meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Witness History

Mary Wilson

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.41.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2021

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Motown group The Supremes had a string of number one hits in 1964. They would become the most popular girl group of the 1960s. One of the three original singers, Mary Wilson, spoke to Vincent Dowd about growing up in Detroit, commercial success, and civil rights.

Photo: The Supremes, (left to right) Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross, on a visit to London in 1964. Credit: PA Wire.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless

0:06.8

searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the

0:11.8

telly we share what we've been watching

0:14.0

Cladie Aide.

0:16.0

Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.

0:19.0

Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.

0:21.0

And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less

0:24.9

searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds. This is the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service.

0:38.0

I'm Vincent Dowd.

0:40.0

The great American singer Mary Wilson died last week. She'd made her name in the 60s

0:46.1

as part of the hugely successful Motown group The Supremes. I spoke to Mary a few years ago

0:52.4

and as part of our Black History Week we're

0:55.0

rebroadcasting that interview. It was in August 1964 that the

1:00.3

Supremes conquered the US music charts.

1:03.4

There'd been an invasion that year of British bands,

1:06.9

with UK acts at number one for a total of 24 weeks,

1:11.6

but starting in August 64, there were five consecutive number ones from a group which

1:18.0

rivaled even the Beatles, and which was everything they were not American, female and black.

1:27.0

Baby, baby, don't believe me.

1:30.0

Ooh, please don't leave me. In 1964 the Supremes were a threesome, Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson.

1:41.0

The three of us came to Motown.

1:42.6

You know, we were just one of the girl groups there,

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.