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Dr Mary Wilson MD PC // About Ian Wilson - Practice Administrator marywilsonmd.com | Dr. Mary Wilson, M.D. Gynecology, St. Vincent's - New York, NY svcmc.org |
Mary Wilson (born March 6, 1944) is an American singer who gained fame as a founding member of the Motown female singing group The Supremes during the 1960s and '70s. Wilson was the only singer to be a consistent member of the group in its eighteen-year hit-making tenure. Today Wilson remains a strong advocate for the group's legacy and regularly performs concerts of their music, but has gone on to become a jazz and blues singer, humanitarian, and successful political advocate for artist's rights. She has published the autobiographies Dreamgirl: My Life As a Supreme, Supreme Faith: Someday We'll Be Together, and a combination of the two entitled Dreamgirl & Supreme Faith: My Life as a Supreme.
[edit] Biography[edit] Early lifeMary Wilson was the first child born to Sam and Johnnie Mae Wilson in Greenville, Mississippi. The Wilsons later had a son (Roosevelt) and a daughter (Catherine "Cat"). As a baby, she moved first to St. Louis and then to Chicago before settling with her aunt and uncle, Ivory ("I.V.") and John L. Pippin, in Detroit. At the age of six, Mary was returned to the custody of Johnnie Mae, who had spent time in Mississippi. This was a confusing time for Mary, as she had been led to believe that Ivory and John L. were her parents. By the age of twelve, Mary and her family had settled at Detroit's Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects. [edit] The Supremes (1959–1977)Main article: The Supremes In 1958, Mary Wilson met Florence Ballard while both attended junior high school. They quickly became close friends with a mutual interest in music. When Milton Jenkins, manager of male vocal group The Primes, decided to form a female spin-off group called The Primettes, he recruited Ballard, who recruited Wilson. Wilson then recruited a new friend of hers, Diane Ross, and Jenkins added Betty McGlown to complete the lineup. By 1961, The Primettes had signed to Motown Records, replaced McGlown with Barbara Martin, and changed their name to The Supremes. The Supremes went two years without a Top 40 hit, finally scoring with "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes" in 1963 which began a long streak of Holland–Dozier–Holland-penned Top 10 hits, including ten US #1 hits, beginning with "Where Did Our Love Go". In 1967, after three years of phenomenal success, Motown chief Berry Gordy changed the name of the group to Diana Ross & the Supremes and replaced Florence Ballard with Cindy Birdsong. Although hits were less frequent during this time period, Diana Ross and the Supremes enjoyed their two biggest-selling hits in 1968 and 1969, respectively. When Diana Ross left the group in 1970 for a solo career, singer Jean Terrell was brought in as her replacement, and the group was re-christened "The Supremes". The "New Supremes" — Wilson, Terrell, and Birdsong — continued their hit-making process from 1970 through 1972 with hits like "Up the Ladder to the Roof", "Stoned Love", "River Deep - Mountain High" (with the Four Tops), "Nathan Jones", and "Floy Joy". Wilson began sharing leads with Terrell on several of the singles, including "Touch", "Floy Joy", and "Automatically Sunshine". Cindy Birdsong left the group in April 1972 to start a family and was replaced by singer Lynda Laurence, formerly of Stevie Wonder's Wonderlove group. This collaboration did not last long. After the Stevie Wonder-produced "Bad Weather" failed to ignite much interest in 1973, both Terrell and Laurence departed from the group. Wilson enlisted Scherrie Payne, Freda Payne's younger sister, and welcomed back Cindy Birdsong to carry on the group. It took nearly two years for Motown to produce new recording contracts for the Supremes, during which time the group concentrated on live performances, and Wilson married Dominican businessman Pedro Ferrer. Wilson took charge of the Supremes, assisting her husband in managing, and sharing lead vocal duties with Payne in the group. This lineup continued on until 1976, when Birdsong was replaced by Susaye Greene, also a former Wonderlove member. With Greene, the Supremes recorded two disco-flavored albums with some success, including the release of their final top forty hit "I'm Gonna Let My Heart Do the Walking" which also ranked number 1 on the dance charts. By the start of 1977, Wilson had finally decided to leave The Supremes and start her solo singing career. Her "farewell" performance with the group in its last line-up occurred on Sunday, June 12 of that year at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London, England. [edit] The solo yearsIn 1979, Wilson became involved in a protracted legal battle with Motown over their management of the Supremes. After an out-of-court