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  1. #1
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    Mary Wilson..REALLY.

    Im watching the first part of a 3 part documentary on BBC 4 about Soul music and they had a clip of Mary Wilson talking about The Supremes being more Pop than Soul and she said The Supremes never had a hit on the R&B charts.Jesus Christ they had 30+ hits on the R&B charts how can she not know that.Now if the younger viewers watching a member of one of the BIGGEST selling Groups on the R&B charts hear this they are going to take that as the truth.It really bugs me when things like this happen.

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    Guess I'll have to have a quick look tomorrow on BBC Iplayer. People who will take it as the truth probably don't care or are not really interested. People who are interested will probably go online and look for the charts and find out she was wrong. It is annoying when wrong information comes from performers themselves. You would think she would have said that they were hitting the top of charts on both Billboard and R&B. That's how successful we were!!!

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    Before some of you go on the tirade and post long arguments to prove her wrong think about this, how often do you think she looks at the charts to see how their songs did. Or more than likely they were told how their songs did on the top 100 as opposed to the top r&b charts. It is possible that she didn’t know [[and before anyone says otherwise. I remember an interview with Scherrie saying that she didn’t know that Crumbs off the Table was an r&b too 10 hit). The 60’s Supremes were considered a pop act as the 70’s incarnation were more r&b

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    Whether she knew or not is neither here nor there...its a documentary...a little bit of research wouldnt hurt...if I was in one of the biggest groups of all time and was going on film to talk about Soul music and my contribution to R&B I would be a bit intrigued to find out how my group had actually done on the R&B charts and had a little look..it just makes her look a tad silly.

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    Wonder if someone told her after the interview that they had many hits. Just so she knows that they were good on both charts. Very good!!
    Makes a lot of sense Blackguy69 she probably doesn't know how well all their singles did on the charts. Only some of us, obsessed fans, know lol. Hope someone corrected her. It's only a good thing for her to know.

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    She could have said I dont know how many hits we had on the R&B chart if she didnt know...why say they had none if she didnt know if they had or not...plus I have seen an interview with her where she says their first charting records were hitting higher on the R&B chart than the national chart.

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    Wasn't stoned love #1 in 1970

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    In reality, and having studied Motown's impact on the various charts over the years, from 1964 until Diana left, the group scored more successes on the pop chart. It was with Jean and Scherrie that the group did better on the soul charts than the pop charts.

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    Im not disputing the fact that the 70s Supremes had more success on the Soul chart at all..all the more reason for Mary to know...when she was told the singles are not doing that good on the national chart dont you think someone would have said BUT they are fairing better on the R&B chart...Nothing But Heartaches,Love Is Like An Itching,Forever Came Today,I'm Living In Shame,I'll Try Something New,The Composer,No Matter What Sign and The Weight all faired better on the R&B chart than the national chart and all the others before did just as well on that chart only one or two places lower than the national chart.

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    It’s a great way to spin not being the crossover success they use to be. Did they really have more success on the R&B chart, or were they simply not having the same success on the pop charts?

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    If the girls can get dates wrong on certain songs they recorded, then what makes you think they would know how each song did on various charts. Like it was mentioned earlier, only us obsessed fans know this information. I would not expect Mary or Diana to know how each song charted on every chart,

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    Marys a 76 year old woman and cant be expected to remember everything. Diana couldnt remember what year Reflections was reqcorded when someone ask her at the Wynn last year. She thought is was 1965. Some days I cant remember what I had for breakfast. It happens to everyone. Not a big deal IMO.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Roberta75 View Post
    Marys a 76 year old woman and cant be expected to remember everything. Diana couldnt remember what year Reflections was reqcorded when someone ask her at the Wynn last year. She thought is was 1965. Some days I cant remember what I had for breakfast. It happens to everyone. Not a big deal IMO.
    I agree completely. Why give Mary a hard time? Celebrate that she's still out there and doing her thang. I can't remember half a dozen things from yesterday, let alone 60 years ago!

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    Im not saying she HAS to remember everything...im saying a little research into your own band before going on tv to talk about them wouldnt go a miss.

