Former Supreme Mary Wilson performs in San Francisco.
Like so many people before her, Mary Wilson came to San Francisco to find herself.
But it’s probably safe to say that no one along their search ever arrived in the city carrying a similarly superlative set of baggage. By the time the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee checked into the York Hotel’s Plush Room in December 2005, she was 61 and hoping to forge a musical identity distinct from the Supremes, the most successful vocal group in history.
“It was time to find out who I was,” recalls Wilson from her home in Las Vegas. “I loved being a Supreme. I don’t mind people knowing me for being a Supreme, but that was not where my talent was.”
This week, Wilson returns to the city for her debut at Feinstein’s at the Nikko on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 16-17, with plans to share stories from her career and to perform hits defined by the Supremes and the American Songbook standards she honed at the Plush Room, a run captured on the album and DVD “Up Close: Live From San Francisco.”
“I invested my own money to bring in the people to record it, to see what it was,” says Wilson, 73. “It was a big step for me to decide to do songs like ‘Body and Soul’ and ‘Spring Is Here.’ I wasn’t sure it was going to work, and it ended up being such a huge success. It became one of my shows that I do.”
A founding member of the Motown ensemble, Wilson sang in the Supremes longer than anyone else. She specialized in torchy ballads during the group’s early years, but by the spring of 1965 Diana Ross had taken over almost all lead vocals from Wilson and Florence Ballard.
Even in the years after Ross left to pursue a solo career at the end of 1969, Wilson didn’t reclaim lead vocal responsibilities. As she famously detailed in her bestselling 1986 autobiography “Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme,” she had lost confidence in her voice.
The oft-told story of the Supremes is an archetypal American saga about the lifechanging power of fame. They served as the barely concealed subjects of the Tony Awardwinning musical “Dreamgirls” and Oscar-winning 2006 film of the same name based on the Broadway production. While the fictional accounts focus on the complicated politics within the group, the Supremes helped transform American culture and politics.
What’s mind-boggling is just how young Ross, Ballard and Wilson were when they came together with Betty McGlown in the Primettes in 1959. The junior high students could barely conceive of becoming international pop stars at a time when African Americans were largely unseen on television unless cast in stereotypical roles.
“Being black and women and glamorous and succeeding, I think we came along at a time when things were changing,” Wilson says. “America started watching, and then the world. There were others before us who started to open the door, like Sammy Davis Jr. and Diahann Carroll. We were one of the first to step through.”
Wilson’s work extends far beyond the stage. She’s fought for the rights of musicians to control their names, lobbying for states to pass legislation prohibiting musical groups from exploiting the names and likenesses of famous acts like the Supremes and the Four Tops. She’s also traveled internationally as a spokeswoman for the Humpty Dumpty Institute’s campaign against land mines.
All the while, however, she continues to serve as the keeper of the flame for the Supremes. Galleries and museums around the world have displayed her personal collection of outfits worn by the women when they ruled the charts, dresses that she saved or procured on eBay.
Wilson knows it’s a cliche, but she can’t help talking about her life as a “dream” that surpassed any and all expectations.
“There are some great singers in church and the projects, but they don’t necessarily make it to the top,” she says. “I ended up being the longest one there — the keeper of the gowns and the legacy.”