Now Supremes get the V&A treatment
Costumes worn by The Supremes during their 17-year career are to go on show in an exhibition set against the backdrop of black rights in America.
Mary Wilson, one of the original members of the group, is lending the Victoria and Albert Museum 50 outfits she used to wear.
The show explores the role the group played in changing racial perceptions with appearances on high-profile TV programmes such as the Ed Sullivan show.
Their string of hits even helped create a unified pop chart instead of leaving black music in a separate list.
Oprah Winfrey has said that to see The Supremes was to know it was possible to be like them at a time when black people were still fighting for equal rights.
She added: "Coloured people on TV! You never saw anything like it in the Sixties — three women of colour who were totally empowered, creative, imaginative... beautiful... posed."
The exhibition also shows their influence on today's performers. Victoria Broackes, the museum's head of exhibitions, said: "Lots of black artists, such as Beyoncé, have chosen to stay with high glamour. It's part of their story."
On show is one of the first gowns purchased by the group when they were still called The Primettes.
There are several others designed by Hollywood designer Bob Mackie — known as the Sultan of Sequins — and beaded dresses the group wore to meet the Queen Mother in 1968.
They briefly took on a more street-wise image in that year when civil unrest was at a peak but soon returned to bling.
Ms Broackes said: "They were absolutely where it was at in the Sixties, although by the Seventies they were to become a more niche market." Motown's Berry Gordy carefully styled them to appeal to white music-buyers as well as black audiences.
However, Ms Broackes said this would later provoke criticism from radical blacks who accused them of selling out.
The costumes are going on display with original photographs and records. Visitors will be able to hear an unreleased version of Baby Love and see newsreel of The Supremes among the mourners at the funeral of Martin Luther King.
Last year, the V&A displayed dresses worn by singer Kylie Minogue in a show called Kylie: The Exhibition.
