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Happy Birthday to the supreme Mary Wilson!

It was more than 50 years ago that a young girl named Mary Wilson formed a singing group with her friends Diana Ross and Florence Ballard.

They went on to become The Supremes, the greatest girl group of all time.

The Supremes took a few years to reach No. 1 with 1964’s Where Did Our Love Go, but once they were on top, they stayed there with an astounding 12 No. 1 hits, including Baby Love, Stop! In the Name of Love and You Can’t Hurry Love.

With worldwide fame, the trio had adjusted to early growing pains such as Ballard being replaced by Ross as lead singer. The arrangement, publicly at least, seemed to work well for a good five years before Ballard – depending on who you believe – either quit or was pushed out of the group for unprofessional behavior. She was replaced by Cindy Birdsong and the group was rechristened Diana Ross and the Supremes.

This all kind of sounds like a movie called Dreamgirls, doesn’t it? Mary has mixed feelings about the obvious similarities.

“It’s a piece of work, a piece of art,” Mary told me in an interview we did last year. “Anytime you have art, and it’s good, you have to acknowledge it. However, it was not the Supremes story. Whoever wrote it was inspired by the Supremes, they used our images. “That’s OK, but if you’re going to write about someone, you should say it’s them. It’s not plagiarism, and yet it is. I’ve always been on the fence. If anything was closest to reality, if would be the (Effie) character – a singer so good who didn’t fit the image. It was kind of eerie. And yet, it wasn’t really Florence.”

Mary, who turns 66 years old today, stayed with the group until it disbanded in 1977. She has been a busy solo act since then performing around the world and is the author of two best-selling memoirs: Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme and the follow-up Supreme Faith.

It was a thrill to meet Mary in person (our interview had been by phone) a few months back at a book party held at The Abbey in West Hollywood for her friend Mark Bego celebrating the release of his new book Elton John: The Bitch is Back.

FILE UNDER: Birthdays

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One Remark

  1. She really was the best Vandella ever! 67 Years of the Best Ooh’s & Ahh’s in the Biz!

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