Originally Posted by
supremester
I don't know a lot about The Tempts after Eddie left, so this is interesting . I'm not a fan of Otis, but if he's a jerk to work with, don't work with him. I don't enjoy his group and he sweats like a piece of rancid pork just by walking on stage. It's too bad he can't work with Dennis' group - they are faboo.
I think The Supremes' revolving door criticism is worse than that of The Tempts because of the size of the group AND personnel involved. DMC were far more visable to the public at large than The Tempts ever were - plus, there was only one star of the group who sang lead and one star of the bg - Flo - who loomed large over Mary. Cindy was a great replacement as far as a step-in, but, she brought nothing close to the group like Flo did - which elevated Mary's status and created a lot more focus on Miss Ross. Once Diana left, another great step-in joined, but still not a replacement for Diana in terms of starnosity. So, you have the least fave of the original 3 as the only familiar face......then it changed AGAIN. The Tempts still had 80% of the group when Dennis arrived, and he was an amazing vocal fit and looked great. PLUS The Tempts had the added plus of having Norman whitfiekd change his approach to The Tempts singles by featuring at least 4 of them members and funking up the sound at the same time. By comparison, Frank Wilso broke very little new ground with JMC.
Ultimately, Otis was wise not to try to take over the group lead, and kept the sound as close to the original as possible.