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    People are all different when it comes to remembering things. Some can't even remember what they had for dinner the previous day. I had a look in her book and noticed in the bit with all the dates of recordings and releases that only the pop chart results were written down.
    Thing is that someone should have corrected her on the programme. BBC is just one of them channels where they should not give people wrong information "cough cough". It's just bad in general, not on Mary part because they could have easily told her and edited the programme or like I said correct her immediately. Misleading information, not this as such, is annoying. People ask me questions about the country where I come from and then I ask them where they got that information from. I tell them it's Bullshit and read the article to find out half of it in incorrect. I've been called "that boy who smokes weed" lol. It get annoying after a while.
    Last edited by TYK1986; 09-05-2020 at 06:09 AM.

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    Hmmmm, I'll need to watch it again....

    I have to agree with Mowsville that having a clear, accurate recall of the facts is always the ideal for any of us who takes a keen interest in our career, whatever it may be.

    Otherwise, those who are interested in us and our life will think it strange, and feel disappointed, if they think we are being perhaps a little dismissive of the facts.

    On the other hand, I think the line of conversation that led to Mary's remark about The Supremes being pop, not R&B, was about Number One hits?

    I think Mary would have wished The Supremes to be more R&B [[that is, more soulful), at least at times, but understands 'pop' was what sold them to the world...and this was the point being made in the programme, so she seemed to attempt to confirm it in a 'soundbite' - but which was rather inaccurate in actual facts.

    I'm also thinking that it could have been an off the cuff remark, without any added comments [[for example, Mary could have said 'we had no R&B big hits as big as our pop ones').

    Yes, it's always possible that some of her remarks were edited?

    Finally, isn't it true that some of The Supremes hits [[Number One, or otherwise) did not feature on R&B charts because none were published for a couple of years?

    A good programme, I thought - thought Mary was great, also great to see Martha in the 'Snakepit', and to hear Susaye recall her days as a Raelet[[te).
    Last edited by westgrandboulevard; 09-05-2020 at 06:30 AM.

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    All of the girls number ones were not number one r&b hits. Only 5 were.

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    And if we’re keeping it real, in all of the interviews she has done, this topic was never asked of her

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    Quote Originally Posted by mowsville View Post
    Im not disputing the fact that the 70s Supremes had more success on the Soul chart at all..all the more reason for Mary to know...when she was told the singles are not doing that good on the national chart dont you think someone would have said BUT they are fairing better on the R&B chart...Nothing But Heartaches,Love Is Like An Itching,Forever Came Today,I'm Living In Shame,I'll Try Something New,The Composer,No Matter What Sign and The Weight all faired better on the R&B chart than the national chart and all the others before did just as well on that chart only one or two places lower than the national chart.
    Having success on the R&B chart is not the same as having success on the pop chart. A top ten single on the R&B chart back then might have amounted to 50K sales. That same record being top ten pop could have achieved 500K in sales. The R&B chart was just icing on the cake back then. Only medium to large cities had R&B stations, you had entire geographic areas that didn't have R&B stations until the 70s.

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    Can someone give Mary the pop and R&B charts then she can have a look. I think having 5 number 1's and Stoned love so 6, on the R&B chart, is still a massive achievement despite differences in sales for pop and R&B charts.

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    The Supremes are getting old, they're not gonna remember everything. Cut Mary some slack lol

    Plus, she might be referring to when the Supremes' songs hit the top of the pop charts but never peaked at the top of the R&B charts. Only 5 during the DRATS era and only 1 after DR left. Whereas, everyone knows the group scored 12 number one songs on the POP charts.

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    absolutely pointless.

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    I'm with Mows on this. That's a pretty big statement to make. The Supremes were the most successful female group, not just on the Hot 100, but on the R&B chart as well, on Billboard, Cashbox, and Record World. They racked up 8 #1s [[Billboard did not publish an R&B chart from late 1964 to right after the new year of 1965, however "Where Did Our Love Go" and "Baby Love" were both #1 on CB's and RW's R&B charts); 17 non #1 top 10s, including 6 #2's.

