I do not begrudge the fans who want to know who exactly is behind Jean, but I have to be honest, for me, the only backgrounds that really matter is Flo and Mary together. And let me stress that when I say "really matter", I'm referring only to my personal preference and not lumping anyone else in with me, or suggesting that anyone's opinion should be like mine.
My love of the original Supremes is because of the totality of chemistry and vocal beauty that they possessed. When it comes to the original trio [[and even the quartet with Barbara) I'm a completist. I want everything and I want to know everything. So even though whenever it's revealed by reliable sources that Flo and/or Mary are not on a particular song, said information bothers me, I'm still glad to know it.
When the DRATS era comes in, honestly Diana is my main attraction. Mary and Cindy do their jobs beautifully, but I really don't care if they're on a song or not. I still criticize the heavy use of the Andantes during this period because their sound had become so stale and mechanized, losing some of the gorgeousness and personality of their early to mid 60s harmonies. But I rarely care if Mary and Cindy are backing Diana at this point. Same with Jean, except I never care if Mary and Cindy are backing Jean, that's just how much I'm in love with Jean's voice. So I'm never really curious delving into who's who during the Jean years on backup. I will say that I love Mary and Lynda's sound together, but there's so little of their studio work available that it's unnecessary to even question who the singers are. We know its Mary and Lynda, except on JW when it's Mary and Lynda and another girl group who couldn't buy a hit.
But I definitely understand the fascination among some fans.
Bookmarks