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on 9/13/84, RCA released Swept Away which eventually charted at #26 pop in the US, #7 R&B but only #40 in UK. Included her hits with the title track, Missing You and duet of All Of You. Given the 3 strong singles, seems that the album should have charted higher. Although according to the recently released expanded album, it sold over 900K copies in the US.
thoughts or memories of the album?
fav track?
Along with RED HOT RHYTHM AND BLUES, SWEPT AWAY is one of my favorite albums from the RCA years.
It was released the summer after my first job. I distinctly remember rushing to the record store and buying Tina's PRIVATE DANCER and Diana's SWEPT AWAY. As soon as I put the latter on and heard MISSING YOU, I knew this album was going to be special. My favorites were MISSING YOU, RESCUE ME, SWEPT AWAY, TELEPHONE, ALL OF YOU, and FOREVER YOUNG. She was in great voice throughout and seemed to get back whatever she lost with the so-so ROSS [[1983).
I think the public agreed as the album was certified gold off the strength of ALL OF YOU and the title track alone. MISSING YOU wasn't even a single yet. I used to buy Billboard every week during this time and if I recall correctly, SWEPT AWAY remained on the Top 200 for an entire year.
I went to see Diana in concert not long after its release and she sang a few of its songs during the show. At points she had the arena rocking with songs like RESCUE ME and the title track. Then she touched us all with an emotional rendition of FOREVER YOUNG.
i think if Swept Away and All Of You weren't competing with each other on the charts, they both would have gone higher.
It's Your Move is another solid track
Telephone is not one i like very much. she's singing way too high in her range.
I actually like Nobody Makes Me Crazy but i know fans either like or hate it. i think it's fun and interesting.
Children of the World is ruined by the annoying kids choir. I think she should have just sung it as a rock song/anthem.
Touch By Touch is a lost opportunity. that should have been the f/u to Missing You. it's perfect 80s pop
I remember swept away and all of you being hits and loving both. Bought the album and loved every track except We are the children ...which to me sounded sugary and below the Ross standard.
I am surprised touch by touch wasn't a single.
One suprise was how long it took for missing you to hit on the pop charts.
Even my friends that were not Ross fans loved the new songs and most went to the Ross concert that summer and love it...[[her)
Wow, Time does fly! Swept Away is also my second-favorite RCA album [[after RHRB). I liked that she collaborated with Hall & Oates, Julio Iglesias & Richard Perry and Bernard Edward. Of her own productions, i really like Touch By Touch and feel it could have been a hit single.
But Missing You is the one masterpiece on the album. I think it is her best RCA recording, bar none. It's so ironic to me that it was written and produced by a Motown artist about a classic & beloved Motown icon.
Swept Away and Why Do Fools are probably my two fav RCA sets. I sort of like Silk but after awhile the echo effects and blurred vocals get to me. If i don't think about what COULD have been with this album [[and frankly with WDFFIL too) i can enjoy it
I've grown to appreciate Ross 83 more over the years. for a long time i found it pretty nondescript but now i sort of get it. it's icy and cool and chilly
Hands down "Missing You" was Diana at her best and in great form. I remember the time I heard the music at a friend funeral. It holds so many memories for me. It is #7 of my top favorite songs by Diana.
the LP cut SWEPT AWAY is my fav RCA cut...the remix is too overproduced for me. I love Touch by Touch...and it was a single in some foreign territories. All of You has to be one of the smoothest things DR ever did. it is an excellent pop record of its time. I like it better than Endless Love...a lot better. I always thought Nobody Makes Me Crazy was fun...it is the Kiss Me Now of this LP!
This is what makes the album priceless to me. At that time, I didn't know this wasn't her usual sound, so it has never bother me. I was even surprise that she was so childish on "love or loneliness".Quote:
Originally Posted by sup_fan
One of my personal favourite Diana albums.
In the UK Diana was primarily a singles artist - more often than not it was only the compilation albums which sold by the bucketload.
The studio albums which did the best were those which had a major hit single on them.
For whatever reasons the strategy for Europe and the UK was for Touch By Touch to be the lead single.
While she always had a solid fan base Diana's UK career was an up-and-down one and 1983-1985 was one of the down periods.
Touch By Touch was the sort of happy-go-lucky song which the UK public generally related to but it was poorly promoted by the record company and stalled at #47. [[Shades of the US?)
In their wisdom they decided not to release Swept Away as a single - they didn't believe it would be a hit but I beg to differ, the Daryl Hall connection would have garnered great publicity and they were having their best period in the UK. Great rock/ dance record.
