Originally Posted by
RanRan79
Seems like the Primettes were a shared lead group. The Supremes for the first few years were a group with an unofficial lead singer who did most of the leads. And of course at certain point they became a group with an official lead singer who sang most but not all of the leads. They were never a group where Flo or Mary could've been considered the lead singer, and until Florence left, they weren't a group where only the official lead singer mattered, as it might have been for some other groups.
I thought the "Enjoy Yourself" issue was very strange. For one, nothing about what has been recalled by others of Florence Ballard suggests that she would ever "shy" away from taking the lead that is offered to her. Couple that with the fact that for Gordy the first Copa engagement was the girls [[and thus his own) highest achievement up to that point. He had those girls rehearse until they were half dead. So everything in that first show would've been planned down to the letter, including the stage patter. I think "Enjoy Yourself" was set up that way, for one reason or another. Perhaps it was to play up the "quiet one" routine, but I think it would've been far more charming to call her the quiet one and then have her sing, which was anything but quiet. In any case, I'm not buying Flo refusing to sing. If she couldn't sing "People" because she was getting over being sick, why would she be doing "Enjoy Yourself"? [[Although I do recognize that one is a more vocally complicated song than the other.)
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