    With limited research I was able to ascertain that "Stop In the Name Of Love" was kept out of the #1 spot for at least one week by "Shotgun" and then another week by Solomon Burke's "Got To Get You Off My Mind"; "I Hear A Symphony" was kept out of the top spot for at least two weeks by James Brown's "I Feel Good"; and "Love Child" was kept out of the top spot for at least three weeks by "Who's Making Love", and when "Who's" finally dropped from 1 to 2 because Marvin's "Grapevin" hit #1, "Love Child" fell to #6, behind the aforementioned songs as well as "For Once In My Life", "Bring It On Home To Me" [[Eddie Floyd), and "Cloud Nine". That's serious competition.

    It's true that during the 70s the Supremes were consistently better on the R&B chart than Hot 100, but during the 60s it was not a rarity either. "Let Me Go the Right Way", "Lovelight", "Run, Run, Run", "Nothing But Heartaches", "Itchin", "Forever Came Today", "I'm Living In Shame", "I'll Try Something New", "The Composer", and "No Matter What Sign You Are" all had better R&B placements than they did on the Hot 100.

    In comparison, Martha and the Vandellas had 2 #1s and 8 top 10s; Marvelettes 1 #1 and 10 top 10s; Shirelles zero #1s and 7 top 10s; the Emotions 1 #1 and 4 top 10s; Pointer Sisters 1 #1 and 5 top 10s; TLC 3 #1s and 6 top 10s; and Destiny's Child 4#1s and 7 top 10s. The Supremes dusted everybody. And we won't even get on albums.

    Remember, the Hot 100, nicknamed the "pop chart", pop standing for "popular", is a ranking of songs across a broad spectrum of radio and sales. The fact that the Supremes managed 12 #1s against so much vast competition coming from so many directions is incredible. On the R&B chart the competition was less vast because the genre was a bit "specific". That the Supremes did the damage they did even on the R&B chart amid accusations they were somehow "less soulful" [[*eye roll*) in some R&B circles, is still incredible.

    That Mary Wilson had no idea her songs ever placed on the R&B chart is laughable IMO. Sometimes I think she just says shit just to see what'll happen. I am no Charlemagne from the Breakfast Club fan, but for this one time I'm going to borrow from him and give Mary Wilson "Donkey Of the Day" for this bullshit.

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    I get what you’re saying but in reality thing that we expect them to know aren’t always what it is. How often do you think she gets asked this question. As far as I know this is the first. I bet if you asked Jean or Diana or Scherrie you might get a similar answer that Mary gave. Only us fans know the answer seeing we study it and regularly quote parts of it. Most of the time if she’s asked she will mention the number ones but d sad she very rarely talk about chart positions on the pop charts so why would I expect her to know how the songs did on the r&b charts. Do we also expect her to know how their songs did on the adult contemporary charts or the Dance charts? I wish she did know but let’s get real how many artists really know how their songs charted on every category?
    Quote Originally Posted by RanRan79 View Post
    I'm with Mows on this. That's a pretty big statement to make. The Supremes were the most successful female group, not just on the Hot 100, but on the R&B chart as well, on Billboard, Cashbox, and Record World. They racked up 8 #1s [[Billboard did not publish an R&B chart from late 1964 to right after the new year of 1965, however "Where Did Our Love Go" and "Baby Love" were both #1 on CB's and RW's R&B charts); 17 non #1 top 10s, including 6 #2's.

    With limited research I was able to ascertain that "Stop In the Name Of Love" was kept out of the #1 spot for at least one week by "Shotgun" and then another week by Solomon Burke's "Got To Get You Off My Mind"; "I Hear A Symphony" was kept out of the top spot for at least two weeks by James Brown's "I Feel Good"; and "Love Child" was kept out of the top spot for at least three weeks by "Who's Making Love", and when "Who's" finally dropped from 1 to 2 because Marvin's "Grapevin" hit #1, "Love Child" fell to #6, behind the aforementioned songs as well as "For Once In My Life", "Bring It On Home To Me" [[Eddie Floyd), and "Cloud Nine". That's serious competition.

    It's true that during the 70s the Supremes were consistently better on the R&B chart than Hot 100, but during the 60s it was not a rarity either. "Let Me Go the Right Way", "Lovelight", "Run, Run, Run", "Nothing But Heartaches", "Itchin", "Forever Came Today", "I'm Living In Shame", "I'll Try Something New", "The Composer", and "No Matter What Sign You Are" all had better R&B placements than they did on the Hot 100.

