Originally Posted by
milven
Why would Mary have to wait for Diana to leave Motown before Mary was properly promoted? Eddie and David [[and later Dennis) came from the same group and were able to compete as soloists and have major hits. Plus, they were also competing with their former group.
I saw Mary's debut at New York, New York. It was okay, but she already concentrated too much on The Supremes. She did a cute part where she said she was a member of the group and then did a medley of ooooos and ahhhhhhhs. It was cute and funny. She should have left it at that and then said, "That was then, and this is now" and then start singing songs better suited for her like the wonderful ballads that she is capable of doing.
But she didn't.
And somewhere during that time frame, she was even doing previously committed dates for her Supremes Inc Comapany and performing as a Supreme even though that group already had a farewell performance.
Further confusing is that when her solo career was not launched properly or perhaps had trouble getting booking, she used the Supremes name in various billings. [[Mary Wilson and the Supremes, THE SUPREMES' mary wilson. mary wilson of THE SUPREMES, etc) She used the name and the Supremes catalogue as a crutch and basically was performing a Supremes show, not a solo show. That made it difficult for a solo career to emerge. Diana got criticized for almost dismissing her Supremes career in her concerts by singing a brief medley. But she did move her solo career forward.
Mary has all the qualities now that she needed then to have a solo career. She has the voice, ambition, aggressivenes,and condidence in herself. If she had those qualities then, perhaps the outcome would have been different.
But the majority of Mary's career has been touring as a "Supreme" and now the appearances are sometimes sharing the billing with the remnants of other Motown groups.
Diana, too,now is devoting a large part of her concert to Supremes songs.
But as I said in an earlier post, why see these former Supremes sing Supremes songs when the original voice of the group is still out there doing it?
I am a fan of Mary and have seen her in concert and in plays. But I will avoid any Supremes Mary show.
Mary is credited with keeping the Supreme Legacy alive. Maybe it's the reverse.
Bookmarks