How can jean ever be in a position of power when she was salaried and not receiving royalties. She came into this knowing where she stood. Wasn’t much for her to do in the situation. As for Mary and Cindy ‘s contributions, out of all of the 70’s released material at that time, M and C didn’t sing in 5 tracks and as far as the unreleased material, we have either Jean adding her voice to someone else’s track or they were unfinished tracks. so we don’t know if M and C were gonna add vocals.
Quote Originally Posted by sup_fan View Post
i think the assessment of MJC being 33/33/33 isn't accurate. part of what i've heard over the years is that Mary definitely was working to position herself as the group leader during the 70s. However, jean was doing nearly all of the leads in the studio. M and C were still very often not on the records and so that's even more lopsided. And onstage and on tv, Jean was also doing nearly all of the singing AND she was often singing live. whlie M and C were lip syncing. So Jean's POV could have been that she's doing 80% of the work yet not receiving money that justified that AND she wasn't leading the group's decisions and strategies. also it's Jean's voice that really was a primary part of the sound being successful. I'll be the first to acknowledge the importance of M, and F and C and L, etc but the fact does remain the much of the "secret sauce" to a hit record is the lead singer. seems that was a bit part of the problem between J and M.

as for Mary's abilities to properly manage the group's direction, yeah that certainly something that could be debated. I have my opinions on things but they're based off of general info and speculation. so i don't want to position them as being more than that. but my thoughts are that Mary's best career path for a big-time successful pop music career would be as part of a group like the Supremes. her voice isn't one typically associated as lead on pop tunes. her sound and talent worked beautifully as 1 piece of an ensemble.