Definitely these guys. They might've had a short time together, but they had quite a tragic history. At the same time they made some of the most enduring and influential Soul/Funk music that's still inspirational to this day.

NWF said:

Ah, they'll be a great story indeed, man!

I was just thinking about heatwave.
Rick James
Otis Redding and the original barkays lineup
Teddy Pendergrass

phunkdaddy said:

Well, I don't know about Rick James. The general public already knows how funky the man was...I guess.

NWF said:

Yeah, lol.

I also think Eddie Kendricks could be a nice story too.

scriptgirl said:

What tragedy happened to Lady T?

She had serious legal battles with Motown and wasn't there drug abuse at one point?

scriptgirl said:

I wouldn't call a "legal battle" a "tragedy". And I haven't heard she was hooked on drugs, at least not enough to determine it was tragic.

Teena Marie's life has actually been real good. No drug and alcohol abuse reported and besides her relationship with Rick James, she lives a quiet life compared to her music, lol.

Timmy84 said:

That's what I was thinkin'.

If we're lookin' for a tragic story, the FORCE MD's are the way to go.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

1 member died, didn't he?

Good God people - tragedy is NOT a prerequisite! It may be an element, but the series isn't based on that

It don't hurt. What happened to the force mds?

Timmy84 said:

Checkout their website: http://www.theemotionsweb.com/ It's pretty
Those sista's were some harmonzing fools checkout the compliation album/Cd "Love Songs". In fact, less take it a step further ...



[Edited 1/10/09 3:48am]

CalhounSq said:

Well, so far ALL of them have had some form of tragedy:

Debarge - molestation/drugs/crime/death
Donny - mental illness/suicide
Phyllis - depression/wesight issues/drugs/suicide
Clark Sisters - illnesses with one of the sisters and the mama

They wouldn't do the series if there wasn't some form of tragedy; the name alone suggests that - Unsung.

MuthaFunka said:

That's why I picked Mary Wells to be next, lol. Her career burned too bright at an early age and fizzled out after the age of 21 and she spent years battling meningitis (as a child), tuberculosis (as a woman), substance abuse, physical domestic abuse from two husbands (or three), drug abuse (chain smoker and heroin user allegedly), and suffering from one more illness (throat cancer) before dying at only 49. She was as young as Phyllis when she died.

Timmy84 said:

Damn. I didn't know all THAT happened to Mary.

MuthaFunka said:

And through all that pain, she still performed and sang wherever she went regardless of what state her career was in. It's been said that the money used for the successful sales of "My Guy" were later used to benefit the Supremes' own growing success that same year, which probably was a reason she agreed to leave Motown thinking Berry would choose Diana over her though she was one of the first ones to bring the label fame. Sad thing is after she left Motown, she had little promotion for her singles.

When she got with 20th Century Fox Records for a reported $500,000, which was big at the time, the label didn't know how to promote its artists and the highest any of her singles got was No. 45 (Ain't It the Truth) and No. 34 (Use Your Head). They also promise a film career but she only got one bit role in 1967 for the film "Catalina Caper". Also, she faced a lawsuit with Motown alleging that she doesn't record while still in her litigation battle so she had to record in Detroit and she recorded like two or three albums before she was finally cleared of her Motown contract in 1965.

But then 20th Century Fox dropped her because her two albums with them flopped, she then went to the Atlantic subdivision of Atco Records and recorded "The Two Sides of Mary Wells", which featured the modest hit, "Dear Lover", which was probably her last significant hit. Atco failed to promote her too and she was soon dropped in 1967.

She married Cecil Womack the year she was dropped and the two settled in California where she signed with Jubilee Records and recorded "Servin' Up Some Soul", an album Mary and Cecil both wrote all the songs. One of those, "The Doctor", was her last Hot 100 charted hit in 1968. But much like her other records with 20th Century and Atco, Jubilee failed to promote and soon by 1970 had also been turned off by performing since she was now the mother of Cecil's two children. After mothering another one, she retired from performing but did sign a deal with Reprise Records in 1971 recording songs Bobby Womack wrote especially for her.

