Although it has all the trademarks of Mountain I was never that keen on Reach Out I'll Be There.
It didn't have the compulsion and freshness of Mountain and when it reached the climax it was curiously muted to me.
It's hard to know what would have happened to I Thought It Took A Little Time had Motown not been bounced into releasing Hangover.
Until then Diana's solo singles always seemed to perform better on Cash Box and Record World than Billboard. It managed to reach #47 on BB but wasn't moving that fast and it only managed #60 on CB.
But interestingly it never made the Record World chart at all so it's hard to tell just how it was performing.
Florence i agree with you on the song does nothing for me,it just drones on and on,a song i always skip cheers.
I remember ITITALT getting a lot of airplay in my area. Not being into charts at that time, I thought it was a hit, especially since it was included on her 1976 GREATEST HITS album.
Not long after, LOVE HANGOVER began getting tremendous airplay, but I had no idea it was Diana. It sounded so different from what she was usually known for. The only reason I knew that she had a record called LOVE HANGOVER was because I saw it listed on JET's Soul Brothers Top 20 chart. It was a while before I realized the record I was hearing was Diana.
It was certainly a departure for her and one that worked a treat. I'm surprised similar songs didn't follow. Her proposed "disco" album produced by the Holland Brothers never saw the light of day sadly. This experiment worked a treat. Others such as "workin overtime" less so. Sorry Ollie. Couldn't resist.
have always loved Today I Fell In Love. it is an amazing vocal performance. I would have re -release it after LH. beautiful song. surprised it wasn't a hit since baby love and come see about me were hits at the same time
i'm surprised Lovin livin Givin....wasn't released as a single
frankly I've always viewed her version of Reach Out as a red-headed stepchild compared to Mountain. Remember Me was a much better follow up single. and I like Surrender but seems like I read that it's performances in major markets was mixed and inconsistent. I'm guessing that after Remember only went into the top 20 and Surrender in top 30 that they thought they'd revert back to a 'climax' song and released Reach Out, hoping it would perform like Mountain. but I think by that time that sound had run it's course. fortunately Lady was up next and then Touch Me. she was able to reinvent and do something new
As for her disco work, I think Motown was quite remiss with not being more focused on quality albums and material. while I love the Baby It's me set, given what was happening in the music scene at that time [[Sat Night Fever was released shortly after Baby) and what she'd already done with Hangover, I found this set to be unexceptional. yes it's a beautiful set and very cohesive. but not special. doesn't really push her into anything new or build on what she started with Hangover.
i'm not a fan of her later work with HDH - not really great material. Lovin Livin and Givin was pretty good but they did nothing with it. I do think she needed a strong disco lp to follow up Hangover, rather than Baby It's Me or Ross 78. but the canned material that has since been released isn't all that wonderful either.
I agree with all you say sup fan, as if i had posted this myself.
Motown needed to build on what they had created with "Love Hangover". The public clearly relished Diana in the role of disco diva and hungered for more.
I think "Baby It's Me, though a solid piece of work was just to polished and pristine for the time. "Your Love Is So Good For Me" alone was just not a strong enough song to create much excitement.
A fully fledged disco album would i am sure have been generally better received than the sophistication of "BIM". I think motown would have been wise to stick to ballad releases from this set.
The HDH songs from 78 to me sound rather dated for the time. Were they really recorded in 77/78??. This seems really odd considering how successful they were in updating the Supremes sound on the wonderful "High Energy" album.
I can well understand why they were canned.
I am hoping that Diana has reconsidered her RCA out put and may release some out takes that include the Luther V tracks. this would be lovely me thinks. I am in ross withdrawal.me thinks you,Blue brock, may have been instrumental in this.
That may be true, Bluebrock, but their RCA discs sound so much better than the original releases. They were worth every penny I spent on them. I didn't have most of the 12" singles and the single edit versions so it was great to get those in the Funkytowngrooves releases. And if something is released with bonus tracks from those years, well, I'll buy that too!
perhaps a rca collection with bonus tracks aka the LV tracks .. or maybe she is considering recording them again
Bluerock, 1st thank you for your insight and honesty on what you've given to this thread and the forum on miss ross' career. It is very refreshing and helps putting pieces of the fabric of her career together. 2nd, i admire Your loyalty to having worked side by side with her. Miss Ross is extremely lucky to have you for a colleague. Having done a little work for a few in the music industry, i have learned that many times that is not always the case, so it is very refreshing.
