The Primettes

The Primettes changed their name to the Supremes, endured a series of flops, and became one of the most successful female vocal groups ever. But before their torrid chart run in the mid-'60s, they were highly sought-after backing vocalists. Their contributions to Bob West's Lupine label are documented, but one can also hear them backing obscure artists on a myriad of tiny Detroit-based labels. Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, Florence Ballad, and Betty McGlown were the original Primettes; McGlown married early and became Betty Travis. Florence Ballad formed the group while the members were still in school. All lived in the Brewster Projects. Ross once lived in Detroit's Belmont neighborhood, but Fred and Earnestine Ross (Diana Ross' parents) moved their brood to the Brewster Public Housing Projects, where Ross befriended the other girls. This was during the late '50s and early '60s when public housing was clean, drug-free, decent, and safe, not the crime havens they became in the '70s and '80s. Ross' family had more room and more modern amenities at Brewster than they did at their previous rundown tenement. Fred Ross later moved his family to a middle-class neighborhood when he landed a union job, and later became a union steward. Milton Jenkins managed the Primes -- Eddie Kendrick, Paul Williams, and Kell Osborne -- an exciting trio from Birmingham, AL, via Cleveland, OH. In Birmingham, they were known as the Cavaliers and had a fourth member, Willy Waller. Jenkins discovered them in Cleveland performing with contortionist Caldonia Young at the Majestic Hotel. He took them to Detroit, where they befriended Ballad, Wilson, Ross, and Travis. Taking them under his wing, Jenkins named them the Primettes, the Primes' sister group. They practiced together, but the Primettes got the...