Originally Posted by
benross
For me, the end of "The Supremes" came in stages:
First, Jean, Mary and Cindy appeared in unintentionally cheap-looking white dresses [[short in the front, with a tail hanging down in the back) when I saw them in concert in Autumn 1971 and seemed to lack the elegance and polish the group had demonstrated previously. On this occasion, Jean was disciplined and did have stage presence, but it was less compelling than Diana's; Mary's energy and smile still seemed genuine. The studio albums began well, but each was less rewarding than the one before, and much of the material on the Four Tops-duets albums was second-rate. So I lost some interest in the group as time went on.
Second, there was the photo of Lynda on the Smokey-produced album; in the pre-Internet era, I had no notion that Cindy was gone, and I wondered what was going on.
Third, there was the departure of Jean and the addition of Scherrie; the rotating door concept was fine for The Rockettes, where substitutions did not affect the overall appearance or performance level, but the comings and goings were not acceptable in a group that I'd come to think of as individuals over the prior dozen years or so.
Fourth, there was a disastrous appearance on the Merv Griffin[[?) show where the women wore hideous, mismatched green dresses and sang, I think, The Boy From Westchester County and/or some other silly song, and the group seemed less than special. At this time, also, Mary and the others began engaging in frantic dancing, trying to distract us from the dismal quality of the songs they were performing and/or trying to persuade us that the music and the group were still exciting.
Fifth and finally, except for the songs featuring Mary, the last two albums seemed to come from a completely anonymous group, and I did not particularly like t Scherrie or [[especially) Susaye; their voices seemed to grate, and the material itself was nothing like the Motown Sound. It could have come from any group, from any studio, and there was nothing appealing or memorable about any of it. Too, the women looked pathetic, whether they wore incredibly ugly new costumes or altered costumes from the glory days as they tried to pretend that they were the group that had all the hits.