I think the group may have fared better if Jean had never left. She was the lead singer of the Supremes from 1970-73. And while the group had some misses during that time, they also had some hits. None of the albums released during that time flew off the shelves, but no one was of the opinion that any of them were klunkers. [[JW album might be the exception. I know many of us fans give it an overall thumbs down, more or less because we hold the opinion that it wasn't the right direction for the group as opposed to the album being generally bad. But I'd be interested to know what critics thought of it at the time.) The JW album wasn't a career ender. And I can't imagine that something- if not "Bad Weather", something else- from the proposed Stevie album would've resulted in some group action. If not, with Jean they could have still moved onto the next thing.

There's a high probability that when they returned to Motown, that the Hollands would've come on board as producers for the Jean Supremes as well. I'm sure everyone was hoping that the reunion of the Supremes [[Mary) and HH would recapture at least a bit of the old chemistry. Would Jean have gotten the Scherrie leads? That's debatable. I agree with Marv that the group probably would've done a lot more stuff like the Emotions and other female groups at the time who were not necessarily heavily disco influenced. I like to think that with Jean still in the group, they may have done more stuff like "When Will I See You Again".

As lead singers, Jean and Scherrie bring different sounds to the group. Jean is a perfect fit for r&b/pop. I think if the Supremes had continued to record more of that as opposed to dance music, they would have had an easier time securing another big hit. Scherrie can sing anything, but she really did have a voice that was well suited to the bombastic rhythms of disco. I love that Mary was allowed to step forward and sing more. Her forte being ballads would've really worked with the group focusing more on r&b/pop. Dance wasn't Mary's thing, although there's exceptions to the rule.

Jean and Mary seeing the Supremes all the way through the 70s would have allowed the group to retain it's 70s identity rather than be seen as a revolving door. And the consistency in membership would have made for easier transitions through the changing landscape of popular music.