Now, i do have a couple of questions that i hope that you might be able to answer. 1989's Greatest Hits Live and 1994's A Very Special Season were released in the UK on EMI. Miss Ross was, i believe was with Motown in the U.S. and i was wondering if Motown wasn't interested in these projects or chose not to release them after they were recorded ? During that time, I was traveling to the UK some, so it was easy to pick them up, other US fans probably had a little difficulty in obtaining these.
greg jones
los angeles, ca
I seem to recall in the press around the time of putting together the Return To Love tour that Luther Vandross had written a song called "Return to Love" for the tour and to be recorded. I had assumed that it might be a live version only from a possible cd recording of the tour. This I heard, of course, BEFORE the tour was officially announced on the Oprah show. I kind of assumed that since the tour was going to be with Scherrie and Lynda instead of Mary and Cindy, that was what cancelled the song as Luther really wanted it with the '60's Supremes. Does anyone know if this was really the case ? Or what happened to the Return To Love "song" to be recorded or performed live ?
When Your Love was released in the UK it was advertised that Luther Vandross was singing background vocals. No matter how hard I listen I can hear no trace of him.
Did he or did he not?
Your Love should have been a massive hit in the UK for Diana but was spoilt by "bad timing."
When it was released just before Christmas 1993 [[even then imo a couple of weeks too late) the One Woman album was aleady massive and people continued to plump for the album knowing the single was on it. In the week leading up to Christmas One Woman sold a massive 200k+.
Had the single been released in advance of the album it would have been HUGE although #14 was respectable enough.
In an interview with REACH OUT, the record's producer Nick Martinelli said that Luther does indeed sing background vocals on YOUR LOVE. He mentions that they are near the end of the song, and almost sound as if they are part of the orchestra.
I admit that I still can't hear them. When I first saw the YOUR LOVE credit for Luther, I thought maybe it was a mistake and that he really sang on ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE. But no, he is on YOUR LOVE.
To be honest Greg i did not know that "a very special season" did not get a USA release, in fact i was sure it had because i recall on one of my trips across the pond discussing the album with the staff over there who were very pleased with the album. They certainly had the option to release it and something must have happened around that time that prevented it coming out at that time. I suffered a terrible bereavement around this time and i was out of circulation for a couple of months so whatever happened must have happened during this time. As regards the live set, that was always planned as a UK only release following the success of the "workin overtime" tour which went down a storm in the UK. I think Japan also released it and maybe a couple of European countries. We did not offer it for release in the USA because Diana had plans to record another live album for the "force behind the power" tour and she felt that two live albums within 2/3 years was excessive. As you well know such an album failed to appear.
You are so right Greg!! Luther did indeed present that song to Diana who also recorded the song without Scherrie and Lynda. Not sure how you found that out but your source was spot on. Luther presented another set of demos to Diana around this time and it really did look like the project would finally happen, but it had to be for another label because Motown had lost interest and vice versa.
Luther was not at all bothered about Mary or Cindy being on the track. All he was interested in was Diana. Although he was gay he was obsessed with Diana and would have done anything for her. Do not want to say too much else about this.
Bluerock, My source was a press article on the internet during that time. Am trying to remember the timeline of what came first… the Supremes Box Set announcement or the rumor of a reunion concert. Both were being talked about and that had to have been late '99 because i still remember the rumor trying to make it into the concert of the millennium. Then, of course, negotiations started getting leaked and all of that on Barbra Walters and the talk shows. So have a feeling that the article i saw was someplace maybe a month before Oprah and it stating the tour would be called "Return To Love" and that Luther had written the song to name the tour. I remember being disappointed with them not saying whether the song would be a studio recording or the song just performed at the concert. Don't remember the exact website that it appeared. I missed the Oprah show announcements in full [[only saw repeats) because my Father had passed and was also taking care of my Mother.
I believe it was only a few weeks after Oprah, that the dates and ticket sales were announced and was shocked at how high the prices. The prices were even too high if Mary and Cindy were on the tour. The size of the venues meant having to attract younger audiences in addition to die hards. Younger audiences couldn't have afforded that.
Around the same time as the Oprah announcement came the press release on the Supremes Box Set. The 1st one I saw it written about was in ICE, the newsletter devoted to CD Remastering. Harry Weinger also mentioned the project in one of the Motown Google Groups. I emailed him a note that i was anxiously awaiting it and hoped that my fav unreleased Dr. Goldfoot would come out. I was surprised that Harry emailed me personally stating that it would be and someone had goofed. That was supposed to have been in the press announcement, been left out and notifying him of the error. The Box set was released about the time that Mary performed at Sunset Junction and I remember her vividly showing off the copy she received and that it would hit the stores the following Tuesday.
