Did anyone mention Chapman as an influence on Feargal Sharkey? Never occurred to me at the time but hard to miss in retrospect.

Wichita – As I opined upthread, I think “Remember Me” was/is a fabulous offering from Diana and a good deal better than Tony’s love child, which he clearly still adores.

A curiously affecting chart, that 1971 one; all songs about or by the dispossessed, whether “Back Street Luv” or “Soldier Blue.” Made me irresistibly think of the current, astonishing top five.

Waldo, I love Remember Me too, but always struggle with the line “remember me as a big balloon.” More likely to remember her as a tiny twiglet.

A similarly unflattering description – yesterday I saw a copy of the original Rave magazine* that featured Peter Frampton, “the face of ’68″, on the cover. Except the actual wording was “the big new face of ’68″.

*in the Beatles To Bowie exhinbition at the NPG which is very good indeed.

Blackburn was a huge fan of la Ross. Mind you, he never stops going on about that anecdote!

- Peter Sarstedt – “Where Do You Go To My Lovely”
- Engelbert Humperdinck – “Release Me”

It’s intriguing that this is the first post I’ve read where rabid fans have jumped on board to defend their hero/heroine. Same thing happened when I wrote a piece elsewhere on Dream Girls (lots of these mentioned Diana’s “God given talent” to make it just a bit creepier).

There’s no doubt Miss Ross has a distinctive, probably unique voice. What Berry Gordy realised was that it could cut through over the radio unlike any other girl’s in his roster. It still does, if you hear it in the background in a cafe, supermarket, wherever.

This doesn’t mean that Flo’s voice is worse; soul snobs would say it’s technically better. It’s feisty and fun, so from what we know about the lady it sounds like her, uh, soul – who knows what she’d have done with You Can’t Hurry Love or Love Child? And people will always defend her because she was dealt with appallingly. Not many people in pop have effectively died of a broken heart. How much more likeable does that make Flo than go-getting Di?

Mary gets the rawest deal. Always, you read that her voice was useful for nothing more than harmonies. Her solo spots on the post-Di Supremes records are the highlights for me, so sensual when she’s cooing “you’re the man” on Floy Joy. She’s right there, right next to you. It does me in.

And then again… neither Flo or Mary could make the cold, still heart of I’m Still Waiting, with its jumble of self-denial and self-loathing (“I’m just a fool”) sound anywhere near as good as Diana. The almost monotone spoken part, as Tom points out, gives the game away – this boy is an excuse for her “don’t try to touch me” walled-up heart. Which possibly makes it the greatest 45 the Shangri La’s never made.

I have been so tired of all of the revisionist history regarding the superiority of Florence Ballard’s voice over Diana Ross’ voice. There is ample evidence with which one can put that hypothesis to test. Florence Ballard’s voice was loud, strong, and unremarkable. Mary Wilson had a bland, non-melodious alto that has no other place except for in the background or singing a simple jazz ballad. No other singer in pop music history has had the distinctiveness of Diana’s voice nor the courage to branch out in so many different musical genres. Diana hit number ones with the 60s pop/soul Motown (12 times), with dramatic ballads with heavy orchestration (3 times) with disco numbers (2 times) and with a soulful/gospel tinged classic (Ain’t No Mountain High Enough). The post-Diana Supremes even with the magnificent voice of Jean Terrell lacked the personality and creativity to ever hit number one again and surprisingly only hit the top ten three times in 7 years after Diana left. With Diana as the lead the Supremes had 12 number ones and 20 top ten hits. The evidence is clear. Diana Ross carried the Supremes. Motown marketed the Supremes with Diana at the helm, but the public bought the records. That fact is almost always conveniently omitted when people allege that Diana received more backing than other Motown artists. Marketing is important, but the quality of the sound is what makes hits.

Diana Ross has sadly been ignored as the pop music icon. In 14 years, she hit number one 18 times. Mariah, Whitney, Madonna, Janet, Barbara, Destiny’s Child, nor the other countless imitators have layed siege to this incredible record even though crossover for Black artists is now the norm and not the exception (as it was in Diana’s heyday).

