Florence Ballard between 1964 and 1967. After many rehearsals with Cholly Atkins and Maurice King, the Supremes' live shows improved dramatically as well. During this time, Ballard sang lead on several songs on Supremes' albums, including a cover of Sam Cooke's "(Ain't That) Good News". During live shows, Ballard often performed the Barbra Streisand standard, "People". According to Mary Wilson, Ballard's vocals were so loud she was made to stand 17 feet away from her microphone during recording sessions. Marvin Gaye, for whom Ballard sang backing vocals on occasion, described her as "a hell of a singer, probably the strongest of the
Girl group an environment of entertainment in which the appearance of the girl group was not unfriendly, and musical forms like a cappella and barbershop quartet singing provided inspiration for the structure of the songs and types of harmonies sung by initial girl groups. Importantly, the first successful girl groups of this era were typically white, but capitalized on using music such as ragtime that had originated in the African American community. This era was also advantageous to the beginnings of girl group music because of the newfound prevalence of the radio as well, which allowed this style of music to spread.