Your Favorite background duo

I know many here feel that the original trio was the best and that Florence and Mary's background vocals could not be beat. While I love them together, I feel that Florence's voice was so loud that it drowned out Mary and did not provide the harmony that later groupings did. When you hear the recorded Where Did Our Love Go where Mary is prominent, you can still hear the harmony with Florence and the same can't be said for later songs and live appearances.
In the DRATS era, Cindy's voice was so soft that Mary was the prominent voice yet she approximated a blend so that you can hear the harmonizing.
In The Jean Years-Cindy and Mary had been working together longer and you hear Cindy's vocals much better than when she first joined.
When Cindy left and Lynda took her place, I found her voice rather loud like Florence's and it reminded me of the originals, even though you could hear Mary more. I just did not care for this group of background, it seemed to lack the warmth and harmony of Mary with Florence and Cindy.
In the Scherrie years-Mary and Cindy sounded great together-they had such great harmony together and with Scherrie when Mary was on lead. I really enjoyed the blend of their 3 voices and think they sounded best of all.
When Susaye joined, they were the best technically. I am not sure how I feel about how Mary & Susaye blended together, it was much like with Lynda yet it did have a much better harmony sound. Mary & Scherrie sounded great together, their voices really complimented each other [[think You're What's Missing in My Life). I can't say I like the Scherrie & Susaye blend behind Mary for her ballads, they sound good together but seem at odds with the sound and pace of the ballads and songs.
What do you think? This is purely from a personal opinion from us all and MUSICALLY what you hear and enjoy.

For me, the background vocals were a big part of the Supremes appeal....I really did think that was Cindy soaring on the intro to Love Child....

I prefer the smoothness and blend of Mary and Cindy over any other combo... Studio and Live.
MSC had the best blend to my ears.

Flo and Mary, hands down. In going through the Supremes 75 tracks the other day for the Sup75 singles thread, for the first time I was really struck by the blend in the backing vocals. I think what made that blend so great is that Scherrie is actually singing with Mary and Cindy, as opposed to it being the two of them. It's a beautiful sound. But if restricting this thread to actual duos, then none of the others come close to Flo and Mary for my particular taste. They oozed personality, and as the duo that sang together the longest [[Flo and Mary in any combination had eight consecutive years together, Cindy and Mary had about six and a half non consecutive years) I think they developed the best chemistry.

I also like Mary and Cindy the most. I like Florence and Mary more during their early up to 1965 stuff. I prefer the Copa for example more than their Roostertail performance. I think it also depends a bit on where the girls were positioned on stage and in the studio and who mixed the volume of their voices. For example the blend of Cindy and Mary on In and Out of Love on the Ed Sullivan sounds fantastic compared to some of other live performances, of that song, where Mary took over and Cindy is hardly audible. Same with Florence and Mary. Florence needed to be more audible on come see about live and less on Where did our love go.
I think it's very difficult to give my opinion about Mary and Lynda because there is just not enough songs with them together. The Jimmy Webb stuff was all mixed with the Blossoms and that leaves us just with Bad Weather, Love Train and a few unreleased songs. I think live Lynda was just too audible compared to Mary and it just didn't blend.

I prefer Mary and Florence. Along with Diana, that vocal blend was magical. I didn’t like the prominence of Mary’s voice with the Mary/Cindy combo.

The National Anthems..both recordings with MSC are superb.

Can it

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Originally Posted by gman

The National Anthems..both recordings with MSC are superb.

Can it

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For the most part Flo and Mary, but have to agree those two NA performances are something special.

Jim - i think your assessment is pretty spot on.

I do want to highlight a few DMF moments though that you might want to consider, regarding their BG blend. One of my fav songs is Back In My Arms. I love how all 3 girls are prominent, the amazing Funk Bros track, the lyrics and story line. The best moment is the end of the 2nd chorus, just before D goes into "How can Mary..." That 3-part harmony on "Satisfiiiiiieeeedd" Mary is just a powerful as Flo and Diana is right in there too. all 3 of them place the vowel in exactly the same way and that's why the sound is just spectacular. plus the "i" sound in the word is a very forward vowel so it's one the projects perfectly.

another little amazing snippet IMO is Put On A Happy Face on the There's a PLace for Us album. the last time they sing "Spread sunshine all over the place" they do it in 3 part as opposed to unison. Like in BIMAA, the harmonies, vowel placement and all on "spread" is just perfect. and it's another forward vowel tone so it just pops right off the track! love it

Also i really agree with Diana's comment on how Mary was sort of the glue between D and F's voices. providing that perfect blend.

in continuing through the BG groupings, we shouldn't omit the period where there were 3 girls - F, M and Barbara. i think that most of us agree the vocals were sweet and quaint but maybe not the strongest lol