I’m Still Waiting was a number #1 song in the UK and is a staple of her live performances in Europe. It did not reflect contemporary U.S. stylings but the British fans loved it and made it a classic song. It was released 13 years later and became a top 10 hit. Diana has had 150 international hit singles. Songs that were released here were often not released as singles there and vice versa. Diana Ross has had greater international celebrity than any other superstar and is in a class of her own in terms of longevity. She had a #2 song on the UK pop charts in January 2006 (42 years after her first UK hit).

Whether you hate or love Diana Ross or not (hate itself speaks to the strength of her star as people rarely take time to form negative emotions against inconsequential figures in music), her career in terms of breadth, depth, and achievement has no direct competitors.

As an aside, it is always telling to watch the number of posters on Diana Ross topic sites who speak so virulently against her. I am intrigued by personalities that seek information on artists that they do not appreciate. Are you trying to convince others (or yourself!) that the object of your hatred is unworthy?

Diana Ross’ voice was special and remains special. Ballard’s voice was not special: it was loud and hard. She was a hard sorprano with no personality or stage presence in a recording studio. Mary was a boring voice with a talent for harmonizing. Today with all of this “Revisionalism,” we have a plethora of so-called experts who know nothing but say everything! Open up your ears and listen!

There was talk in the early 60s of Gordy tinkering with the idea of dropping both Ballard and Wilson in favor of Diana as a sololist. He abandoned the idea because of the popularity of the “Girl Groups.” He was never interested in ballard or Wilson and this fact is in the “Public Domain.” Motown put The Supremes on the charts, but Diana’s voice put The Supremes on the map!

It’s true that Diana Ross couldn’t do what Florence Ballard did. It’s also true that Florence Ballard couldn’t do what Diana Ross did: provide a voice and an image that made the Supremes stand out from the crowd. And she did more than make them a commercial force, in my opinion: the humor and timing in her delivery of the opening “Oooh” in “Baby Love” was one of the resources that made the Supremes special. Listening to Ballard’s lead singing, I hear no evidence that she could have supplied that same. (Also, I’m confused by the statements that Ballard was kicked out of the group when Ross became lead singer. Ross became sole lead singer sometime in 1963, I believe, but Ballard didn’t leave until roughly 1967 – a departure that I’ve always thought was the result of her own problems with alcohol, more than anything.)

As far as the actual subject of this entry, I’ve never heard the record – or at least I have no memory of it.

Kim Weston was married to Mickey Stevenson (head of A&R at Motown), did a whole album with Marvin Gaye that went nowhere (was it even released? not sure ["It Takes Two" was]) and then left Motown. They never quite knew what to do with her, or Holloway, I’m guessing, because they never matched what Gordy had in mind for the sound of Motown. Whereas Ross did – she had a higher, smaller voice that was/is more ‘pop’ than the others (by others I mean Weston, Reeves, Wells) – more ‘cute’ (or ‘acute’ if you like).

1. Jean Terrell, not Cindy Birdsong, was the lead singer of the so-called “Mary Wilson Supremes.” Cindy replaced Flo Ballard.

2. The correct title of the third-mentioned song above is “Everybody’s Got the Right to Love.”

COMMENTS:

1. Yes, even “Love Hangover,” even though that was surely the best of Ross’s 70s output. I’ve just downloaded all four of the post-Diana hits I listed. Having just listened to them, I think they all hold up better than anything Ross did on her own.

2. “Star quality” is a term that begs definition, more than just some sort of ineffable personal attribute. I think we could say that Madonna has “star quality,” but at least Madge calls it what it is–ambition. No one could deny that Diana Ross has always had that. But “star quality” and artistic quality are not necessarily synonymous–a lack of “star quality” has kept many a fine artist (particularly many female artists) from getting their due.

3. Kim Weston was indeed a lovely woman. This does not obviate the fact that was “dark-skinned” and “prone to fat.” Such attributes do not preclude loveliness, ethnocentric standards of beauty notwithstanding. Unfortunately for KW and many other black singers, those standards held a lot of power; Dream Girls makes that issue abundantly clear.

4. Ross’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” is one of the most “cloying and overblown” things to come out of this period, which produced much that could be so described.

As with “Tears Of A Clown,” this was an album track released as a single by popular demand (I’m not sure it was ever a single in the States but correct me if I’m wrong) mainly because Tony Blackburn played it ceaselessly on his breakfast show.