Additionally, I wondered whether they would perform it on the VH-1 special. VH-1, at time was releasing much on CD from their concerts. I kind of assumed that it had to do with continuing costs on the tour that it was going to be too much to record the concerts and/or if a label was interested.
Last edited by greg jones; 07-01-2016 at 08:11 PM.
Bluerock, I have the gut feeling the same way. Since there wasn't much fanfare/press/notice around the Merry Christmas expanded edition, it will probably be the same for A Go Go. Since August is the 50th anniv, I'll bet Andy & George will mention in late July or early Aug on their Facebook DRS EE page that that it will be out the following week, unless something's gone haywire.
Personally, for me, i don't mind it being digitally only, i just wish that Apple would get their act together and start Hi-Res Audio because it kills me having to buy compressed. As far it being not being available physically doesn't bother me too much initially because having been in various areas of the music industry at certain times since the '70's, my collection had swelled to over 50,000 pieces [[45's, LP's, Cass, 8T, CD, etc.) a few years ago and am trying to get rid of much physical that is in my digital collection. Basically only trying to keep physically, my faves, like Ross/Supremes and stuff that hasn't been digitized yet or radically different remasters.
Although he was gay he was obsessed with Diana..
Bluebrock , I know you are not gay, but gay men will find the above statement funny in a charming sort of way..
actually, he, like so many gay men, is obsessed with Diana BECAUSE they are gay.. the same holds true regarding Madonna, Cher, Bette Midler.. and on and on.. the most devoted passionate fan base is gay men.. the psychological reasons why is a whole nother discussion board.. trust men on this one..great eye iopening stuff being provided here, as usual..
Last edited by Jimi LaLumia; 07-01-2016 at 08:27 PM.
yes, I'm speaking as the voice of experience
Well it's July 1 and August is only weeks away. Hoping Go Go will come out but...why is this a secret? Why no promo?? Wouldn't it be wise to have MW and DR do some promo with it? Both are still touring.
Jimi. I should perhaps have worded it slightly differently I meat to say that Luther was a nervous wreck in Diana's company. He stuttered his words , and was totally out of his comfort zone when in her company. I found it quite touching. I don't think he was too keen on me because of the relationship i had with Diana. I am not willing to say any more about this, but Diana was very sweet towards him at all times.
Yes he did Florence!
We have discussed the timing of "your love" before and my response is the same as last time. It was all to do with Diana's availability to promote the song. Her singles tended to perform better when Diana was a visible presence on UK Tv of which she did a hell of a lot in the 90's. We were satisfied with the songs performance. Neither Diana or myself for that matter thought the song was anything special. It as nice, it was pleasant but it was no classic. We both far prefered "best years of my life".
Incidentally there are lots of rumours doing the rounds that Diana has signed up to play Glastonbury in 2017. I am awaiting official confirmation of this. I was initially told this two weeks ago but paid little heed to the story, but now i am hearing it from another usually more reliable source. Barry Gibb has also been reputed to confirm the story. Thgis is potentially exciting news folks.
I thought Your Love is really good. beautiful vocal
It is a nice enough song for sure but it cannot hold a candle to her classic ballads.We were unsure of whether to go with this or "best years" as the initial single from "one woman". My instinct was to go with "best years" but my staff all argued that "your love" had the potential to be another "when you tell me" so i gracefully climbed down. Instill think we made the wrong decision as indeed did Diana but as always she behaved as the ultimate professional that she is and fully embraced the song but she soon gave up performing it live.
she really has had a trunk full of gems, so many great songs. both songs are good though. I preferred Your Love over Best Years at first but in the end "Years" seems more classic but it's a close call.
I can't argue with you, Bluerock because what do I know of the music industry and you and your team did wonders for Diana in the UK in the 90s.
It looks like Diana and I wouldn't agree on much! Personally while I like Best Years I much prefer Your Love and think it had the better commercial prospects. As I've said the British public on the whole plumped for buying the album which was huge at the time.
I wasn't referring again to the timing of the release at Christmas for YL but rather that I would have released it in advance of the album - providing Diana was available for promotion. You're quite right of course about the performance of Diana's singles in the UK when she had a visible presence.
I also thought the video was a better bet than the "live" performance from Paris!
My idea would have been the video when it first hit the charts then the "live" performance 2 weeks later. But then that would have been fraught with problems. On the assumption that the record was always going to hit the charts the second play on Top Of the Pops would have been dependent on the record climbing. If it had by chance dropped a place or two then that wouldn't have happened.
All conjecture and you have the track record!
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