In the period when I began listening to foreign music Diana Ross was still good for making some hits. But Motown, where she had already left, had only one artist who was active in the forefront since '60s, Stevie Wonder, and the company was close to the affiliation with a larger corporation and to the finale as an independent label. The drama of love and hatred in Supremes during Diana's stay, which has been hardly told by those who concerned in it, was taken as the theme of a broadway musical and "Dreamgirls" first opened just in this period. On this play, a fat girl of the three-women group was expelled and Jennifer Holliday, who played the poor role, fiercely sang a gospel-like soul And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going, a unique tune among ones of '80s. I have listened to "Dreamgirls (Original Cast)" recently and find it pretty interesting since it has the atmosphere of '60s music scene effectively weaved into the style of musical. The play managed to end happily but the fact didn't.
I often heard that "Florence Ballard was a better singer than Diana", but so far I could never know whether it was true or not. "The Ultimate Collection (Supremes)" contains only the hits when Diana was taking the lead, and then I can find Florence's lead only in Buttered Popcorn on "Anthology (Supremes)", which includes tunes of pre-stardom and post-Diana. In recent years the CD "The Supreme Florence Ballard" was released, and you can hear a few Supremes songs she took the lead and ones from singles and a cancelled album on ABC to which she later moved. Her alto voice rolls skillfully in the songs like Buttered Popcorn in R&B styles before the Motown sound was established and before Diana seized the center of Supremes . Moreover, in the rendition of Sam Cooke's Ain't That Good News, her voice is groovy and mellow. That only means, however, she was more 'skillful' than Diana, and it does never mean that Diana was harsh. Supremes could stand alone among other girl groups because not only they were rich in good songs and productions by Holland=Dozier=Holland, but Diana had a very characteristic and unforgettable voice. It turned out that some intentions beyond talents did a favor little for Florence Ballard and the following collapse of her own life was told as a tragedy. Here I don't mention the story about "Who got to be a star?". But you may find that the intertwining of Motown President Berry Gordy's insight into show biz and his personal feeling for Diana is worth a musical's theme.
She cut singles like Motownesque It Doesn't Matter How I Say It or Love Ain't Love composed by Van McCoy. She also had renditions of Beatles' Yesterday or Dionne Warwick's Walk on By. Although her ABC recordings in various styles are not so bad, it was already the age of soul and her singing style was likely to be more obsolete than those of stronger shouters. The words "Times slipped away out of her hands" suit her. In Motown those like Martha Reeves or Gladys Knight used to complain about being treated worse than Diana, but they were far happier than Florence because they left some memorable tunes and they could be stars. Both of destinies run side by side, and the brighter the one shines and the closer it is, the deeper the other bothers about it. How hard it is to live 'as the way you are' !(2004/12/20)(2006/07/14)