"Love Child" is a 1968 hit single released by the Motown label as a single for Diana Ross & the Supremes, although Diana Ross is the only member of the group present on the recorded release; it is the group's 11th number one song in America.

The number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart for four weeks, from November 24, 1968, to December 27, 1968 and reaching number two on the soul chart for three weeks, the song is notable for its then controversial subject matter of illegitimacy. It is also notable for knocking The Beatles' massive "Hey Jude" off the top spot in the United States, the last of five Beatles/Supremes replacements at number one on the US pop chart during the 1960s. The Supremes debuted the song on the season premiere of the CBS variety program The Ed Sullivan Showon Sunday, September 29, 1968.

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. Motown label chief Berry Gordy held a special meeting in a room at the Pontchartrain Hotel in Detroit, which was attended by a team of writers and producers at the label, including R. Dean Taylor, Frank Wilson, Pam Sawyer, Deke Richards, and Henry Cosby.

The group, who named themselves The Clan, set to work on a hit single for Diana Ross & the Supremes. Instead of composing another love-based song, the team decided to craft a tune about a woman who is asking her boyfriend not to pressure her into sleeping with him, for fear they would conceive a "love child." The woman, portrayed on the record by Diana Ross, is herself a love child, and, besides not having a father at home, had to endure wearing rags to school and growing up in an "old, cold, run-down tenement slum." The background vocals echo this sentiment, asking the boyfriend to please "wait/wait won't you wait now/hold on/wait/just a little bit longer.

As was often the case with many of the records released under the "Diana Ross & the Supremes" name, Supremes Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong do not appear on the record. Motown session singers The Andantes perform the background vocals, with all lead vocals by Diana Ross, who would leave the group in a year for a solo career.

The resulting track had a decidedly different feel than previous Supremes singles, not only because of its change-of-pace subject matter, but also because of The Clan's production, which gave the melodramatic tale a driving, almost hedonistic rhythm.

The public responded immediately to "Love Child" when it was released as a single on September 30, 1968; the song rose to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and outsold all of the group's previous or subsequent 45 releases. In the UK singles chart, the song peaked at no. 15. "Love Child" became the title track of Diana Ross & the Supremes' Love Childalbum, released on November 13, 1968.

The song was covered by Sweet Sensation as a major pop hit, and later by the rock group Broadzilla, as well as Canadian pop group One 2 One. Janet Jackson sampled "Love Child" in her 1994 single "You Want This".

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