If HDH had continued with the Supremes

[luke]

I can hear them doing Band of Gold[[Jean) and Gimme just a little more time [[Jean /Levi). Not Want Ads.

[detmotownguy]

I can hear them doing Band of Gold[[Jean) and Gimme just a little more time [[Jean /Levi). Not Want Ads.

Interesting Luke. Wht time frame you thinking? The Holland brothers did great with High Energy.

[blackguy69]

I can hear them do Want Ads. Also can hear Martha and co doing it as well

[luke]

I'm thinking Jean time. Want Ads just isn’t classy enough for The Supremes I’m thinking. I know Scherrie did lead on original Wants Ads before given to Honey Cone.

[gman]

I can hear Martha doing The Day I Found Myself...perhaps Jean doing the excellent Honey Cone track Who's It Gonna Be....I would also pleasantly assume that the HDH acts would also be signed to Motown at the time....I like much of the Invictus/Hot Wax stuff...Freda's Deeper & Deeper, Glass House's If It Aint Love [[Scherrie is the only surviving member) are 2 of my favs.

[lakeside]

I can hear Martha doing The Day I Found Myself...perhaps Jean doing the excellent Honey Cone track Who's It Gonna Be....I would also pleasantly assume that the HDH acts would also be signed to Motown at the time....I like much of the Invictus/Hot Wax stuff...Freda's Deeper & Deeper, Glass House's If It Aint Love [[Scherrie is the only surviving member) are 2 of my favs.

Wow....I would have loved to have heard Jean sing "Who's It Gonna Be". I think Jean
could have put her stamp on that one and give it the 'Jean treatment'.

[gman]

Wow....I would have loved to have heard Jean sing "Who's It Gonna Be". I think Jean
could have put her stamp on that one and give it the 'Jean treatment'.

It would have gone nicely on TOUCH....my fav all over Supremes LP.

[sup_fan]

while i like HDH's work with Honey Cone and Freda Payne, to me it sounds like they were reaching back to their old sound. it had been a while since they'd had major records and so i'm guessing they wanted a hit and cash. they probably weren't in a position to be experimental at the time

had they stayed at motown - what might have come out? the progression from the early Sups songs [[where, baby love), to the growth with Symphony. And then the four tops epitomizing the Motown Sound with I Can't Help Myself. Then the amazing You Keep Me Hanging On and Reach out. Then developing the psychedelic soul with Reflections.

so where would they have gone next with the Sups and Four Tops? would they have been able to maintain their supremecy? or would things have naturally started to wane?

I wonder if they might have also given the Tops a more funky sound, influenced by Sly and all

[gman]

I mentioned it in another thread, but I'll repeat it here....I'd like to have heard what Jean Terrell would do with some Clarence Paul and Norman Whitfield material...Paul would have been a throwback to a simpler, uncomplicated RnB sound, and Norman would have come up with something out of the box...HDH did well launching Invictus and Hot Wax...but it was still very Detroit sounding soul. By '71 Memphis / Southern Soul new artists were starting to get a tremendous amount of chart placements. And the radio friendly Philly stuff would start moving in big time over the next few years...Detroit's very long glory period was fading

[luke]

I can definitely hear Martha and Vs doing Wants Ads and one of my all time fave Day I Lost You..and ..One Monkey... I digress a bit...could Jean have handled Don’t Leave Me This Way the way Thelma did it?

[gman]

I can definitely hear Martha and Vs doing Wants Ads and one of my all time fave Day I Lost You..and ..One Monkey... I digress a bit...could Jean have handled Don’t Leave Me This Way the way Thelma did it?
Although I am not a huge fan of Florence as a lead singer, of the Supremes her voice stylewise would have suited Don't Leave Me This Way best...to get anything near what Thelma did, you need power and volume...definitely Lynda, too...just listen to what she did on John Kydd's version of Up The Ladder [[Yowsah!) ...or possibly Scherrie too. Jean, Mary or Diana wouldn't be able to handle that arrangement....and sweet as honey toned Cindy isn't even a contender.

[RanRan79]

I can hear them doing Band of Gold[[Jean) and Gimme just a little more time [[Jean /Levi). Not Want Ads.

I can hear Jean doing just about anything Honey Cone and Freda Payne were doing.

[RanRan79]

I can hear Martha doing The Day I Found Myself...perhaps Jean doing the excellent Honey Cone track Who's It Gonna Be..

Yes, I can hear Martha doing "The Day I Found Myself". I wonder why HDH didn't snap up exiting Motown artists during the Invictus heyday. Most of the exiting gang would never have a post Motown hit, so once HDH established themselves as being able to create major hits post Motown, I would think a mutual interest between the label and folks like Brenda Holloway, Kim Weston, and eventually the 4 Tops might have been intriguing.