    In comparison, Martha and the Vandellas had 2 #1s and 8 top 10s; Marvelettes 1 #1 and 10 top 10s; Shirelles zero #1s and 7 top 10s; the Emotions 1 #1 and 4 top 10s; Pointer Sisters 1 #1 and 5 top 10s; TLC 3 #1s and 6 top 10s; and Destiny's Child 4#1s and 7 top 10s. The Supremes dusted everybody. And we won't even get on albums.

    Remember, the Hot 100, nicknamed the "pop chart", pop standing for "popular", is a ranking of songs across a broad spectrum of radio and sales. The fact that the Supremes managed 12 #1s against so much vast competition coming from so many directions is incredible. On the R&B chart the competition was less vast because the genre was a bit "specific". That the Supremes did the damage they did even on the R&B chart amid accusations they were somehow "less soulful" [[*eye roll*) in some R&B circles, is still incredible.

    That Mary Wilson had no idea her songs ever placed on the R&B chart is laughable IMO. Sometimes I think she just says shit just to see what'll happen. I am no Charlemagne from the Breakfast Club fan, but for this one time I'm going to borrow from him and give Mary Wilson "Donkey Of the Day" for this bullshit.

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    I have to agree with blackguy... it's not likely many folks keep up with chart information like that. I'm sure the Supremes didn't think about their accomplishments until the dust finally settled. They worked all the time so it wasn't like they could enjoy it. They didn't think much of it. But if someone told Mary or Diana "did you know how many number ones and top tens y'all had?" And mentioned them? They would both have their eyes all out like "YOU'RE KIDDING?!" LOL I get what y'all saying, Mows and Ran, but I don't think it was that simple.

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    I'm with both BG and Midnight on there's no way Mary, or any of them, were keeping up with every move on the charts. They didn't even know they had been nominated for a Grammy! So I definitely get where y'all are coming from on that. But there's a big difference between saying "I don't know what position such and such song hit on the R&B chart" and "We never had a song on the R&B chart". That's a million mile difference. I cannot be convinced that Mary never knew that her songs were hits on the R&B chart. But to clarify, no, I don't believe any of them were reading Billboard and keeping up with chart stats on any given song.

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    Funny how something seemingly insignificant is such drama. Over the years ALL of the Supremes have made faux pas in interviews.

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    Quote Originally Posted by marybrewster View Post
    Funny how something seemingly insignificant is such drama. Over the years ALL of the Supremes have made faux pas in interviews.
    I so totally agree. I have read this thread with a grain of salt. They are entertainers, not historians and all of them have made errors in interviews. I am sure in the back of Mary's mind was how successful they were in the pop arena and were not considered as R & B as other groups. REALLY.

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    like I said a couple of times in this thread if your going on tv to do a programme about Soul music and your importance and input into that paticular genre of music then it wouldnt hurt to do a little bit of RESEARCH and find out how you fared in this particular genre rather than go on tv and kind of dismiss your own group ever having any success on the Soul/R&B chart...its like Dolly Parton being asked to do a programme about Country and Western and then saying shes never had a hit on the Country chart...im sure she wouldnt want to make herself look that stupid...all it takes is a quick flick through a book or ask someone who would know how well you did on the R&B chart to just give yourself a bit of credibility that you know how successful your group was on a chart that to me would be more significant than the Pop chart...plus im sure Mary would love to know that The Supremes were the biggest selling female group on the R&B chart since she always wanted more R&B songs to sing.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mowsville View Post
    like I said a couple of times in this thread if your going on tv to do a programme about Soul music and your importance and input into that paticular genre of music then it wouldnt hurt to do a little bit of RESEARCH and find out how you fared in this particular genre rather than go on tv and kind of dismiss your own group ever having any success on the Soul/R&B chart...its like Dolly Parton being asked to do a programme about Country and Western and then saying shes never had a hit on the Country chart...im sure she wouldnt want to make herself look that stupid...all it takes is a quick flick through a book or ask someone who would know how well you did on the R&B chart to just give yourself a bit of credibility that you know how successful your group was on a chart that to me would be more significant than the Pop chart...plus im sure Mary would love to know that The Supremes were the biggest selling female group on the R&B chart since she always wanted more R&B songs to sing.
    I agree with you 💯 percent. It wasn’t like she was asked on some random interview. She knew the show was about Soul Music.