settlement, Motown released an album entiltled Mary Wilson but the project sold poorly and didn't reach the Billboard 200 album chart. The following year Motown released Wilson from her contract. Concentrating on work in Europe, Wilson found greater success. In 1984, after a successful reunion of The Temptations, she was approached by Motown to reform the Supremes with Scherrie Payne and Cindy Birdsong. After careful consideration and advice from Berry Gordy Jr., Wilson declined. In 1986, Wilson released her first heavily publicized autobiography, "Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme" concentrating on the sixties era of the original Supremes line up. The book was a huge success and remains one of the best-selling books ever released by a singer. In 1990 she released a follow-up best-selling book called "Supreme Faith: Someday We'll Be Together", which followed the group and her life through the seventies. In 2000, an updated version was released which combined both prior autobiographies.[1] By the mid-1980s, Wilson began to concentrate on musical theater, starring in various productions throughout a 20-year period, including "Beehive", "Dancing in the Streets", "Leader of the Pack", "Mother Hubbard, Mother Hubbard", "Grandma Sylvia's Funeral", "Sister Idella's Soul Shack" "Sophisticated Ladies" "The Vagina Monologues" and "Supreme Soul". Her concert work also increased in the US, although she had more legal troubles with Motown over ownership of the name "Supremes" which she used to identify herself with for tour work. Wilson racked up a long list of television appearances during this period, on talk shows and sitcom guest spots. In 1988 the "former Supreme" appeared in Dionne Warwick's "That's What Friends Are For AIDS Concert" which aired nationwide. She performed "A Song for You", in a medly with "How Lucky Can You Get?". She recorded a few singles in the 1980s for Nightmare Records and England-based Motorcity Records which had signed several other former Motown acts, including the FLOS. None of the Motorcity Records releases did well in the US and the label eventually folded. Wilson, however, became a regular performer sharing billing with top comedians such as Jay Leno and Joan Rivers, playing engagements at resorts and casinos. In 1992 Wilson released a heavily publicized CD Walk the Line for CEO Records. The label filed for bankruptcy protection the day after releasing this work. The relatively few copies made available quickly sold out. Wilson claimed she had no knowledge of the label's financial problems and was deceived into signing with them for the release. Despite this setback, Wilson continued a successful international concert career. In 1995 she released "U", which ranked on several European charts. [edit] Later yearsIn September 1999, Diana Ross arranged a Supremes reunion tour scheduled to begin in the summer of 2000. Both Ross and Wilson publicly acknowledged that Wilson was not contacted about the tour until late December 1999. Offered 2 million dollars and no artistic control, Wilson counter-offered to join the tour for 5 million dollars, eventually settling for a figure of 4 million. Reports as to why vary between the two singers, but Ross decided to do the tour with two singers who had joined The Supremes after Ross had left the group, Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne. Intense media scrutiny of the disagreement between Wilson and Ross and the tour itself ensued, and many fans of the original Supremes felt that the tour could not rightly be described as a "reunion". The tour was cancelled after fulfilling less than half of its scheduled dates. In 2001, Wilson starred in the National Tour of the 1986 Best Musical Tony Award winner "Leader of The Pack - The Ellie Greenwich Story" In 2002, she was featured in a documentary film on American soul music, "Only the Strong Survive", and was appointed by Secretary of State Colin Powell as a Culture-Connect Ambassador for the U.S. State Department, appearing at international events arranged by that agency. Motown's 45th Anniversary show in 2003 featured Wilson and Birdsong with Kelly Rowland of Destiny's Child subbing for Ross, who chose not to appear. In July 2006, Wilson under-went angioplasty surgery after complaining of chest pains; she recovered quickly and resumed her engagements. The 2007 release of the film Dreamgirls, a work loosely based on the real life Supremes, found Wilson sharing several appearances with the film's stars. In December 2007, Wilson released a live CD of her popular jazz and standards act called Up Close: Live from San Francisco. Wilson has also recently released a DVD, Mary Wilson Live at the Sands, which features many of the Supremes hits and much of her newer material. The DVD was distributed by Universal Music Group, the now-parent company of Motown Records. In April 2008, the popular Australian singing group