What’s the connection between the Supremes, the Lee Marvin/Ernest Borgnine film The Soiled Dozen, and the hit TV collection The Brady Bunch? The reply is movie and tv composer Frank DeVol. He was behind these theme tunes amongst many others, and joined Holland, Dozier and Holland because the co-writer of the Motown trio’s tenth US pop No.1, “The Happening.” The tune rose to the Billboard Sizzling 100 peak on Could 13, 1967.
This was a traditional case of a tune being much better remembered than the movie for which it was the theme. The Occurring was a interval piece about hippies and the mafia that starred Anthony Quinn. Each the only and its B-side, “All I Know About You,” had been featured within the movie, which supplied the massive display screen debut of Faye Dunaway.
‘It can happen to you’
The tune, in the meantime, sounds jaunty and carefree from a distance, and quite extra poppy than the Supremes’ normal soul crossover fashion of the time. On nearer inspection, the lyric is about misplaced love, and somebody who thinks all is properly “until love took a detour, yeah!” and so they discover that romance has taken its go away. “It happened to me and it can happen to you,” ran the cautionary story.
“The Happening” was notable for different causes. It was the final Supremes No.1 that includes Florence Ballard, and the final written by the HDH group. They had been rising sad with what they noticed as an inappropriate degree of monetary remuneration from Motown. After writing three extra superb Supremes singles, “Reflections,” “In And Out Of Love,” and “Forever Came Today,” moved onto pastures new with their Invictus and Sizzling Wax labels.
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After debuting on the Sizzling 100 in early April, “The Happening” hit the highest in simply its fifth chart week, changing Frank and Nancy Sinatra’s “Somethin’ Stupid” at No.1. Years later, the Supremes quantity was chosen as a favourite document on the long-running BBC radio collection Desert Island Discs by each actor Jane Lapotaire and former British Prime Minister John Main.
Purchase or stream “The Happening” on the Supremes’ Gold compilation.
