The Lost Supreme: The Life of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard by Peter Benjaminson Page B

attention. Flo was still living at home when they played “Buttered Popcorn”
    on the radio in 1962. “All that day,” she said, “I was turning on the radio, turning to different stations, trying to pick it up. It was just a fantastic feeling to hear myself singing. Family members would be calling up and saying,
    ‘I heard you on the radio!’ ‘I heard you on the radio!’ The phone would be jumping off the hook.”
    If “Buttered Popcorn,” a cheery, catchy song with a light and fluffy name, had been promoted into a heavyweight hit, Flo, who sang the lead on the song, might have been locked into that role as the group rose to stardom, with dramatic effect on her career and on those of the other three. Barney Ales wanted to put Motown’s publicity machine behind “Buttered Popcorn,” but Gordy, who was impressed with Diane’s energy and beginning to focus on her rather than on Flo as the potential superstar of the group, wouldn’t let Ales promote it. In terms of Florence Ballard’s subsequent career, “Buttered Popcorn” may represent the tune not taken, the career that never was.
    Although relatively unknown these days, except to collectors of rare pop discs, this song is a milestone in the history of Flo Ballard and the Supremes. Later, Gordy also chose not to release another Supremes tune that highlighted Flo’s skill as a lead singer, “Save Me a Star.”
    Mainly owing to a lack of promotion by Motown, “Buttered Popcorn” /
    “Who’s Loving You” didn’t do much better than “I Want a Guy.” Some of the blame fell justly on producer Smokey Robinson. Robinson had written major hits for other Motown acts, but his genius as a producer was somehow never able to connect with the budding artistic talents of the young Primettes or Supremes. The group’s hit tunes, written and produced mostly by others, are easily distinguishable from tunes written and produced by Robinson.
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    The early demise of “I Want a Guy” and “Buttered Popcorn” signaled the transformation of the Supremes from a quartet into a trio in 1962. Barbara Martin had married and become pregnant, and “Diane thought that was bad for the image,” Flo said. “So Barbara left the group because Diane didn’t want her in the group.” Clearly Diane’s power among the Supremes was beginning to manifest itself.
    Of course the quartet’s downsizing into a trio would turn out not to make a difference. Despite the immense impact of the “Fab Four,” many famous groups of the time were in fact trios, including the Andrews Sisters, a group with which the early Supremes were often compared. In any case, what really paved the road to success for the Supremes was the beginning of the “girl group” phenomenon on January 31, 1961, when the Shirelles, a New Jersey quartet, put “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” at the top of the pop charts, becoming the first all-female pop group of the rock era to do so.
    But the three remaining members of the Supremes had other problems.
    Their continued failure to move forward killed whatever interest Gordy had in them. “The Marvelettes were knocking on the door, and the Vandellas were knocking on the door,” Flo said, “and the Marvelettes came right in [one month after the release of “Buttered Popcorn”] and got a smash hit, ‘Please Mr. Postman,’” Motown’s first #1 Pop hit.
    The group’s continuing failure to become famous so upset Flo that she temporarily left the Supremes. Rather than stay on the sidelines, she joined the Marvelettes, who were much more successful at the time. Officially, Flo was filling in for Wanda Young, who was pregnant and unable to finish her tour with the Marvelettes in 1962. Flo stayed with the Marvelettes for several months. Mary and Diane were so depressed at the group’s lack of popularity and the temporary departure of their leader that they didn’t even rehearse, much less perform, while Flo was away.
    “Flo fit the bill”