Originally Posted by
midnightman
One thing that stood out when Maxine Powell talked of the Motown acts she worked with was that it was Diana that was the "hardest-working" one of them all [[and that includes Mary and Flo). Like when I hear People, Flo sounds fine but then when Diana sings her little part, you can kinda see how the vocal training paid off for her. As Marvin Gaye later said, Diana could outdo you in anything [[or something to that effect; I know he praised her talent a lot in the Divided Soul book even as he admitted he was being ridiculous during the D&M sessions).
Flo and Mary had better voices but for some reason it never was utilized right. My guess is that most of the Motown acts who weren't called to do the leads didn't think it was necessary to do so. Maybe that's why F & M probably didn't get many leads because they weren't coached harder vocally. I have to wonder how vocal lessons were with the three of them. They definitely had the vocal harmony parts DOWN PAT and probably had the best three-part vocal harmonies of the girl groups prior to the ascent of the Pointer Sisters and the Emotions [[though I feel the Clark Sisters had the best vocal harmonies of any girl group in history; that said, they were gospel and there were five of them at one point versus just three for the Supremes). The Three Degrees couldn't match them [[IMHO they were Supremes wannabes).
I wonder why Milton Jenkins didn't vocally train them hard enough. Maxine said it best: the Supremes were all diamonds in the rough. So how come Diana learn to get better but the others stayed the way they were? I think if they had matched Diana in how to deliver a song, maybe... JUST MAYBE, Flo and Mary could've took over on lead when Diana left.