And the few times we had D on backing vocals, it sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. on the Meet the Sup tracks like Popcorn, Tears and Baby Don't Go, i'm not overly impressed with Diana's blend with the other girls. But on What Becomes of the Broken Hearted, it's just D and M doing backgrounds and they're lovely. I should also go back and listen to the Can't Take My Eyes Off You track from the Hollywood Palace - there's it's just D and C. would be interesting to examine that pairing more

i do agree with the other posts that M and C provided an excellent backing vocal. their blend was flawless - often times making it a challenge to pick their voices out from one another. This seamless backing provided an excellent foundation for the lead singers like D, S and J, who had more unique voices. both had a bit of nasality and brightness which, when given a lush and gorgeous vocal foundation like M and C, really had the opportunity to shine

When Lynda entered, her tone was IMO more like Jean's. More like that bright, piercing lead voice as opposed to the lush smooth backing voice. I find the Japan live album quite difficult to listen to. the few studio songs where you can hear the trio, they sound good. but live I'm not sure

As for Susaye, i find she and Scherrie really blended well during the live performances. but again, live was a struggle as the 3 voices often didn't blend. in the studio, this is one of the most powerful lineups.

Come See About Me is probably my favorite Supremes #1 and one of the reasons is the vocal contributions by all three Supremes. I love hearing Florence so prominent, just as I love Mary's prominence on Where Did Our Love Go. I love everything about Come See About Me.

I have also loved Back In My Arms Again, too, and always assumed all the vocals were DMF. Since joining SDF, with all the discussions about the Andantes, I'm left in doubt. I guess I've become unsure about the backgrounds. Ever since my first Supremes records, the background vocals were always part of the magic for me. I was so disillusioned to find that the beautiful background harmonies on Any Girl In Love were not Mary & Flo.

Back In My Arms is just DMF. Stop had the A's added but Back is just the girls.

Any Girl in Love is a Kim Weston song. Diana just recorded her vocals over Kim’s track,

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Originally Posted by lucky2012

Come See About Me is probably my favorite Supremes #1 and one of the reasons is the vocal contributions by all three Supremes. I love hearing Florence so prominent, just as I love Mary's prominence on Where Did Our Love Go. I love everything about Come See About Me.

I have also loved Back In My Arms Again, too, and always assumed all the vocals were DMF. Since joining SDF, with all the discussions about the Andantes, I'm left in doubt. I guess I've become unsure about the backgrounds. Ever since my first Supremes records, the background vocals were always part of the magic for me. I was so disillusioned to find that the beautiful background harmonies on Any Girl In Love were not Mary & Flo.

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Originally Posted by sup_fan

Back In My Arms is just DMF. Stop had the A's added but Back is just the girls.

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Thanks, sup_fan. I still and always will love Stop and Any Girl In Love and all those classic Supremes recordings, for the record[[s!).

M and F are definitely still on Stop. It's not a case like In and Out Of Love where they basically smother M and F with the Andantes. Plus M and F made the song iconic by singing and promoting it.

Yeah Any Girl is sort of a shame but it's situation where they took a Kim Weston tune and just wiped the lead and dropped Diana's on top of the existing track, which included the backgrounds. quite a few other times, they did wipe the backgrounds too and added M and F. at least until you get into the later years.

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Originally Posted by sup_fan

... quite a few other times, they did wipe the backgrounds too and added M and F. at least until you get into the later years.

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Didn't know this. Examples?

lol maybe "quite a few" wasn't the best positioning. I was just going through the various recording date notes in the EE booklets and adding in more than just the dates vocals were recorded. added in track recording dates, when strings or horns were added. In some of the notes, it listed "originally assigned to..." and the reassigned to the Sups. might have been more in the 70s than 60s. But there are a few examples with DMF

Whisper You Love Me - this was originally Mary Wells and the Andantes. the track was recorded on 3/2/64. The sups added their vocals [[both lead and background) in early 65

Time Changes Things - HDH recorded the track and then had both the Sups and Vandellas record. but they used each background girls

Johnny Bristol, Merry Clayton [[et al.) on "Someday" is unique, I pay attention to both Diana's lead and the background. also the background vocals on Reach Out, I'll be there are strong and memorable to me.

Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but the background vocals on the Supremes’ “Any Girl In Love” sound somewhat different from those on Kim Weston’s. I swear I hear at least Florence.

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Originally Posted by mowest

Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but the background vocals on the Supremes’ “Any Girl In Love” sound somewhat different from those on Kim Weston’s. I swear I hear at least Florence.

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I've always heard the same. I wouldn't be surprised if Mary and Flo are mixed in there somewhere. Like you said the backgrounds are slightly different. There's something missing there on Kim's version and I bet its Mary and Flo.