Quote Originally Posted by Ollie9 View Post
Other then Jean, there is another singer who possessed the perfect voice to lead the Supremes and that is British singer Polly Brown. She sounds very similar to Jean, if a little more rounded. She has recorded a couple of Diana Classics over the years.
Yes she is white, but i don’t see why that had to be a problem.
In a perfect world it would not have been a problem. In 1970 it was very much so. Gordy would have been off his rocker to replace his Black star with a White girl. The Black fans would have abandoned ship off the jump. And for all the talk about the Supremes "selling out" or not being soulful enough, blah, blah, blah, their Black fan base was still something Gordy took into consideration, especially considering how faithful Black radio was to the Supremes, even when pop radio was disinterested in a particular single. Plus, in the age of Black Power and Black Is Beautiful, what kind of message would it have sent to replace a Black woman with a White one in what the world had come to recognize as a Black group? The question would inevitably been asked, "Was there not a Black woman good enough to replace Diana Ross?". And if you think Mary and Cindy tripped over the Syreeta issue, I suspect they would have lost their minds with this move, no matter how forward thinking either of them were.

If you want a radical move, [[and this question is for everyone) how about this as a suggestion: What if Diana's replacement were a man? How would that have gone over in the pre-Tony Orlando and Dawn era? Might the gimmick have worked? And just for shits and giggles, what guy might have made a good fit in such a new revamped Supremes?