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Up the Ladder to the Roof

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"Up the Ladder to the Roof"
Song

"Up the Ladder to the Roof" is a 1970 hit single recorded by The Supremes for the Motown label. It was the first Supremes single to feature new lead singer Jean Terrell in place of Diana Ross, who officially left the group for a solo career two weeks before the recording of this song in January 1970. This song also marks a number of other firsts: it is the first Supremes single since "The Happening" in 1967 to be released under the name "The Supremes" instead of "Diana Ross & the Supremes", the first Supremes single solely produced by Norman Whitfield associate Frank Wilson, and the first Supremes single to make the United Kingdom Top 10 since "Reflections" in 1967.

Frank Wilson wrote the music for the song, with lyrics written by a Puerto Rican teenager from New York City named Vincent DiMirco. The lyrics to the song feature Terrell inviting her lover to be hers forever, through all of the good and bad in life, and eventually into the afterlife, where they will climb "up the ladder to the roof" to be "closer to heaven". Emphasizing the new sound Frank Wilson had crafted for the "New Supremes", "Up the Ladder to the Roof" features a rhythmic instrumental arrangement, with Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong providing prominent, ethereal backgrounds for Jean Terrell's leads.

Unlike Diana Ross, Terrell's singing had its basis in gospel training. During the recording of the song, producer Wilson had to ask Terrel to scale back the number of vocal runs she was doing, because he felt that she was making her delivery "too soulful", and that Motown head Berry Gordy would not think such a record would be accessible to white listeners.

"Up the Ladder to the Roof" rose to number-ten on the Billboard pop chart in the spring of 1970, while Diana Ross's first solo song, "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)", only made it to number 20. This was the only time The Supremes would outscore Ross on the charts; Ross would go on to score six number-one solo hits, while the Supremes never had one without her.

The Nylons covered "Up the Ladder to the Roof" a capella in a 1983 recording, which was featured in the 1987 "sleeper" motion Picture, Made in Heaven.

In 1997, the Fox Network sitcom Living Single had its female leads Queen Latifah, Erika Alexander, Kim Fields, and Kim Coles perform the song, during a fantasy sequence depicting them as a Supremes-esque girl group.

Credits

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