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Q: When I was a teenager, Diana Ross and the Supremes (I think) guest starred on the old "Tarzan" television show with Ron Ely. In that episode, they played nuns and sang a song that included the phrase, "The Lord helps those who help themselves."  I

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

You have a great memory, and have stumbled on a pretty great mystery.

It was indeed Diana Ross and the Supremes, in their late-'60s iteration (founding members Diana Ross and Mary Wilson along with new addition Cindy Birdsong), who guest starred on that 1968 episode of "Tarzan," titled "The Convert."

It was a rare acting role for the group, playing nuns traveling through Africa. The nuns are, of course, amazing singers and frequently break out into song in the course of the episode.

One of those songs is simply titled "The Lord Helps Those Who Help Themselves," but amazingly, this performance on a now-obscure 1960s TV show seems to be the only record of it.

And I don't just mean "record" as in recording -- there doesn't even seem to be mention of the song in hymnals or song databases. And none of the credits that are available for that episode of "Tarzan" mention the music at all. It's almost as if the Supremes just made it up on the spot.

Fortunately, though, the show itself is a record. If you're craving the song, you can find clips of the performance on YouTube.

Indeed, you can find the episode's other big musical performance there as well -- the much better-known "Michael Row the Boat Ashore," which the Supremes perform at the beginning of the episode.

 

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