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| The Supremes - Where Did Our Love Go |
The Supremes - Where Did Our Love Go Lyrics and Youtube Music VideosAlbum:
Where Did Our Love Go Released:
1964 Baby, baby, baby don't leave me
Ooh, please don't leave me all by myself
I've got this burning, burning, yearning feelin' inside me
Ooh, deep inside me and it hurts so bad
You came into my heart (baby, baby) so tenderly
With a burning love (baby, baby)
That stings like a bee (baby, baby)
Now that I surrender (baby, baby) so helplessly
You now want to leave (baby, baby)
Ooh, you wanna leave me (baby, baby)
Ooh (baby, baby)
Baby, baby,
Where Did Our Love Go?
Ooh, don't you want me?
Don't you want me no more (baby, baby)?
Ooh, baby
Baby, baby, where did our love go?
And all your promises of a love forevermore!
I've got this burning, burning, yearning feelin' inside me
Ooh, deep inside me, and it hurts so bad
Before you won my heart (baby, baby)
You were a perfect guy
But now that you got me
You wanna leave me behind (baby, baby)
Ooh, baby
Baby, baby, baby don't leave me
Ooh, please don't leave me all by myself (baby, baby)
Ooh baby, baby, baby
Writer/s: HOLLAND, EDWARD JR. / DOZIER, LAMONT / HOLLAND, BRIAN
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by
LyricFindWhere Did Our Love Go Song Chart The Motown songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote this. It was offered to another Motown group, The Marvelettes, who turned it down. Holland-Dozier-Holland had Marvelettes lead singer Gladys Horton in mind, but she sang in a lower key than The Supremes lead singer, Diana Ross. This forced Ross to sing in a lower, breathier style than she was used to.
Lamont Dozier explained in the book Chicken Soup For the Soul: The Story Behind The Song: "I originally cut this track with the Marvelettes in mind. In fact, I cut it in Gladys Horton's key, the lead singer, which was much lower than Diana Ross'. At that time, at Motown, the policy was that the songwriters had to pay for the tracks we cut if it didn't get recorded by one of their artists. It never entered my mind that the Marvelettes wouldn't like the song. I had the chorus and went to the office to talk with Gladys and played it for her. She said, 'Oh, honey, we don't do stuff like that. And it's the worst thing I ever heard.' She was adamant about it. I was shocked.
I knew I was in deep trouble if I didn't hurry and get someone to do the song because I wasn't about to pay for the track. I went through the Motown artist roster and went all the way to the bottom of the list and there were the Supremes, better known in those days as the 'no hit Supremes.' I told them it was tailor made for them, knowing that they had nothing going on at the time and needed a song. Much to my surprise, they said no. Gladys (Horton of the Marvelettes) told them I was looking for someone to record it. I wasn't giving up. Brian (Holland), Eddie (Holland) and I finally persuaded them to do it, convincing them that it was their saving grace and they couldn't refuse it. We had already had Top 40 hits with Martha & the Vandellas but they hadn't had recordings of any significance yet.
They were so annoyed that they agreed to do it that, in the studio, they had a really bad attitude. Diana (Ross) said it was in the wrong key, that it was too low. (Of course it was - I wrote it in Gladys' key.) Since the track was already cut, she had to sing it in that key and she'd never sung that low before. It turned out that her bad attitude and the low key were exactly what the song needed! I'd worked out intricate background vocals but the girls refused to learn them. Finally I said, 'Just sing 'Baby, baby, baby'.' It worked to their advantage and worked perfectly.
They didn't necessarily agree. Diana and I were throwing obscenities back and forth and she went running to Berry (Gordy, Jr.) and told him I said something off color about him. He came down to the studio to see what was wrong and while he was there, he asked to hear the song. He thought it was really good, but said that he didn't know if it was a hit, but that he thought it would be Top 10.
The song was released and flew up the charts to #1. From then on, one hit followed another. It was the first of 13 consecutive #1s we did on the Supremes. The next time the Hollands and I saw the girls was at the airport. They were getting off a plane with their Yorkshire terriers, in mink stoles. We started laughing. It was so funny to see them turn into stars overnight." This was the first #1 hit for The Supremes and their first song to chart in the UK. The Supremes had more US #1 hits in the '60s than any other artist, but they weren't instant hitmakers. After 8 singles which hadn't achieved much, The Supremes earned the nickname "No-Hit Supremes." They were not impressed when they were offered a song to record which The Marvelettes, the top girl group at Motown at that point, had already rejected. They thought it was childish and after recording it they didn't like the way it turned out, little knowing it was going to be their first big hit. Motown boss Berry Gordy insisted they record the song. Hitsville USA's floors are mahogany wood floors which enhance echo's, footstomps and fingersnaps, with a high ceiling helping. All footstomps, including those heard on this song, at Hitsville were genuine and most of the time were done with plywood sheets laying over the floor and picked up with two to three mics, including mics sitting in the rear of the echo chamber. (thanks, Colby - Arthur, IL) The word "baby" is repeated over 70 times in this song. This was recorded on three tracks: one for rhythm, another for horns, and a third for vocals. At the invitation of Berry Gordy, Adam Ant performed this in 1983 on the Motown 25th Anniversary TV special - the same show where Michael Jackson did his most famous Moonwalk. Ant was a huge star in England, but little known in the US, especially among the Motown crowd. Midway through the performance, Diana Ross appeared on stage, giving her approval to the British Punk rocker who was perplexing the audience. According to Ant, Michael Jackson called him after the show, asking where he got his costumes. The Supremes hated the song but were in no position at that time to turn it down, so they had to record it. Mary Wilson recalled to Billboard magazine in a 2014 interview: "We were a little pissed. It wasn't like a Martha & the Vandellas song. We told Holland-Dozier-Holland to bring on the hits. If we didn't get a hit, our parents were going to make us go to college."
"I went to Eddie and I cried," she continued. "I told him, 'You don't understand, we've got to get a hit record right now.' He said, 'Don't worry, trust us, this is going to be a smash.'"
"One of the things we didn't like about it was that Flo and I just had to sing, 'Baby, baby.' We were used to doing intricate harmonic patterns but on this song we didn't do anything." 