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  1. #1
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    Flo Fans...Your Thoughts On Her POTENTIAL Solo Career

    So the conversation about HDH continuing to work with the Supremes got me to thinking. As I mentioned in the other thread, I would've thought some of the exiting Motowners would've been attracted to HDH's Hot Wax, and vice versa. I've started wondering over the last few years what Flo might have done over there. Of course in 1968/early 69 she was tied to ABC. And her post ABC life has been well documented and discussed ad nauseam. For this thread I'm not interested in what actually happened, only in what would you- as a Florence Ballard fan- might have liked to have heard from her had she not gotten caught up in her fight against Motown and instead focused on furthering her career.

    I think Florence going to Stax might have made a very good fit. I always hear her whenever I hear Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff".

    Hot Wax might also have worked. Obviously reuniting HDH and Florence could've been a possible marketing angle. Maybe Flo doing some of the stuff Laura Lee did over there would have made for good music.

    The mid 70s maybe Flo doing the type of stuff Gladys Knight and the Pips were doing, like "Best Thing That Ever Happened" and that type of sound.

    Believe it or not, but I think Flo's voice would've been a great fit for the disco era. I could hear her doing some of First Choice's stuff or maybe doing stuff like Ruby Andrews' Genuine Ruby album. Harvey Fuqua produced Flo's Christmas leads, so maybe hooking them up during the disco era when Harvey was doing stuff for Sylvester might have done good.

  2. #2
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    I could hear Flo doing material like Ecstasy, Passion, & Pain's GOOD THINGS DON'T LAST FOREVER.
    Last edited by reese; 03-14-2019 at 12:57 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by RanRan79 View Post
    I've started wondering over the last few years what Flo might have done over there. Of course in 1968/early 69 she was tied to ABC. And her post ABC life has been well documented and discussed ad nauseam. For this thread I'm not interested in what actually happened, only in what would you- as a Florence Ballard fan- might have liked to have heard from her had she not gotten caught up in her fight against Motown and instead focused on furthering her career.

    I think Florence going to Stax might have made a very good fit. I always hear her whenever I hear Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff".

    Hot Wax might also have worked. Obviously reuniting HDH and Florence could've been a possible marketing angle. Maybe Flo doing some of the stuff Laura Lee did over there would have made for good music.

    The mid 70s maybe Flo doing the type of stuff Gladys Knight and the Pips were doing, like "Best Thing That Ever Happened" and that type of sound.

    Believe it or not, but I think Flo's voice would've been a great fit for the disco era. I could hear her doing some of First Choice's stuff or maybe doing stuff like Ruby Andrews' Genuine Ruby album. Harvey Fuqua produced Flo's Christmas leads, so maybe hooking them up during the disco era when Harvey was doing stuff for Sylvester might have done good.
    I agree; Florence Ballard would've been a great fit for any of those songs that you mentioned in you post. I also feel that Flo would've been given more of a chance to have hit records at one of the Soul Music labels of that era such as Invictus/Hot Wax, Stax, etc.

  4. #4
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    Great ideas Ran!!!! I hadn't thought about any of them but I can see all of them working nicely. Good work.

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    I always thought Flo would have done well with Elvis Presley's "Burning Love". It seems like her voice got deeper as the years went by so I don't know if she'd still he hitting those high notes she could do in 1964.

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    Although I loved it, MR BIG STUFF for Jean Knight , like CLEAN UP WOMAN for Betty Wright , was basically a novelty song that made Jean a one hit wonder. That doesn't seem like a good end result for Flo. Stax would soon crumble.

    Disco? New female singers were lined up a dime a dozen , and even amongst the hardest working ones that worked the club circuits tirelessly [[ which I can't see Flo doing) , breaking through mainstream , remained elusive. There is a long list of disco divas who remained exactly that , there were very few Gloria Gaynors and Donna Summers that became household names.
    With so much available fresh talent , I don't think there were many disco producers seeking to risk finding success from resurrecting a troubled sixties back-up singer. I'm glad it didn't go that way , I don't see it as a fit at all for her and chances are good she'd have been stuck with sub standard product.
    With the fickle youthfulness of the disco scene, Diana Ross should thank her lucky stars every day that she got dragged against her will into it at her age. [[ Let's face it, she was not the new kid on the block, and hardly a party-er) . Her name , fame, and established gay fandom, and more importantly , the brilliant song productions she was handed, won her acceptance, and carried her career into the eighties and gave her live shows a new level of energy that still energize them to this very day.
    She was lucky though , she had the Motown machine behind her, in terms of the writing , the studios, the promotion , and she had a firm foundation to work from.
    I don't know where Flo would've found that , disco or otherwise.
    Last edited by Boogiedown; 03-15-2019 at 03:56 PM.