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    Maybe over the years Mary has heard so many people say that the Supremes were the least soulful of the Motown groups that she's taken it on board, almost been brainwashed to believe that that was the case. If this is so, it would only take a small step for her to develop a false memory and make the assumption that the Supremes had underperformed on the R&B charts.

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    Quote Originally Posted by marybrewster View Post
    Funny how something seemingly insignificant is such drama. Over the years ALL of the Supremes have made faux pas in interviews.
    What's insignificant to you cannot necessarily be applied to me. I find Mary's statement to be a huge error, one I did not expect her to make. I criticized her and certainly don't see that criticism as "drama". I guess the relative calm around here has caused some of y'all to forget what real drama in this forum looks like. This aint it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mowsville View Post
    its like Dolly Parton being asked to do a programme about Country and Western and then saying shes never had a hit on the Country chart
    Boom! Or Dolly participating in a documentary about pop music and saying she's never charted on that chart. Everyone is allowed mistakes and screw ups. A couple months ago I mentioned in a thread about Diana's memory never having been the best, evidenced by her claim on the Farewell album that "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone" was from 1965. You would expect someone so young to know that the song was from 1967. So you definitely have to give them some wiggle room now that they're elderly. [[Feels so weird to refer to the Supremes as "elderly".) But elderly doesn't mean free to just say stupid shit, and what Mary said was stupid. What's next? HDH never wrote a song for them? They never sang with the Temptations or the Four Tops? They were never on Ed Sullivan? And if so, do we let that go, or is that the point that we can officially start "drama"?

    Anyway, while Mary get's the first criticism, the final critique has to be whoever was behind the documentary, because when Mary makes that kind of idiotic claim, it's up to the documentarians to make certain that the error is corrected somehow immediately after she says it. Either cut out the obvious erroneous part of her statement, or have the narration or text make it known that the Supremes were indeed the most successful female group on the R&B chart. How can that type of claim go uncorrected?

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    The BBC didn't have a soul chart so when the girls were following their success in the UK it would have been concerning the UK pop chart , so maybe that's why Mary's wondering what the heck the BBC interviewer is even talking about.......[[ "R&B chart ? we were on the pop chart")

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    Totally agree Ran...the makers of the documentary should have known their stuff too.

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    Mary talks off the top of her head, she is so used to just saying anything that reality and veracity are not great concerns to her. At one time she knew the Supremes sold a lot of R&B records because it was in her books - Maybe she forgot, personally I think she just doesn’t give a shit and she just says stuff. I can’t tell you the number of contradictory phrases I’ve heard her utter over the years. Sometimes she contradicts herself even in the same interview, but I think she gives the best interviews of anybody at Motown

    I don’t believe it is the job of the documentary makers to check the truthfulness of what interviewees will say, at least I’ve never seen that done before. Of all the things that Mary has said over the years that are not true in interviews, I’m struck dumb that this would be something that would bring the topic to light.

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    Only the second book ever mentioned r&b charts and even that was just a passing comment

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    Quote Originally Posted by TheMotownManiac View Post

    I don’t believe it is the job of the documentary makers to check the truthfulness of what interviewees will say, at least I’ve never seen that done before. Of all the things that Mary has said over the years that are not true in interviews, I’m struck dumb that this would be something that would bring the topic to light.
    I disagree. If one is doing a doc on soul music, you expect that the subject first be researched heavily. One cannot research soul music without running across the impact of Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Motown, Stax, and yes, even the Supremes, among many others. There's a reason why the Supremes were represented in this doc in the first place. These names actually have history making positions within the genre. So either the doc makers didn't do any research and just decided to interview a bunch of Black artists, or they knew Mary didn't know what she was talking about and chose to ignore it.

    Any good documentarian wants a doc with factual information. No facts and it's just a mockumentary.

