Originally Posted by
kenneth
It's too bad this thread looks in danger of going South.
I thought it was a great article. Definitely, the 3-part harmonies added much to the early Supremes' success. There's no doubt about it. This is the group my beloved grandmother used to say about, "I don't know why, but I just love those 3 girls!"
As the years went by, I know that myself and many others I knew bemoaned the more antiseptic sound of the records and the backgrounds Of course, we had no idea who the Andantes were; we just wondered why the backgrounds became so "thin". Of course, we attributed it to Gordy's promotion of Diane's celebrity status and to a large degree, I think that was true.
So in my opinion, the Supremes' career with Diane on lead there definitely existed a "before" and an "after." The early days all 3 Supremes were known, loved and sang their you know what off. The later days the background singers were obviously relegated to the, well, background. I think the group suffered from this as they lost a lot of their group identity.
But that was clearly the intention to help Diane springboard to her own solo spot.
"Better" voices is a tricky concept. Certainly, singers can be technically better than others. Florence may have had a stronger voice, though on some performances I find her voice lacks excitement. [["O Holy Night" comes to mind; it's a turgid arrangement and Florence's voice sounds dull and lifeless.) I don't see how Mary could be viewed as having a technically better voice than Diane, but I'm not an expert at judging such things.
But Diane's voice obviously had the quirkiness, the X-factor, the sound that people remembered. I remember one critic wrote once of her "Ross got more mileage out of her sighs and pauses for breath than she did her own vocals at times." She knew how to put over a song, and her voice was obviously the most memorable.
To me, this takes nothing away from the others. As someone else pointed out, it's unlikely the group would have had the success it did without Diane. The "new" Supremes were a different group which added their own strengths with Jean, and then of course later with Scherrie and Susaye.
Clearly the latter day lineups all represented different phases of the girls' career. But I think even the Diane years can be divided into two phases, one extremely strong, and the later one, where the group became secondary and Diane was clearly in the forefront. The material, although tailor made for her, was largely weaker aside from "Love Child." I like "Someday" now but thought it dull and monotonous back then. But clearly Gordy was just searching for a way for Diane to exit the group with a hit song behind her, and certainly "Someday" was perfect for that.
Bookmarks