Love Child (song)

"Love Child"
Single by Diana Ross & the Supremes
from the album Love Child
B-side	"Will This Be the Day"
Released	September 30, 1968
Format	Vinyl record (7" 45 RPM)
Recorded	Hitsville U.S.A. (Studio A); September 17, September 19, and September 20, 1968
Genre	Pop, psychedelic soul
Length	3:03 (original release) 3:14 (remastered)
Label	Motown M 1135
Writer(s)	R. Dean Taylor, Frank Wilson, Pam Sawyer, Deke Richards
Producer(s)	The Clan (R. Dean Taylor, Frank Wilson, Pam Sawyer, Deke Richards) and Henry Cosby
Diana Ross & the Supremes singles chronology
"Some Things You Never Get Used To" (1968) "Love Child" (1968) "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" (with The Temptations) (1968) Love Child track listing 12 tracks Side one "Love Child" "Keep an Eye" "How Long Has That Evening Train Been Gone" "Does Your Mama Know About Me" "Honey Bee (Keep on Stinging Me)" "Some Things You Never Get Used To" Side two "He's My Sunny Boy" "You've Been So Wonderful to Me" "(Don't Break These) Chains of Love" "You Ain't Livin' Till You're Lovin'" "I'll Set You Free" "Can't Shake It Loose"
Music sample "Love Child" Alternative cover

12 tracks
Side one "Love Child" "Keep an Eye" "How Long Has That Evening Train Been Gone" "Does Your Mama Know About Me" "Honey Bee (Keep on Stinging Me)" "Some Things You Never Get Used To" Side two "He's My Sunny Boy" "You've Been So Wonderful to Me" "(Don't Break These) Chains of Love" "You Ain't Livin' Till You're Lovin'" "I'll Set You Free" "Can't Shake It Loose"

"Love Child" is a 1968 song released by the Motown label for Diana Ross & the Supremes. The second single and title track from their album Love Child, it became the Supremes' 11th (and penultimate) number-one single in the United States.

The record took just three weeks to reach the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart, which it then topped for two weeks, November 30—December 7 1968, before being dethroned by an even bigger Motown single, Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine". "Love Child" also performed well on the soul chart — where it spent three weeks at number two (stuck behind Johnnie Taylor's "Who's Making Love") — and paved new ground for a major pop hit with its then-controversial subject matter of illegitimacy. It is also the single that finally knocked the Beatles' "Hey Jude" off the top spot in the United States after its nine-week run. The Supremes debuted the dynamic and intense song on the season premiere of the CBS variety program The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday, September 29, 1968. In Billboard's special 2015 chart of the Top 40 Biggest Girl Groups of All Time on the Billboard Hot 100, "Love Child" ranked highest among the Supremes' six entries.

In 1967, Diana Ross & the Supremes, having dropped Florence Ballard, acquired new member Cindy Birdsong and added Ross' name to the billing. Following this string of changes, the Supremes had mixed success on the pop charts. "Reflections" peaked at number 2 on the Billboard pop charts and "In and out of Love" peaked at 9, but the group's next two singles did not make the pop top twenty.

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Wikipedia