The Supremes

May 18, 2009
Biographer of Phil Spector (He’s a Rebel
), among others, Ribowsky takes a dishy, insider look at Berry Gordy’s making of the Supremes, with some nasty swipes at Diana Ross while elevating Flo Ballard as the trio’s martyr. In his detailed look at how Berry engineered his Motown empire, thanks to his smart sisters and a lot of luck and fortuitous pairing of talent, Ribowsky nicely intersperses some hindsight reflections by the main players, such as the brothers Brian and Eddie Holland of the legendary songwriting team with Lamont Dozier, with comparative accounts by Mary Wilson, Ross and others in order to sift the truth from the legend. While the author constantly snipes at Ross for her “popping eyes” and naked ambition, it was largely her single-minded drive that garnered attention to the trio’s early incarnation as the Primettes, and her high girl-woman singing voice that established the Supremes’ distinctive sound. Moreover, Ross’s influence on Gordy (and his faith in her future solo stardom) motivated him to keep pushing the group into the limelight, in spite of other girl groups that had a bigger top hit following, such as Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. In this engaging, vivacious account, Ribowsky energetically and thoroughly underscores the Supremes’ significance as one of the first crossover successes.

June 8, 2009
During the past decade, Motown stars have been revitalized with anniversary specials, biographies, CD boxed sets, films, and reunions. Ribowsky (He's a Rebel: Phil Spector; Rock & Roll's Legendary Producer) explores the history of the Supremes from their beginnings in the Brewster projects in Detroit to their last show at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. He presents a comprehensive look at the tumultuous relationships within the Supremes as well as among others at the Motown label. Verdict Much of the content-culled from autobiographies by Motown alumni, articles, and other critical works-feels like a rehashing. Still Ribowsky's original interviews with members from such other Motown acts, as the Temptations' Otis Williams and the Marvelettes' Katherine Anderson, and some Motown myth-debunking add a distinctive flavor.-Brian Sherman, McNeese State Univ. Lib., Lake Charles, LA

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2009
Acrid biography of the biggest female vocal group of all time.

Ribowsky (Josh Gibson: The Power and the Darkness, 2004, etc.) dredges up all the muck he can find on Motown Records' hit-making trio, who tallied a dozen No. 1 pop-soul singles from 1964 through Diana Ross' departure for a solo career in 1969. The outline will be familiar to readers of past memoirs by Ross, member Mary Wilson and Motown founder Berry Gordy, which the writer pillages extensively while castigating their lack of candor. Founded in Detroit's Brewster-Douglass projects by teenager Florence Ballard as a quartet originally known as the Primettes, the group was nurtured to international stardom, after several flop singles, by self-made music mogul Gordy. The label chief was severely smitten with the skinny, purring Ross, a turbine of selfish ambition who enjoyed short-lived affairs with Gordy's adjutant Smokey Robinson and songwriter Brian Holland before taking up with her long-lusting boss after she hit pay dirt. Readers looking for another Dreamgirls should look elsewhere—no one escapes unscathed in this scabrous tome. Ross predictably emerges as an imperious, spotlight-hogging diva; Wilson is depicted as man-hungry, disloyal and timorous; the tragic Ballard, who died at 32 in 1976 after her brutal expulsion from the act she formed, is portrayed as a self-destructive, alcoholic loose cannon. Gordy hovers above the action as a deceitful, iron-fisted coveter of white-bread mainstream success who coldly robbed even his top act. Ribowsky, who relies heavily on secondary sources and testimony from disaffected members of the Motown"family," excessively magnifies and explicates each torturous incident in the Supremes' story. The author is also prone to five-dollar verbiage, frequently obvious flights of dim analysis and thudding attempts at cleverness.

Overwritten and overtly sensational.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 1, 2009
Ribowsky traces the quintessential girl group from its beginnings as Three Girls from the Projects to pop-chart domination to bitter breakup to a present in which, after an abortive 2000 reunion tour, the likelihood of Diana Ross and Mary Wilson reuniting is zero. Ribowsky roundly compliments Ross, whose usurpation of lead-singer duties fomented much group discord, for generosity and loyalty to those who knew her when, yet neither she nor Motown Records honcho Berry Gordy come off as likable. Ribowsky also retells the familiar story of how Gordys fiefdom became Hitsville USA, recording a good deal of attributed dissentalways a treat in a pop-music history. Equally illuminating are the stuff about the individual Supremes travails and tidbits about the interactions of Motown legends like Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye regarding the material Gordy wanted them to perform and the rivalries and peccadilloes of such vaunted Motown production teams as Holland-Dozier-Holland. Of course, theres nary a negative word anent the vaunted Motown house band, the Funk Brothers. Illuminating and salacious in the best possible ways.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)