Floy Joy (album)

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Floy Joy
Studio album by The Supremes
Released	May 1972
Recorded	1971–1972
Genre	Pop, soul
Length	29:33
Label	Motown
Producer	Smokey Robinson
The Supremes chronology
Dynamite (1971) Floy Joy (1972) The Supremes Produced and Arranged by Jimmy Webb (1972)
Singles from Floy Joy
"Floy Joy" Released: December 1, 1971 "Automatically Sunshine" Released: April 11, 1972 "Your Wonderful, Sweet Sweet Love" Released: July 11, 1972

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Christgau's Record Guide	B+[2]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[3]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[4]

Floy Joy is the twenty-fifth studio album released by The Supremes on the Motown label. This was the only Supremes album solely produced and arranged by Smokey Robinson and included the U.S. top 20 hit, "Floy Joy" and the U.S. top 40 hit, "Automatically Sunshine", both of which were top 10 hits in the U.K. Although Lynda Laurence appears on the cover of the LP, all vocals are that of Cindy Birdsong.

The "Floy Joy" single was the Supremes' final Top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching as high as #9 in the UK.^[5] Its follow-ups, "Automatically Sunshine" and "Your Wonderful, Sweet Sweet Love" were not as successful, with "Automatically Sunshine" peaking at 37 on the Billboard Hot 100, 21 on the Top Soul Singles and being the group's final Top 10 hit in the U.K. (#10, the fifth in little over two years for the post-Ross line-up),^[6] and "Your Wonderful, Sweet Sweet Love" peaking at 59 on the Billboard Hot 100 and 21 on the Top Soul Singles, and missing the UK Charts altogether.

While Mary Wilson wrote in her second autobiography Supreme Faith that she was excited with the productions Robinson did on the group, Jean Terrell was more critical. The trio was augmented by The Andantes, Motown's in-house female backing trio on all but one of the nine selections. Terrell thought this took the group in a backwards trajectory to the Motown sound of the 60s which was ebbing. Her unhappiness with the group and Motown began to intensify as a result.

It has been said that the Floy Joy album along with Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and the Four Tops Nature Planned It albums were the last recorded in Detroit with the famed Funk Bros on the rhythm instrumentals.

Superscripts denote lead singers for each track: (a) Jean Terrell, (b) Mary Wilson, (c) Cindy Birdsong.

1. "Your Wonderful, Sweet Sweet Love" (Smokey Robinson)^a
2. "Floy Joy" (Robinson)^{a, b}
3. "A Heart Like Mine" (Robinson, Ronald White)^b
4. "Over and Over" (Robinson)^a
5. "Precious Little Things" (Robinson, Marvin Tarplin, Pam Moffett)^a

1. "Now the Bitter, Now the Sweet" (Robinson, Cecil Franklin)^a,b,c
2. "Automatically Sunshine" (Robinson)^{a, b}
3. "The Wisdom of Time" (Robinson, Moffett, Clifford Burston)^{a, c}
4. "Oh Be My Love" (Robinson, Warren Moore)^a

• Jean Terrell, Mary Wilson, & Cindy Birdsong - lead vocals and background vocals
• The Andantes (Louvain Demps, Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow) - additional background vocals
• William "Smokey" Robinson - producer
• Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers:
  • Jack Ashford, Jack Brokensha, & Eddie "Bongo" Brown - percussion
  • Dennis Coffey, Robert White, Eddie Willis, & Marvin Tarplin - guitars
  • Johnny Griffith & Earl Van Dyke - piano, keyboards
  • James Jamerson - bass
  • Zachary Slater & Andrew Smith - drums
• Berry Gordy - executive producer
• Paul Riser - arranger
• Lynda Laurence - cover photo
• Jim Britt - photography