana Ross' replacement (alongside Wilson and Birdsong). Thus "Diana Ross & the Supremes" officially split apart, becoming "Diana Ross" (the solo act) and "The Supremes" (the group).
Ross reunited with Wilson and Birdsong in 1983, performing the single for the ''
Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever''
television special
A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...
. However, this long anticipated performance was cut short mostly owing to lack of rehearsal after more than a decade of the group being apart. There is much speculation regarding the onstage exchange that took place between Ross and Wilson, but some audience members report it resulted in Ross shoving Wilson during the on-stage performance. A heavily edited version of this performance was aired on national television and released on the DVD of ''Motown 25''.
Other versions
*
Bill Anderson and
Jan Howard
Jan Howard (born Lula Grace Johnson; March 13, 1929 – March 28, 2020) was an American country music singer and songwriter. As a singer, she placed 30 singles on the ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' Hot Country Songs, country songs chart, w ...
recorded a version for the country music market. Their version peaked at #4 on ''
Billboard magazine
''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the musi ...
s
Hot Country Singles
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States.
This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sa ...
chart in the summer of 1970.
* Another version, credited to the "already-defunct" group (and fellow Motown act)
The Marvelettes
The Marvelettes were an American girl group that achieved popularity in the early to mid-1960s. They consisted of schoolmates Gladys Horton, Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart (now Cowart Motley), and Georgia Dobbins, who wa ...
, was released in 1970 as well, as a track to the group's final album ''
The Return of the Marvelettes''. As with the Supremes version, lead vocalist
Wanda Young Rogers was the only group member to sing on the track, with
The Andantes
The Andantes were an American female session group for the Motown record label during the 1960s. Composed of Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps, the group sang background vocals on numerous Motown recordings, including songs by Ma ...
used as backing vocalists.
* In 1994,
Diana Ross released a remixed version by legendary DJ
Frankie Knuckles. This single peaked at #7 on the ''Billboard''
Hot Dance Club Songs.
*
Amber Riley sang the song in 2015 for ''
Glee
Glee means delight, a form of happiness.
Glee may also refer to:
* Glee (music), a type of English choral music
* ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy
* ''Glee'' (Bran Van 30 ...
s final episode "
Dreams Come True".
*
Bruce Springsteen recorded a cover version of the song for his 2022 album, ''
Only the Strong Survive''.
* Other versions include those by orchestra leader
Bert Kaempfert
Bert Kaempfert (born Berthold Heinrich Kämpfert; 16 October 1923 – 21 June 1980) was a German orchestra leader, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, arranger, and composer. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records and wrote the mus ...
(as a single in 1970), country singer
Lorrie Morgan
Loretta Lynn Morgan (born June 27, 1959) is an American country music singer and actress. She is the daughter of George Morgan, widow of Keith Whitley, and ex-wife of Jon Randall and Sammy Kershaw, all of whom are also country music singers. Mor ...
(as a single in 1983), Scottish pop singer
Jimmy Somerville
James William Somerville (born 22 June 1961) is a Scottish pop singer and songwriter. He sang in the 1980s with the pop groups Bronski Beat and The Communards, and has also had a solo career. He is known in particular for his powerful and sou ...
(on ''
Dare to Love
''Dare to Love'' is the 1995 second solo album by Jimmy Somerville, former lead singer of the synthpop groups Bronski Beat and The Communards.
Track listing
# " Heartbeat" (Jimmy Somerville, Matt Rowe, Richard Stannard)
# " Hurts So Good" ...
'', 1995), and rock artist
Vonda Shepard
Vonda Shepard (born July 7, 1963) is an American singer, songwriter, music director and actress. She appeared as a regular in the television show '' Ally McBeal'', as a resident performer in the bar where the show's characters drank, danced and c ...
(on ''
Heart and Soul: New Songs from Ally McBeal'', 1999).
Personnel
Johnny & Jackey version
* Vocals by
Johnny Bristol and
Jackey Beavers
Robert Lewis "Jackey" Beavers (June 19, 1937 – October 28, 2008)
* Instrumentation by various
Diana Ross & the Supremes version
* Lead vocals by
Diana Ross
* Background vocals by
Merry Clayton
Merry Clayton (born December 25, 1948) is an American soul and gospel singer. She provided a number of backing vocal tracks for major performing artists in the 1960s, most notably in her duet with Mick Jagger on the Rolling Stones song " Gimme S ...
,
Julia Waters Tillman
Julia Waters Tillman (born Julia Waters on June 8, 1943, in Texas) is an American singer, best known for her backing vocals.
Julia is sister to Oren Waters, Luther Waters, and Maxine Waters Willard. Julia and Maxine Waters are sometimes referred ...
, and
Maxine Waters Willard
Maxine Waters Willard (born Maxine Waters on July 14, 1945, in Texas) is an American singer, best known for her backing vocals.
She is sister to Oren Waters, Luther Waters, and Julia Waters Tillman. Maxine and Julia Waters are sometimes referre ...
* Male backing vocals by Johnny Bristol
* Instrumentation by
the Funk Brothers
The Funk Brothers were a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972.
Its members are considered among the most successful groups of stud ...
and the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
* Arranged by
Wade Marcus Wade Marcus was a music producer and arranger associated with the Motown sound during the 1970s. He composed the music to the film ''The Final Comedown'' with Grant Green. He also produced albums by The Blackbyrds, Gary Bartz, A Taste of Honey, T ...
Bill Anderson and Jan Howard version
* Vocals by
Bill Anderson and
Jan Howard
Jan Howard (born Lula Grace Johnson; March 13, 1929 – March 28, 2020) was an American country music singer and songwriter. As a singer, she placed 30 singles on the ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' Hot Country Songs, country songs chart, w ...
* Instrumentation by various instrumentalists
The Marvelettes version
* Lead vocals by
Wanda Young Rogers
* Background vocals by
the Andantes
The Andantes were an American female session group for the Motown record label during the 1960s. Composed of Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps, the group sang background vocals on numerous Motown recordings, including songs by Ma ...
: Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps
* Instrumentation by the Funk Brothers and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Track listing
Supremes version
*7" single (14 October 1969) (North America/United Kingdom)
#"Someday We'll Be Together" – 3:14
#"He's My Sunny Boy" – 2:18
Chart history
Supremes version
Year-end charts
Certifications
See also
*
List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1969 (U.S.)
These are the '' Billboard'' Hot 100 number-one singles of 1969.
That year, 8 acts hit number one for the first time, such as Sly & the Family Stone, The 5th Dimension, Billy Preston, Henry Mancini, Zager and Evans, The Archies, Steam, and ...
*
List of number-one R&B singles of 1969 (U.S.)
*
List of number-one R&B singles of 1970 (U.S.)
Bibliography
* Posner, Gerald (2002). Motown : Music, Money, Sex, and Power. New York: Random House. .
*
Wilson, Mary and Romanowski, Patricia (1986, 1990, 2000).
Dreamgirl & Supreme Faith: My Life as a Supreme. New York: Cooper Square Publishers. .
* Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs: 1944-2005", 2006.
References
External links
List of cover versions of "Someday We'll Be Together"at SecondHandSongs.com
*
{{Authority control
1961 singles
1969 singles
1970 singles
Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles
Cashbox number-one singles
Doo-wop songs
The Supremes songs
Bill Anderson (singer) songs
Jan Howard songs
The Marvelettes songs
Songs written by Johnny Bristol
Songs written by Harvey Fuqua
Song recordings produced by Harvey Fuqua
Motown singles
Decca Records singles
1961 songs
Song recordings produced by Johnny Bristol
Song recordings produced by Owen Bradley