Upside Down - diana's biggest & funkiest solo hit!

[Levi Stubbs Tears]

An interesting history of the Upside Down single by DJ Rob:


https://djrobblog.com/archives/10790 [[https://djrobblog.com/archives/10790)

[Ollie9]

Good read. The only review I can remember was Black Echoes magazine. Like many of the USA reviews it was pretty like warm. It mentioned that the only songs they thought might have hit potential were “Give Up” and “Have Fun”. With the exception of “Friend To Friend”, i think every single song had hit potential.
It’s interesting the article mentions the difficulty in recreating the song live. Best live versions of the song for me are the 81 Forum concert performance and the splendidly funky arrangement with Jamiroquai at the 97 Brit awards.

[florence]

Great article.

I'd also understood that I'm Coming Out was originally intended to be the lead single - lol at Diana not understanding the connotation of that phrase!

I'd really love to know the sales of Upside Down - certainly in terms of chart success [[4 weeks at #1 on the Hot 100) it was her biggest hit but did it actually outsell Touch Me In The Morning which supposedly did 1.5m+?

Have to agree too that it is very difficult to capture the essence of the song live.

[florence]

Was really gutted when Upside Down missed #1 in the Official UK Chart - the ony one it didn't make it on.

That was because the other charts all compiled around Wed/ Thur.

Upside had been well ahead of everything all week but when Abba's The Winner Takes It All was featured on Top Of The Pops on the Thursday night sales of it really took off.

Even on Saturday morning it looked as if Diana might hold on but she was passed late in the afternoon to finish a couple of thousand behind.

Interestingly in its first week at #2 Upside sold more copies than Chain Reaction did in its 2nd and 3rd weeks at #1!

[Levi Stubbs Tears]

Have to agree too that it is very difficult to capture the essence of the song live.

It's why in this forum a year or so back - before she was confirmed to be playing Glastonbury - I'd suggested it would be great for her to do a complete version of 'diana' live with Nile Rodgers & Chic as her backing band for the 40th anniversary.

If only!

Chic manage to stay true to the instrumentation of the originals in the 'cover' versions they do of Upside Down & I'm Coming in their live shows. Diana's concert performances [[I've only seen one live but many on video) of her diana songs are always a pale dilution.

[jobeterob]

Diana had plenty of other singles that deserved bigger success than Upside Down - but it's still a great song. There is a line near the end where she and her band both do a little pause and then go really strong for the hook - and for me that's what makes the song more interesting - they clearly understand what they need to do and they work it.

[khansperac]

I don’t like the live arrangement Diana’s band plays for Upside Down, and I don’t like the way she sings it live.

[midnightman]

I don’t like the live arrangement Diana’s band plays for Upside Down, and I don’t like the way she sings it live.

I thought I was the only one who thought this...

[vgalindo]

I don’t like the live arrangement Diana’s band plays for Upside Down, and I don’t like the way she sings it live.
I don’t either. I saw her in concert at the time if it’s release and it was great. But after that something changed and I don’t care for it live

[drlorne]

I like her live versions, there's slightly different phrasing which catches my ear and I actually think it works better than the record.