Jean Terrell
Encyclopedia
Jean Terrell is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 singer. She replaced Diana Ross
Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...

 as the lead singer of The Supremes
The Supremes
The Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, psychedelic soul, and disco...

 in January 1970.

Early life and career

She is the sister of the former WBA
World Boxing Association
The World Boxing Association is a boxing organization that sanctions official matches, and awards the WBA world championship title at the professional level. It was previously known as the National Boxing Association before changing its name in 1962...

 heavyweight boxing champion, Ernie Terrell
Ernie Terrell
Ernie Terrell is an American singer, record producer, and former World Boxing Association heavyweight boxing champion. At , he was very tall, by the standards of the day....

, who fought Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...

. She was not related to fellow Motown artist Tammi Terrell
Tammi Terrell
Thomasina Winifred Montgomery, known as Tammi Terrell was an American singer-songwriter most notable for her association with Motown and her duets with Marvin Gaye. As a teenager she recorded for the Scepter–Wand, Try Me and Checker record labels. She signed with Motown in April 1965 and enjoyed...

, whose real surname was Montgomery.

Moving from Belzoni, Mississippi to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 for a better life at an early age, Jean Terrell was guided by her family to sing, and it was in the late 1960s that she and her brother formed a group called Ernie Terrell and the Heavyweights.

The Supremes (1970-1973)

It was while singing in Miami
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...

, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 where Motown
Motown Records
Motown is a record label originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, United States, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit...

 president Berry Gordy
Berry Gordy
Berry Gordy, Jr. is an American record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label, as well as its many subsidiaries.-Early years:...

 discovered the 24-year-old singer performing with her brother at a club in Miami Beach
Miami Beach, Florida
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter which separates the Beach from Miami city proper...

. Looking for a replacement for his protegée, singer Diana Ross, who was leaving the group she had fronted during most of the 1960s, The Supremes, for a solo
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

 career, Gordy first signed Terrell to Motown as a solo artist, but then decided to drop her into The Supremes as Ross's replacement alongside continuing, fellow members Mary Wilson
Mary Wilson (singer)
Mary Wilson is an American singer, formerlymember of the Motown female singing group The Supremes during the 1960s and 1970s. Wilson was the only singer to be a consistent member of the group in its eighteen-year tenure...

 and Cindy Birdsong
Cindy Birdsong
Cynthia Ann "Cindy" Birdsong , better known by her stage name, Cindy Birdsong, is an American singer, most famous for singing with the legendary soul groups Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles and The Supremes.-Early life:...

. Terrell then recorded
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...

 much of the new post Ross Supremes material in the studios
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...

, and rehearsed the group's new act during the day with Wilson and Birdsong, while Ross, Wilson and Birdsong performed as Diana Ross & The Supremes at night.

After Ross's farewell show with the group at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

 on January 14, 1970, Terrell joined the group on stage to be presented to the press and public. After this introduction, according to Mary Wilson, Gordy changed his mind about Terrell leading the group and suggested replacing her with another Motown act Syreeta Wright
Syreeta Wright
Syreeta Wright , who recorded professionally under the single name Syreeta, was a Grammy-nominated American singer-songwriter most notably known for her work with Stevie Wonder and Billy Preston.-Early life and career:...

. Wilson vetoed this move, preferring to stick with Terrell. Terrell made an instant impact fronting the new Supremes, recording prolifically and successfully with several of Motown's top producers. The revitalized Supremes scored more chart success right from the beginning of the new decade; scoring big in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, while managing several pop and soul hits in the United states. "Up the Ladder to the Roof
Up the Ladder to the Roof
"Up the Ladder to the Roof" is a 1970 hit single recorded by The Supremes for the Motown label. It was the first Supremes single to feature new lead singer Jean Terrell in place of Diana Ross, who officially left the group for a solo career two weeks before the recording of this song in January 1970...

", "Stoned Love
Stoned Love
"Stoned Love" is a 1970 hit single recorded by The Supremes for the Motown label. It was the last Billboard Pop Top Ten hit for the group, peaking at number seven, and their last Billboard number-one R&B hit as well, although the trio continued to score top ten hits in the UK into 1972...