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    I don't know about Flo and HDH. to me they did their best work with more pop-oriented female vocalists. they weren't really heavy r&b guys although they certainly had some luck with Martha. Did they do any tracks with Gladys?

    i completely agree that she was at the wrong label. atlantic might have worked. Stax too or Epic.

    my concern with her voice is her control. on slow songs, she would often struggle a bit to stay on pitch. listen to her Xmas tracks or the slow songs on her ABC work. but on rocking more hard hitting r&b, man, she could smoke - Good News, Popcorn, etc. So clearly something like Roberta Flack would NOT be her forte and same with the Opera Soul of Gladys like If I were your woman or make me the woman you come home to. and probably Barry White stuff too would be too smooth for her.

    but what about Lady Marmelade? mr Big Stuff would have been sensational. Love Train.

    And i'm very curious how she might have done with more broadway work. putting aside some of the mood and persona inconsistencies, i think she could have really done well with the african american score for Mame. Or maybe Evillene in Wiz

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    Atlantic for sure!

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    I think she would have done very well in broadway.

    I also think being on a sitcom would have really suited her well too. It would have been consistent work with a few months off in between and not the rigorous schedule she hated.

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    and i did a typo. i was thinking of the rumor that they were thinking of using her for the black version of Hello Dolly. not Mame

    although that might have worked well too!

    i think she seemed to fit with more sassy material, things with a little attitude. soft and romantic, not to much.

    And of course the old adage of "practice makes perfect" is very appropriate here. had she had more time and opportunities to develop and experiment, she might have adapted well to other genres and had more confidence too

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    Quote Originally Posted by reese View Post
    I could hear Flo doing material like Ecstasy, Passion, & Pain's GOOD THINGS DON'T LAST FOREVER.
    Yes! I could hear that.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Motown Eddie View Post
    I agree; Florence Ballard would've been a great fit for any of those songs that you mentioned in you post. I also feel that Flo would've been given more of a chance to have hit records at one of the Soul Music labels of that era such as Invictus/Hot Wax, Stax, etc.
    Yeah, as have been stated many, many, many times among us fans of her voice, ABC was a bad decision. She seems to have taken the first opportunity [[well second if you count the solo offer from Motown) for a deal instead of shopping around. I understand it and hind sight is 20/20, but it was a bad decision. Of course a million artists have these stories of pairing with the wrong label at one time or another. But it seems she may have done better just about anywhere else.

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    Quote Originally Posted by floyjoy678 View Post
    I always thought Flo would have done well with Elvis Presley's "Burning Love". It seems like her voice got deeper as the years went by so I don't know if she'd still he hitting those high notes she could do in 1964.
    Interesting choice but I think it could've worked!

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    Quote Originally Posted by sup_fan View Post
    I don't know about Flo and HDH. to me they did their best work with more pop-oriented female vocalists. they weren't really heavy r&b guys although they certainly had some luck with Martha. Did they do any tracks with Gladys?

    i completely agree that she was at the wrong label. atlantic might have worked. Stax too or Epic.

    my concern with her voice is her control. on slow songs, she would often struggle a bit to stay on pitch. listen to her Xmas tracks or the slow songs on her ABC work. but on rocking more hard hitting r&b, man, she could smoke - Good News, Popcorn, etc. So clearly something like Roberta Flack would NOT be her forte and same with the Opera Soul of Gladys like If I were your woman or make me the woman you come home to. and probably Barry White stuff too would be too smooth for her.

    but what about Lady Marmelade? mr Big Stuff would have been sensational. Love Train.

    And i'm very curious how she might have done with more broadway work. putting aside some of the mood and persona inconsistencies, i think she could have really done well with the african american score for Mame. Or maybe Evillene in Wiz
    I think "Oh Holy Night" is perfect and her verse on the album version of "Makes No Difference Now" is killer. And "My Heart" is my favorite song of the ABC sessions. I don't think it's necessarily slow songs in general that didn't always work for her, I think it might have been the type. Slow, bluesy, emotional songs I think she could've done very well.

    "Lady Marmalade"? Maybe if it was structured in a southern soul way. "Love Train" is interesting. I can imagine the producer churchifying it and letting her go.

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    Quote Originally Posted by sup_fan View Post

    i think she seemed to fit with more sassy material, things with a little attitude. soft and romantic, not to much.
    Yeah, soft and romantic wasn't her strength.

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