The Supreme Florence "Flo" Ballard are songs Florence took the lead on as a Supreme. Due to legal agreements between Motown and Ballard when she separated from The Supremes in 1967, Motown stated that Ballard was not allowed to mention that she had been a former member of the Supremes. As a result, her press release stated that "Florence has been a part of an entertainment trio for many years," which hindered her releases from garnering attention from the public. Although there was only one album by Ballard released, she was supposedly about to sign a contract just before her death. Ballard had also recorded
Hank Ballard doo-wop group the Royals, which had previously been discovered by Johnny Otis and signed to Federal Records (a division of King Records), in Cincinnati. Ballard joined Henry Booth, Charles Sutton, Sonny Woods and Alonzo Tucker in the group, replacing previous singer Lawson Smith. The Royals released "Get It" (1953), an R&B song with possibly sexually oriented lyrics, which some radio stations refused to play, although it still made it to number 6 on the "Billboard" R&B chart. The group then changed its name to the Midnighters to avoid confusion with the "5" Royales. In 1954, Ballard wrote a song called