Originally Posted by
RanRan79
Ready Steady Go was 1965. By then she had been focused on her craft for years. She was basically a seasoned pro, although the group had only recently started having success. Maybe there's a breakdown and in where we're judging her. I took the original question in the thread to refer to Diana never having joined the group. With or without a group, years of focus on developing her talent should have, and probably would have, paid off. But again I ask, who was signing her as she sang "Tears Of Sorrow"? Diana 1959/1960 wasn't anywhere near the vocalist Diana of the mid 60s.
As far as being better vocalists, I don't usually judge singers in this way. To me you either can sing or you can't. As artists with talents, those talents are different and are what God wanted that particular person to have and really aren't comparable to anyone else. So when I say I wouldn't compare Levi and Gladys to Diana, I don't mean to suggest that they were "better" vocalist, but instead that they had an easier recognizable "we can do something with this" voice. Diana's voice was unconventional. Unconventional never means worse, but it does mean not everyone will get it. Berry had a good ear for unconventional. He saw early on what made Diana's voice special, he just needed the right formula to pair it with. That made him a genius of sorts. I would not describe most record label owners of any time period as "genius".