As reported by Nightflight, in late 1966 Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson of the Supremes stopped by the Elegant Parlour and were so impressed with the opening act that they contacted the head of their label, Motown's Berry Gordy. Gordy brought the band to Motown's home of Detroit to play and soon signed them to Motown subsidiary Gordy Records. In 1967, they recorded their self-titled debut album, which included a single, co-written by Tommy Chong, titled "Does Your Mama Know About Me?" The song told the story of an interracial couple. In 2008's Cheech & Chong: The Unauthorized Autobiography, quoted by Nightflight, Chong wrote that the song "changed the course" of Motown's music. Other explicitly "socially aware" songs, like the Supremes' "Love Child" and the Temptations' "Papa Was A Rolling Stone," followed the release of "Does Your Mama Know About Me?"

According to Rolling Stone, the song was a top five R & B hit. The band went on to release two more singles, and at one point, The Jackson 5 opened for Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers. Taylor was so impressed that he introduced the group to Gordy, and went on to produce several of their early Motown singles. The Vancouvers were fired by Motown when they missed an appointment for applying for green cards to allow them to work in the United States, and the band broke up soon after. Chong "returned to Vancouver with a new idea germinating in [his] head: improvisational theatre."

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