    True, Mary has said some crazy stuff over the years, and she's been called out for it multiple times in this forum. This is only the latest thing to wag our fingers at. Personally I found the statement she made to be disrespectful, intentional or not. But she's Mary Wilson, co founder of the Supremes. She'll be forgiven this and we'll all move on, as usual.

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    Quote Originally Posted by TheMotownManiac View Post
    Mary talks off the top of her head, she is so used to just saying anything that reality and veracity are not great concerns to her... I think she just doesn’t give a shit and she just says stuff. ... Sometimes she contradicts herself even in the same interview....
    Your description of Mary makes her sound like she has the current qualifications to be President

    By being so accessible for interviews, Mary has kind of been the unofficial spokesperson for Motown and especially the Supremes. As such, maybe she should be a little more prepared for interviews. But look on the bright side. At least she is cutting down a little on the Princess Margaret and Ave Maria bits.

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    Quote Originally Posted by RanRan79 View Post
    I disagree. If one is doing a doc on soul music, you expect that the subject first be researched heavily. One cannot research soul music without running across the impact of Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Motown, Stax, and yes, even the Supremes, among many others. There's a reason why the Supremes were represented in this doc in the first place. These names actually have history making positions within the genre. So either the doc makers didn't do any research and just decided to interview a bunch of Black artists, or they knew Mary didn't know what she was talking about and chose to ignore it.

    Any good documentarian wants a doc with factual information. No facts and it's just a mockumentary.

    True, Mary has said some crazy stuff over the years, and she's been called out for it multiple times in this forum. This is only the latest thing to wag our fingers at. Personally I found the statement she made to be disrespectful, intentional or not. But she's Mary Wilson, co founder of the Supremes. She'll be forgiven this and we'll all move on, as usual.
    I agree with you. In a better world, it would be great to have informative interviews but there’s so little of that anymore. Plus, I know better than to expect anything other than spin from LAMare - so it just doesn’t bother me. She just wants attention and doesn’t really care what the content is… Unless she’s plugging some thing.

    but she is beautiful, engaging, funny as hell, the perfect ambassador and I think her interviews that may not be loaded down with truths, still make a better read than hearing about diana ross his grandchildren, as wonderful as they may be,… Yet again.

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    Quote Originally Posted by milven View Post
    Your description of Mary makes her sound like she has the current qualifications to be President

    By being so accessible for interviews, Mary has kind of been the unofficial spokesperson for Motown and especially the Supremes. As such, maybe she should be a little more prepared for interviews. But look on the bright side. At least she is cutting down a little on the Princess Margaret and Ave Maria bits.
    I would vote for Mary to be the president of RTL and the United States before I would vote for Trump!

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    Quote Originally Posted by TheMotownManiac View Post
    I would vote for Mary to be the president of RTL and the United States before I would vote for Trump!
    Amen to that.

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    I went to my mothers today and she had recorded the Soul programme which she watched last night before the second one...we eventually got round to talking about it and the first thing my mother said to me was that she didnt realize that The Supremes were so unpopular with the R&B/black/soul folks...my mum was a teenager in the 60s and had lots of black friends who were absolute nuts about The Supremes so I had to explain to her that what Mary had said was actually not true...then came the question well why would she go on tv and disrespect her culture like that...and that is my whole point about this thread ....its not just about chart statistics its about a lot more than that when you look at it and thats why a silly remark like this can do a lot of damage to The Supremes legacy...remembering what year a song came out or what colour your dress was on a particular show is NOT comparable to this at all.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mowsville View Post
    like I said a couple of times in this thread if your going on tv to do a programme about Soul music and your importance and input into that paticular genre of music then it wouldnt hurt to do a little bit of RESEARCH and find out how you fared in this particular genre rather than go on tv and kind of dismiss your own group ever having any success on the Soul/R&B chart...its like Dolly Parton being asked to do a programme about Country and Western and then saying shes never had a hit on the Country chart...im sure she wouldnt want to make herself look that stupid...all it takes is a quick flick through a book or ask someone who would know how well you did on the R&B chart to just give yourself a bit of credibility that you know how successful your group was on a chart that to me would be more significant than the Pop chart...plus im sure Mary would love to know that The Supremes were the biggest selling female group on the R&B chart since she always wanted more R&B songs to sing.
    Like when Diana went on Oprah and didn't know when Lynda and Scherrie joined the Supremes? Like that kind of research?

