Originally Posted by
CoolKatz
We should perhaps start another thread regarding Florence because this one is about Mary.
IMO I don't think Son of a Preacher Man was that bad, If there were any intentions of having it released they would have did multiple takes until they had a Supremely finished product. These songs were likely given to Mary to appease her at the time, but never any true intentions to include it on any DRATS album.
Regarding Florence I will add that Marvin Gaye, Martha Reeves, Otis Williams among others have also have spoken highly on Florence's vocal skills. Having said that we must keep in mind that everyone has different taste and that everyone does not have to agree on an opinion. Emphasizing the word opinion. One must keep in mind that all will not agree and that's fine. I personally liked some of the songs on Flo's album like "Forever Faithful" and "Love Ain't Love" to name a few, but again overall the production was bad and from what I heard George Kerr was trying to pull a Gordy play and this automatically put things at a negative start. Flo was not about to endure that again. Robert Bateman knew her from early Motown and came in with a different approach, thus getting better results.
Finally keep in mind that no one at Motown came in as professional singers [[with a few exceptions), therefore most skills were learned and cultivated. More for some than others. All one of the original Supremes had raw talent that needed cultivating. Luckily we did get to see their showmanship evolve quite a bit from the 65 Copa to the 67 Copa. But like everything else on this planet it all ends at some point.
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