Songfacts®:

• In the story of this song, a woman who was born into poverty (or so she says) has been ashamed of her mother ever since she was a kid. After she grows up and leaves home, she lies about her past and her socioeconomic status in order to move up into higher societies and then marries a man who's well off. She ostracizes her mother and even makes up a story about her mother dying while going to Spain. On top of that, after she gives birth to her first child, she doesn't even bother to tell her mother about it. Then, one day, the woman receives a telegram saying that her mother died and she now feels extremely guilty about the damages she caused. Talk about learning a lesson the hard way!
• This is a sequel to the Supremes' 1968 hit "Love Child." It was inspired by the 1959 film Imitation of Life, starring Lana Turner.
• The working titles for this song were "The Eyes of Love" and "I Live in Shame." >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Jerro - New Alexandria, PA, for above 2
• The Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting trio, which wrote most of the hits for The Supremes, had left Motown by this point. "I'm Livin' in Shame" was written by others at the label: Frank Wilson, Henry Cosby, label boss Berry Gordy, R. Dean Taylor and Pam Sawyer.