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    Quote Originally Posted by RanRan79 View Post
    What's insignificant to you cannot necessarily be applied to me. I find Mary's statement to be a huge error, one I did not expect her to make. I criticized her and certainly don't see that criticism as "drama". I guess the relative calm around here has caused some of y'all to forget what real drama in this forum looks like. This aint it.
    A huge error. I get it. But how will you sleep tonight? Will you need therapy? Hopefully you'll someday be able to move past this.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mowsville View Post
    I went to my mothers today and she had recorded the Soul programme which she watched last night before the second one...we eventually got round to talking about it and the first thing my mother said to me was that she didnt realize that The Supremes were so unpopular with the R&B/black/soul folks...my mum was a teenager in the 60s and had lots of black friends who were absolute nuts about The Supremes so I had to explain to her that what Mary had said was actually not true...then came the question well why would she go on tv and disrespect her culture like that...and that is my whole point about this thread ....its not just about chart statistics its about a lot more than that when you look at it and thats why a silly remark like this can do a lot of damage to The Supremes legacy...remembering what year a song came out or what colour your dress was on a particular show is NOT comparable to this at all.
    Disrespect her culture? Tell me you're kidding.

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    Quote Originally Posted by TheMotownManiac View Post
    I would vote for Mary to be the president of RTL and the United States before I would vote for Trump!
    Now here's a comment that makes some sense!

    #MaryForRTLPrez2020

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    Quote Originally Posted by marybrewster View Post
    Like when Diana went on Oprah and didn't know when Lynda and Scherrie joined the Supremes? Like that kind of research?
    Diana not knowing exactly when two women joined her former group long after she left is one thing. Mary not knowing that her records were huge hits on the r&b charts is another.

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    Quote Originally Posted by marybrewster View Post
    A huge error. I get it. But how will you sleep tonight? Will you need therapy? Hopefully you'll someday be able to move past this.
    Bitch kiss my muthafuckin ass on this Saturday afternoon. You act like somebody accused you of something. Are you personally taking up the banner of Mary Wilson and any criticism that comes her way? If so, it would've been nice if you were up front about that so I could ignore you and focus on the folks who could discuss the issue without the snark. Btw, this is what drama looks like, stupid ass.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mowsville View Post
    I went to my mothers today and she had recorded the Soul programme which she watched last night before the second one...we eventually got round to talking about it and the first thing my mother said to me was that she didnt realize that The Supremes were so unpopular with the R&B/black/soul folks...my mum was a teenager in the 60s and had lots of black friends who were absolute nuts about The Supremes so I had to explain to her that what Mary had said was actually not true...then came the question well why would she go on tv and disrespect her culture like that...and that is my whole point about this thread ....its not just about chart statistics its about a lot more than that when you look at it and thats why a silly remark like this can do a lot of damage to The Supremes legacy...remembering what year a song came out or what colour your dress was on a particular show is NOT comparable to this at all.
    It was disrespectful. The air about it is that if it's the R&B chart, who cares? The R&B chart charted the success of the songs that were most popular in the genre during any given week. The fact that the Supremes managed to top that chart eight times, and come close half a dozen more times, shouldn't be a stat to sneeze at. Dolly Parton never would've gotten away with such a thing. Hell, Mary Wilson would've never gotten away with it if she said it about the pop charts on a pop music documentary. But if it's R&B, oh well. Who cares about that chart, right?

    I saw an interview, or read one, where George Michael was talking about how proud he was when the Faith album hit #1 on the R&B chart. Mary would probably faint if she heard that.

    But truthfully, I don't think Mary meant any disrespect. I think she just runs off at the mouth without thinking. But her comment, and maybe other comments, set the stage for this idea to be perpetuated by people who don't know any better, that the Supremes were unpopular with an audience made up of people who looked like them and were culturally similar. That couldn't be further from the truth. The Supremes as a group had disbanded by the time I was born, but I've learned enough from listening to older relatives who were part of the Boomer generation to know that the Supremes were a force beyond pop audiences. The doc makers allowed this false information to go unchallenged.

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