Quote Originally Posted by RanRan79 View Post
I actually see the wisdom in this Ollie. I'm not sure I really held the same opinion before reading your comment. If you think about the Tempts, after David and Eddie left, Otis [[and Melvin) always hired falsetto tenors. And whenever Dennis was off on his own thing, Otis [[and Melvin) usually had a similar voiced singer take over. [[Ollie Woodson being my favorite. Good grief could that man sing!) I think that might be one reason why the Tempts managed to have successes for many years post the exits of it's two most recognizable lead voices. The similar voiced replacements helped keep the original tone, to some degree or another, to the point where the public was comfortable.

To a certain extent, that's probably why the Jean Supremes were initially successful. Had a Gladys Knight type singer taken over, it may have been such a jarring change of voice that the public may have abandoned ship with the first new single. Mary taking over as lead, or in an alternate reality, Flo coming back to assume the position, would have probably maintained some interest because they were originals, but neither of them had similar voices to Diana. Jean kept the tone of the brand. Scherrie did not. I enjoy Scherrie. I love her voice. And of course hindsight is always 20/20. But I do believe that it's possible that if Lynda had stayed when Jean left, and taken over the lead singer position, or another singer with that high toned soprano had been hired instead of Scherrie, that the public may have been more interested.

Of course my main opinion is that without top notch songs to compete with the hits of the day, it didn't matter who was singing lead in the Supremes.
The Temptations make for an an excellent comparison Ran. I believe that kind of continuity was vital if the Supremes were to extend their run of hits. Obviously their style of music would evolve over time, but they would still be maintaining the overall sound the Supremes were, and probably always will be associated with.