Valerie on the Tammi vocals question----At last!!!!!!!

[thisoldheart]

i don't quite get the line of reasoning that people have who express worries about tammi terrell's legacy. so she didn't sing on the single "good loving at easy" and most of the "easy" album ... does that ruin her career? no! of course not. who here doesn't think that had she been in good health tammi wouldn't have nailed the "easy" sessions? i have never read a bad word about tammi's voice or spunky stage persona. healthy, she was a little dynamo and one of the few new rising stars at motown. there is no reason to be protective of her. her legacy was made long before the "easy" fiasco [[of which she would have been the only innocent party because of the state of her fragile health.) motown's actions only put the company in a bad light ... but then the company was running as many record companies ran then. the person i have the most questions about are the real intentions of valerie simpson.

i waiver between trying to understand how valerie would write, produce, and sing on the "easy" album. was she was overly interested in furthering her carreer with her biggest act at that time? or did the whole messy situation just roll out of her control? once valerie was in deep it makes sense that she cover her actions with a stories that never actually say, "i never sang under tammi terrell's name".

remember, valerie was a formidable and forceful presence in the studio. she wasn't fooling around at motown, and it isn't surprising with the exit of holland,dozier,&holland and the split of the supremes that she ended up with barry gordy's ticket to hollywood, diana ross! i always read carefully between the lines of everything simpson says about the gaye/terrell "easy" sessions. she always seem too suspiciously coy to me. it is almost as if she knows it is in her best interest to say she didn't do tammi's parts, but yet valerie wants some recognition for what is probably one of the more cohesive albums of its time at motown [[minus, of course, the two songs that are from older tammi sessions and feel out of place on "easy"). valerie does deserve credit for this album. it is good. valerie's voice is great, and a careful reading of what terrell might have done had she been healthy enough to sing. too bad that the album was produced under such difficult, stressful and secretive conditions. the "easy" sessions turned out to be anything but!

everyone was driven at motown, some more than others. simpson certainly was. ms. terrell, in this last year of her life, had more compelling concerns.