"Someday We'll Be Together" is a hit song made popular as the last of twelve number-one singles for Motown act Diana Ross & the Supremes, released on October 14, 1969. It is noted for being the final Supremes song featuring Diana Ross, who left the group for a solo career in January 1970 and was replaced by Jean Terrell. Despite this distinction, "Someday We'll Be Together" was originally recorded as Ross' first solo single; hence, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong do not sing on the recorded release.

"Someday We'll Be Together" reached the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for one week. As it topped the American pop chart in the final 1969 issue of Billboardmagazine (dated December 27), the single was not only the final number-one in 12 chart-topping pop hits for The Supremes, but it also holds the distinction of being the final American number-one hit of the 1960s.

The single also charted at number-one on the Billboard R&B Singles for four weeks, from December 13, 1969 to January 3, 1970. "Someday We'll Be Together" therefore appeared in Billboardas both the final R&B number-one of the 1960s and the first R&B number-one of the 1970s.. It was both preceded and succeeded by other Motown singles: "Baby I'm For Real" by The Originals preceded "Someday", while The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" followed it.

The song was written by Johnny Bristol, Jackey Beavers, and Harvey Fuqua in 1961; and Bristol and Beavers recorded the song together as "Johnny & Jackey" for the Tri-Phi label that same year. "Someday" was a moderate success in the Midwestern United States, but gained little notice in other venues.

Tri-Phi was purchased by Motown Records in the mid-1960s. Fuqua, Bristol, and Beavers all joined Berry Gordy's by-then famous record company, and "Someday We'll Be Together" became part of Motown's Jobete publishing catalog. Beavers soon departed for Chess Records, although both Bristol and Fuqua stayed on as songwriters and producers for the label.

In 1969, Bristol was preparing a cover version of "Someday We'll Be Together", to be recorded by Motown act Jr. Walker & the All-Stars. Bristol had already recorded the instrumental track and the background vocals by Maxine Waters and Julia Waters when Berry Gordy happened upon the tracks and heard them. Gordy thought that "Someday" would be a perfect first solo single for Diana Ross, who was making her long-expected exit from the Supremes at the time, and had Bristol sequester Ross into the studio to record the song.

Unable at first to get the vocal performance he desired from Diana Ross, Johnny Bristol decided to try something different: he would harmonize with Ross, helping her to get into the mood needed for the record. On the first take, the engineer accidentally recorded both Ross's vocal and Bristol's ad-libs. Bristol and arranger Wade Marcus liked the results, and Bristol had his vocal recorded alongside Ross' for the final version of the song. Bristol's ad-libs and words of encouragement to Ross can be heard in the background throughout the song.

When Berry Gordy heard the completed song, he decided to release it as the final Diana Ross & the Supremes song. Ross' first solo single instead became "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)".

While the explicit subject of the song was that of Ross comforting a long-distance lover, "Someday We'll Be Together" allowed for a number of other implications as well. Most obvious was the suggestion that "someday", Ross and her bandmates Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong would "be together" once again (although, ironically, neither Wilson nor Birdsong sing on the record). In concert, Ross would suggest that the repeated chorus of "someday...we'll be together" seemed to present a message of hope for such contemporary troubles as civil rights and the protests and demonstrations over Vietnam.

"Someday We'll Be Together" was included on the final Diana Ross & the Supremes album, Cream of the Crop. The song was a number-one hit on both the Billboard Pop Singles chart and the Billboard R&B Singles charts, and charted at number 13 in the United Kingdom's Top 50 chart.. "Someday's" b-side, "He's My Sunny Boy", was recorded by Ross, Wilson, and Birdsong for the Love Childalbum in 1968; Smokey Robinson was writer and producer of the track.

Bill Anderson and Jan Howard recorded a cover version for the country music market. Their version reached No. 4 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Singles chart in the summer of 1970.

Other cover versions included those by rock artist Vonda Shepard, Scottish pop singer Jimmy Somerville, orchestra leader Bert Kaempfert, and country singer Lorrie Morgan. [1]

It was covered again 24 years after the original in the smash hit "If" from Janet Jackson's album janet..It samples the signature guitar riff from this song.

The girl group made their final live appearance on the CBS variety program The Ed Sullivan Showwith Diana Ross as lead singer on Sunday, December 21, 1969.

Fittingly, "Someday We'll Be Together" was the final number at Diana Ross & The Supremes' farewell concert on January 14, 1970 at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. After the completion of the show, Jean Terrell was presented onstage to the audience as Diana Ross' replacement, and "Diana Ross & the Supremes" officially split apart, becoming the new"The Supremes."

Diana Ross reunited with Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong reunited in 1983, performing the single for Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forevertelevision special.

Meet The Supremes(1962)  · Where Did Our Love Go(1964)  · More Hits by The Supremes(1965)  · I Hear a Symphony(1966)  · Merry Christmas(1965)  · The Supremes A' Go-Go(1966)  · The Supremes Sing Holland–Dozier–Holland(1967)  · Reflections(1968)  · Love Child(1968)  · Let the Sunshine In(1969)  · Cream of the Crop(1969)  · Right On(1970)  · New Ways but Love Stays(1970)  · Touch(1971)  · Floy Joy(1972)  · The Supremes Produced and Arranged by Jimmy Webb(1972)  · The Supremes(1975)  · High Energy(1976)  · Mary, Scherrie & Susaye(1976)

Diana Ross & the Supremes Join The Temptations(1968)  · Together(1969)  · The Magnificent 7(1970)  · The Return of the Magnificent 7(1971)  · Dynamite!(1971)

The Supremes at the Copa(1965)  · Live at London's Talk of the Town(1968)  · TCB(1968)  · On Broadway(1969)  · Farewell(1970)  · The Supremes Live! In Japan(1973)

A Bit of Liverpool(1964)  · The Supremes Sing Country, Western and Pop(1965)  · We Remember Sam Cooke(1965)  · The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart(1967)  · Diana Ross & the Supremes Sing and Perform "Funny Girl"(1968)

"Where Did Our Love Go"  ·"Baby Love"  ·"Come See About Me"  ·"Stop! In the Name of Love"  ·"Back in My Arms Again"  ·"I Hear a Symphony"  ·"My World Is Empty Without You"  ·"Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart"  ·"You Can't Hurry Love"  ·"You Keep Me Hangin' On"  ·"Love Is Here and Now You're Gone"  ·"The Happening"  ·"Reflections"  ·"In and out of Love"  ·"Love Child"  ·"I'm Gonna Make You Love Me"  ·"I'm Livin' in Shame"  ·" Someday We'll Be Together "  ·"Up the Ladder to the Roof"  ·"Stoned Love"  ·"River Deep – Mountain High"  ·"Nathan Jones"  ·"Floy Joy"  ·"Automatically Sunshine"

The T.A.M.I. Show  · Greatest Hits: Live in Amsterdam  · Reflections: The Definitive Performances (1964–1969)  · Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever

Discography  ·Timeline  ·Chronology  ·Members  ·(Broadway musical)  ·(film)  ·Berry Gordy  ·Holland–Dozier–Holland  ·FLOS