Human Nature released a CD with Wilson guest starring in a rendition of "River Deep - Mountain High" with the group, a cover of the 1970 hit by the post-Ross Supremes and the Four Tops. Wilson announced she will release a new CD in 2009 of original material written specifically for her by the Holland Bros. of Holland–Dozier–Holland, the famed song writers who penned the Supremes long list of hits. It has been announced by the Las Vegas Sun Newspaper that she has signed with H-D-H Records to release this work, expected to be be available by year's end. [edit] Other workIn recent years, Wilson has made headlines for proposing a bill to ban impostor groups to perform under the name of 1950s and 1960s rock groups, including Motown groups such as The Marvelettes and The Supremes. The bill has now passed in 27 states. Wilson has also been touring and lecturing across the U.S., speaking to various groups nationwide. Her lecture series, “Dare to Dream”, focuses on reaching goals and triumph over adversity. Wilson's charity work includes the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, the American Cancer Society, St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, the Easter Seals Foundation, UNICEF, The NAACP, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the All-Star Network, and Figure Skaters of Harlem, a youth organization devoted to helping children towards entering the Olympics. Most recently, Wilson became the Mine Action spokesperson for the Humpty Dumpty Institute [2], a NYC-based non-profit organization forging innovative public-private partnerships designed to help solve specific international problems. In April, 2008, Wilson made a special appearance on 20/20 to participate in a social experiment involving pedestrians reacting to a young woman (Ambre Anderson) singing 'Stop! In the Name of Love' with intentional amateurishness. Wilson approached the woman and gave her constructive criticism towards her style in contrast to the pedestrians whose reactions were positive yet dishonest. On March 5 2009, she made a special appearance on The Paul O'Grady Show which ended in a special performance with her, Paul O'Grady and Graham Norton. Mary has also been involved with a touring exhibition of the Supremes' former stage wear, which has been on exhibit at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, USA, and on May 12, 2008 commenced its European tour, starting at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Over 50 sets of gowns are shown in rotation, starting with early informal wear from the early 1960s, and including famous gowns worn on television specials and nightclub appearances by the group in the 1960s and 1970s. [3] The Story of The Supremes from the Mary Wilson Collection can be seen at the Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead from 24 October 2009 - 24 January 2010. This is the only venue offering the exhibition for free admission and this is the furthest north the exhibition is currently scheduled to travel. www.twmuseums.org.uk/shipley [edit] Personal lifeDuring the mid-1960s, Wilson dated Four Tops member Abdul "Duke" Fakir. Mary has also been romantically linked to Tom Jones, Steve McQueen and Flip Wilson. During the late 1960s, Wilson adopted her cousin's son, Willie, and raised him as her own son. On May 11, 1974, Wilson married Pedro Ferrer and they subsequently had three children: Turkessa (born 1975), Pedro (born 1977) and Raphael (born 1979). In 1981, Wilson divorced Ferrer, whom she describes in Supreme Faith as being habitually abusive. On January 29, 1994, tragedy struck Wilson when she fell asleep at the wheel of her Jeep Cherokee (XJ), which hit the central barrier of a highway in California. As a result of the accident, Wilson suffered serious injuries, and her son Raphael died. As of 2009, Wilson, who now resides in Las Vegas, is single and has three living children (sons Willie and Pedro Jr. along with daughter Turkessa) and eight grandchildren. [edit] Lead vocals with the SupremesWilson recorded an appreciable number of lead/co-lead vocals for the group, including the #1 dance chart hit "He's My Man" and the top 40 pop hits "Floy Joy" and "Automatically Sunshine". For a complete list of singles and albums, see The Supremes discography.
[edit] Solo discography[edit] Albums
[edit] Album guest appearances
[edit] Singles
[edit] Autobiographies
[edit] DVD Appearances
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Categories: 1944 births | African American musicians | African American female singers | American female singers | American autobiographers | Living people | Motown Records artists | People from Detroit, Michigan | People from Mississippi | The Supremes members | Musicians from Mississippi | Musicians from Michigan | Musicians from Detroit, Michigan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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