Originally Posted by
sup_fan
i'm just trying to piece things together from the years of the many interesting stories shared on here by lots of the long-time fans. So i'm not 100% what is conjecture, fact, theory, etc.
but as i understand it...
Motown had 0 interest in the supremes after L and J left. there was never any interest in investing or developing mary as a featured singing within the group, much less doing anything with her as a solo artist. in 70 with the MJC lineup, i think motown was quite happy with the group's success - i don't buy that there were any malicious plots to purposely sink the Supremes. things went along fine for the first year or two but then album sales tanked, the singles repeatedly struggled to even creep into the top 20, public interest began to wane. the FJ album did ok but singles 2 and 3 bombed. motown then agreed to do WAY outside their normal comfort zone and bring in an outside producer to handle the next project - and the JW album bombed too. then Stevie bombed.
So in motown's eyes, the group was done and with 2 members looking to leave, i'd assume Berry and the crew thought - ok good. been a good run but we're all done now.
but then what about mary?
she was right that there's NO way motown would allow MJL to leave and take the name. can't say i blame mary for NOT wanting to leave the label - at least to join Jean elsewhere. after 3+ years of working with Jean, mary knew she was not a team player and trying to break in at a new label with jean would NOT be easy or smooth.
mary had no other options - no solo career options at motown, no other label options with the supremes or with J and L. and no other labels wanted mary as a soloist. so mary was going leave motown with about $100K to her name and nothing else - exactly what happened to flo in 67.
word is that Mary really worked to convince berry to give them another change - i don't know if she begged, or pleaded or blackmailed or laid out powerpoint of key opportunities and a biz plan lol. but supposedly Berry felt some degree of sympathy and gratitude for the years mary devoted to the label. so he helped give the green light to another Sups grouping. plus MSC have been touring still and clearly there was still interest from the die-hard fans. so maybe....
mary wanted to be lead but motown said no way. they begrudgingly seemed to go along with the dual lead idea. it took a while to scherrie released from Invictus and motown prob wasn't really breaking down the door to get her anyway.
as for Cindy, i'd assume when Mary said Cindy would be returning, motown said "really?!?" Was she a strong singer in the group before? she's been out of the industry for 2 or so years now, is she able to get back into it?
finally all 3 are signed and motown assigns them to all sorts of producers to experiment and see.
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