", "River Deep – Mountain High" (with the Four Tops
Four Tops
The Four Tops are an American vocal quartet, whose repertoire has included doo-wop, jazz, soul music, R&B, disco, adult contemporary, hard rock, and showtunes...

), "Nathan Jones
Nathan Jones (song)
"Nathan Jones" is a hit single recorded by The Supremes, released in spring 1971 on the Motown label. Produced by Frank Wilson and written by Leonard Caston - aka Leonard Caston, Jr...

", and "Floy Joy
Floy Joy
Floy Joy is a 1972 album released by The Supremes on the Motown label. This was the only Supremes album solely produced and arranged by Smokey Robinson and included the U.S. top 20 hit, "Floy Joy" and the U.S...

." After the success of "Floy Joy," Birdsong quit to start a family and was replaced by Lynda Laurence
Lynda Laurence
Lynda Laurence is an American singer. She is best known for being a part of two Motown acts: Stevie Wonder's backup group Wonderlove, and one of the post-Diana Ross versions of The Supremes...

 (a former member of Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

's group Wonderlove). Despite the initial successes, toward the end of 1973, Terrell and Laurence decided that it would best for the Supremes to leave Motown and seek another record company. As Motown, and not Mary Wilson, owned the name "Supremes", both Terrell and Laurence left the group that year. All three Supremes were unhappy with Motown's seeming lack of interest in promoting this line-up of the group, a line-up that recorded no hit singles, the closest being "Bad Weather", a Stevie Wonder tune that failed on the charts at a time when everything else he was releasing went gold. In addition, Laurence was expecting a child at the time. So Scherrie Payne
Scherrie Payne
Scherrie Payne is an American singer. The younger sister of singer/actress Freda Payne, Scherrie Payne was the co-lead singer of The Supremes from 1973 to 1977, after Jean Terrell left the group in the fall of 1973...

 replaced Terrell and Cindy Birdsong
Cindy Birdsong
Cynthia Ann "Cindy" Birdsong , better known by her stage name, Cindy Birdsong, is an American singer, most famous for singing with the legendary soul groups Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles and The Supremes.-Early life:...

 returned to replace Laurence.

Later career and current work

Signing a contract with A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...

, Terrell had finished a solo recording, I Had to Fall in Love
I Had to Fall in Love
I Had to Fall in Love was the only solo album released by former Supremes lead singer Jean Terrell, released in 1978 on the A&M label. The album was completed five years after she left the Supremes and when it was finished, promotion was stopped completely because of Terrell's strict religious...

, in 1978 but supposedly due to her Jehovah's Witness beliefs conflicting with promoting the recording in a specific way the record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 wanted, she semi-retired. In the early 1980s Terrell put together a one woman show and did limited touring throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Her act consisted of several Supremes songs, songs from her solo album and cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

s of songs by Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...

 and Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie
Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Since 1968, he has been a member of the musical group Commodores signed to Motown Records...

. Friend and former Supreme Lynda Laurence
Lynda Laurence
Lynda Laurence is an American singer. She is best known for being a part of two Motown acts: Stevie Wonder's backup group Wonderlove, and one of the post-Diana Ross versions of The Supremes...

 would often perform background vocals
Backing vocalist
A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...

 for Terrell during these tours. Another who performed backing vocals for Terrell during these tours was Freddi Poole, later a member of Scherrie & Lynda's group the F.L.O.S. (former ladies of The Supremes).

Scherrie Payne was approached by Superstar International records for a Supremes' reunion record project. She first contacted Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong about joining, but Wilson declined. Birdsong then contacted Terrell, and from this the Former Ladies of the Supremes (FLOS for short) with Terrell, Payne, and Birdsong was born in 1986. Birdsong left shortly thereafter, and was replaced (again) by Lynda Laurence. After several years, Terrell left the FLOS to pursue business interests and was replaced by Laurence's sister, Sundray Tucker. Tucker left the group a few years later, leaving the path clear for Freddi Poole to join. Poole remained until 2009, being replaced by former Dawn singer Joyce Vincent. Terrell has since released a biographical DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 of her life and has continued to sing onstage with jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

s.
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