“Bad Weather”

[marv2]

I think that Bad Weather was a good song. Jean Terrell was certainly a soulful singer and Stevie Wonder was quoted as saying he wanted to develop her vocals where he felt she excelled. It was on the cusp of the disco era and you can hear it being a predecessor to the upcoming sound but it also had Jean's riffs and the Stevie Wonder sound which almost made it seem like they were working against each other and that it never really took off into the stratosphere like it should have. It certainly was more appealing to the younger record buying public than I Guess I'll Miss The Man. I don't think Bad Weather would have put them back on top but it surely should have been a top 40 pop hit, doing much better than the #83 or 85 that it did. When you listen to Jean's solo album you can hear the realization of what this song started as her sound. I have read a number of articles that list Bad Weather as an overlooked start to the disco era. That may be true. However, with Jean as lead vocalist the group's sound was more soulful and as the producers explored that I think Motown didn't support them as they used to and the general public was more used to a certain sound from them, the public didn't seem to want the group to evolve. Bad Weather was a good song, it did sometimes seem to stall in places and really didn't have a strong hook to pull you in. But I did like the song very much.

Jim, that is something some don't understand. This was SOUL music, not the Pop type music Motown and the Supremes were producing back in the 60s. If you did not particularly care for Soul music, you would not like this new sound from the Supremes and Stevie, but you cannot say that it was a bad record/song. It was perfectly align with that sound that was popular with Soul music fans in 1973!