On this date in 1969, Diana Ross and The Supremes went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Someday We'll Be Together', the group's 12th US No.1.
"Someday We'll Be Together" was written by Johnny Bristol, Jackey Beavers, and Harvey Fuqua. It was the last of twelve American number-one pop singles for Diana Ross & the Supremes 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.
The song was written by Johnny Bristol, Jackey Beavers, and Harvey Fuqua in 1961; and 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'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 the label.
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 Diana Ross, Johnny Bristol decided to try something different: he would harmonize with Ross, helping her 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)."
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 like civil rights and the ongoing demonstrations and protests against the Vietnam War.
"Someday We'll Be Together" was included on the final Diana Ross & the Supremes album, Cream of the Crop.
The song was a United States number-one hit on both the Billboard Hot 100 popular singles chart and the R&B singles charts.
"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.