After that fizzled in 1974, she wasn't seen from anybody for YEARS. People didn't know what she was up to and she was soon a "fixture of the past". When she finally emerged again in 1981/1982 with "In and Out of Love" on Epic Records, it had been eight years. "Gigolo" was released from that album and it became a big smash on the dance floor and a modest R&B hit so Epic was hopeful that Mary was on her way back. However when they offered her a lump sum of money for promotion, she turned it down. Why she did that, I don't know. But whatever happened, the Epic deal was deja vu in terms of promotion. However, by this point, Mary, who was now divorced from Cecil (and ironically was dating Curtis Womack), decided to return to the road, mainly because since she felt Motown hadn't paid her for royalties and because she had three kids (Curtis fathered her fourth child in 1985) that she had no choice but to perform again and found a new audience embracing her Motown oldies but goodies. She continued to record albums in 1982 and 1983 and released her final album (with Ian Levine's Motorcity Records) in 1989/1990.

From what I heard, Mary's last years alive were sad, while she projected a sassy figure on stage, she was dealing with emotional duress from Curtis, some say that at one time, Curtis in a rage put her and their baby out of the apartment they shared in the rain, in another incident, someone noticed Mary and her daughter in a store and said Mary looked worse for wear. I don't know if she left Curtis by the time of her throat cancer diagnosis in 1990 but I'm thinking that that's what happened. Her voice just gave out and after surgery the voice was left in a whisper. This permanently ended her music career and the money she had gained from tours were all used up for surgery which helped to wipe out her finances completely since she had NO health insurance (which happened with many stars from Mary's time period) so people like Anita Baker, Diana Ross, the Supremes' Mary Wilson, Martha Reeves, Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart each pitched in with lump sums of money to help for Mary's medical bills. Mary's last public appearance was in front of a room in the halls of Congress where she advocated a bill to be passed for cancer research. In 1991, she sued Motown for royalties again and the two parties later settled with Mary receiving a six-figure lump sum.

Sadly, I don't think Mary received the check when her cancer spread through her brain and she was rushed to a hospital in Los Angeles for pneumonia. She remained in her bed for six months before she finally succumbed on July 26, 1992.

----
Very sad when you realize this was the woman who was among the first solo stars to emerge from Motown Records, the first Motown artist to have a top ten album on the pop charts, the first Motown artist to have three consecutive top ten pop singles, the first Motown artist to have a number-one pop smash over two weeks, the first Motown artist to have a popular hit in the UK, the first one to duet successfully with Marvin Gaye, and also opened for the Beatles in England. She signed with Motown at 17 and became the label's first big star and peaked at the age of 21 only to find her life and career sadly spiraling out of control.

That's why I think her story would be great for "Unsung".

Yeah, that's an "Unsung" ep if I ever saw one.

MuthaFunka said:

3 of the members passed on.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Damn. 3?! Now THAT'S an "Unsung".

MuthaFunka said:

Hell, if The Clark Sisters' story is tragic then ALL of our stories are tragic Of course over the span of a career there's gonna be something happening, that's just life. But I don't see the Clark Sisters' story as tragic like the others, therefore (to me) the series doesn't always have to focus on a group that "had tragedy", ala DeBarge... Unsung, to me, simply means their career got derailed at some point for some reason, not necessarily a tragic reason


.
[Edited 1/10/09 12:00pm]

Timmy84 said:

I also think The Mavelettes deserve a story, it HAS'nt been told. I read their Book and its just wanting to be TOLD.....Seriously.

CalhounSq said:

That's true, but I still think there has to be some form of tragedy involved for them to do it, and the Clark sisters still had those 2 tragedies and even some controversy as well.

regcart said:

Them too. One of them was an orphan before 10 or some shit (Gladys Horton) and then later had to retire because her mother was having problems, another left the group after a nervous breakdown after a TV performance (Juanita Cowart), one was forced out because of illness and died later of lupus (Georgeanna Tillman), another had a serious drug problem for YEARS and is just getting sober (Wanda Young), another left the group and died apparently under mysterious circumstances (Georgia Dobbins), and all the while they passed on a future Supremes hit, had their name lost to a gambling bet by Berry Gordy, and for many years, fake Marvelettes groups keep popping up like fast food restaurants!

That's sone ish right there. 3 of the force mds are dead? Ain't they kinda young?

scriptgirl said:

Yeah they started in the early-mid '80s so they should be a little older than New Edition, younger than the Time.

what happened? drugs?

scriptgirl said:

Hmm, yeah i'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with you big time on your statement above. For one, I didn't think that the "unsung" show was primarily about stars who had "major tragedy" in their lives, the show is about artists who should had been bigger than they were. I don't think anyone can possibly judge "how much" tragedy there must be in one's life in order to deem them important for this show. O'Neil's drug use is a tragedy...because addiction is a tragedy in itself. The comment about him "not being all that talented" is just your opinion so i'm not going to comment about that...everybody is entitled.
[Edited 1/10/09 17:38pm]