[RanRan79]

Although I am not a huge fan of Florence as a lead singer, of the Supremes her voice stylewise would have suited Don't Leave Me This Way best...to get anything near what Thelma did, you need power and volume...definitely Lynda, too...just listen to what she did on John Kydd's version of Up The Ladder [[Yowsah!) ...or possibly Scherrie too. Jean, Mary or Diana wouldn't be able to handle that arrangement....and sweet as honey toned Cindy isn't even a contender.

"Don't Leave Me This Way" as it is arranged for Thelma, I agree. Flo, Lynda, Scherrie, would've been better suited for it, with a tweak here or there to fit the vocalist. I think both Jean and Diana would've done killer versions of the song also, but it would've had to undergo a bit more tweaking to fit their voices.

[luke]

HDH did sign and release a record on Brenda post Motown. Some Quiet Place I believe it was called.

[RanRan79]

HDH did sign and release a record on Brenda post Motown. Some Quiet Place I believe it was called.

Was that HDH? I have that song somewhere but I don't think I ever knew that the record was theirs. Interesting.

[TomatoTom123]

Brenda definitely did record for HDH, although I think fairly briefly, in the early 70s. I believe she had a single released on their Music Merchant label.

[TomatoTom123]

There we go!
https://www.discogs.com/Brenda-Holloway-Let-Love-Grow/master/514276

[luke]

Thanks Tom. Here it is...https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kOHsBF9Jbgc

[TomatoTom123]

Thanks Luke. That's a great lil song right there. Definitely has the HDH Invictus sound. :)

[sup_fan]

I wonder why HDH didn't snap up exiting Motown artists during the Invictus heyday. Most of the exiting gang would never have a post Motown hit, so once HDH established themselves as being able to create major hits post Motown, I would think a mutual interest between the label and folks like Brenda Holloway, Kim Weston, and eventually the 4 Tops might have been intriguing.

I think the reason HDH didn't snap them up is because they DIDN'T have a hit and so why bother. if Brenda and Kim couldn't really capture success with the force of motown, the funk bros, hdh behind them, what would make them think they could do so for a small startup label?

[144man]

while i like HDH's work with Honey Cone and Freda Payne, to me it sounds like they were reaching back to their old sound. it had been a while since they'd had major records and so i'm guessing they wanted a hit and cash. they probably weren't in a position to be experimental at the time

had they stayed at motown - what might have come out? the progression from the early Sups songs [[where, baby love), to the growth with Symphony. And then the four tops epitomizing the Motown Sound with I Can't Help Myself. Then the amazing You Keep Me Hanging On and Reach out. Then developing the psychedelic soul with Reflections.

so where would they have gone next with the Sups and Four Tops? would they have been able to maintain their supremecy? or would things have naturally started to wane?

I wonder if they might have also given the Tops a more funky sound, influenced by Sly and all

Could it be that they weren't reaching back to their old sound, but were instead releasing songs which they had written a lot earlier, but couldn't put out before for contractual reasons.

[sup_fan]

that very well could be. maybe they'd had these bouncing around a bit. and then from a production and track perspective, seems like they went into their old tried and true hat of their sound Go safe and get some hits and money. then once established they could become more adventurous.

they certainly got more adventurous with some of the later Sup stuff on MS&S. Sweet Dream Machine, Come Into My Life are both rather daring tracks. avant guard

[Boogiedown]

Seems like there was no way out for The Supremes. Their disco stuff toward the end was superb and timely but still it failed them.

I don't think the HDH product of the early seventies would've suited them , not after the lofty sounds of NATHAN JONES , RIVER DEEP....
. Had The Supremes recorded the Honey Cone stuff , instead of The Honey Cone , they maybe[[?) would've had the same level of success with them , but like Honey Cone , the successful run would've been short, and likely on forums like this today , the conclusion would've been that they made a mistake by going "silly", recording songs like WANT ADS and STICK UP, and that's what did them in.

[[ I love Honey Cone , so "silly" is not a criticism of the music itself [[ I bought TAPESTRY upon its release, I was also a teenager at the time though lol), it's just a lighter style that I think suited a fresh face attached to it, not a historical group like The Supremes.)

[sup_fan]

i agree - i don't think the Honey Cone material would have really benefited the sups. Jean was a more powerful singer and the Frank work was perfect for her. I liked the FJ stuff but it's light.

I think they could have evolved to a more r&b and light funk sound and style with MJL. Also thought an r&b version of King's Tapestry would have been very interesting. something mature

[Levi Stubbs Tears]

I always think the HDH stuff for Glass House, Honey Cone, Chairman of the Board and Freda Payne had been written a few years earlier at the end of their Motown run and produced a bit more 'Whitfield-like' for a slightly more updated sound.

I could certainly have seen Martha & The Four Tops doing some of the 'Edythe Wayne' songs, but few would have suited The Supremes [[with or without Diana).