All Of You again just missed the top 40 - probably more suited fot the US market.
What was strange though was the failure of Missing You - it struggled to #76 although it was in the top 200 for 3 months - but the record company did make an effort to break it and re-promoted it a couple of times.
I find it hard to believe that when a major company in the UK made an effore it couldn't even break a record into the top 75.
The album fared badly without a major hit.
I personally would have tried Forever Young - great song on which Diana delivered a brilliant performance but the songs were all solid and Diana was in great voice throughout.
Don't forget though that Missing You nearly missed the boat - it had peaked around the middle of the top 100 and was actually on its way down when the video was shown at the American Music Awards causing it to make an about turn and give her her last big US hit.
I would agree that had there been a bit more time between the release of Swept Away and All Of You in the US both would have been even bigger hits.
Missing You struggled at first in the US too. i didn't do anything until Ross performed it live on tv - i think it was the American Music Awards? then it started to move. I think djs were already thinking she was passe but public really responded to the beautiful song and with this major national exposure, it clicked
It was already a top 10 R& B hit when it started sliding on the pop chart. I was really surprised that it was doing so badly although it was sort of a sign of things to come, like EATEN ALIVE being a top 10 R&B hit but charting so poorly on the pop chart.Quote:
Originally Posted by sup_fan
But yeah, on the American Music Awards, Diana did a tribute to celebrities that had died the previous year: Jackie Wilson, Ernest Tubb, Count Basie, and Marvin Gaye. For the latter, they did a special montage then showed Diana's MISSING YOU video. Frankly, it would have been even more touching if she had performed the song. In any event, this brought about new interest in the record on the pop chart and it started to rise again.
Same with chain reaction.
Nothing .no air play then she performed it in AMA and it started to take off.
It was getting airplay then it was yanked
she did Eaten Alive on the grammies. but that did nothing to help things on the pop scene. At least when sung live at the grammies you could understand her lol
Also Missing You was coming after the relative hits of Swept Away and All Of You.
Chain Reaction followed two songs that didn't do well - Telephone and EA
I was hoping that the performance of CHAIN REACTION on the American Music Awards would have the same result as MISSING YOU's performance the year before but no such luck.Quote:
Originally Posted by sup_fan
CHAIN REACTION deserved so much more than a #95 peak on its first go-round, and #66 on its second.
i like Chain but i don't know that i find it as wonderful as others do. Clearly international markets loved it - I'm always a bit surprised that this and Still Waiting are her UK #1s.
She performed 'Touch by Touch' at the American Music Awards one year [[from memory it was the opening number) so I was surprised it wasn't ever a single in the US.
I'm also surprised to read in this thread that 'Swept Away' wasn't released as a single in the UK as it had a good video to promote it and this was the MTV era.
I can remember buying her 'Visions of Diana Ross' video at the time which also featured an extended video for the 12" version of 'Swept away'.
For me, it was one of her better albums of the RCA years.
We certainly loved Chain Reaction - it was the best-selling single of 1986, by any artist, in Australia.
EMI knew exactly what they doing by not releasing “Swept Away” as a single in the UK. It was simply not a genre of music the UK public wanted or expected to hear from her.
Here in the UK the album received mostly negative reviews, particularly from Blues & Soul magazine. I probably would have gone with “Telephone” as the lead single, simply on the basis that friends seemed to like it. Other then the UK overlooked “Missing You”, nothing else even remotely screams UK hit single.
In France, we had two singles for "All Of You" with different covers.
We had "Touch by touch", "Swept Away" that sold 7000 copies.
"Missing you".
Appart "All of you" and in a very minor way "swept", she had no promotion at all.
I didn't know at that time, but now I can compare with what they did for Tina Turner or Cindy Lauper, Sade, Houston. All those ladies were on tv to promote their singles, especially when they had tour dates. Even Madonna did that...
Diana was never on tv and her clips were rarely seen. When she was on tour in Paris 1985, it was supposed to be in connection with Eaten Alive and she only promoted extensively "Swept Away", which was fine for me.
In an english newspaper interview with Diana, it is mentioned that she just recorded a duet with Julio Iglesias.
I don't have a date for the article but it's just after her first concert in UK and before a concert at Meadowland Stadium. I suspect it's 1982.
I saw this article on Facebook just a few moments ago. Yes, it is from 1982. The details about the 4th of July concert at Giants Stadium as well as the Warhol cover art for the upcoming album confirm it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Albator
I was a bit surprised that the Julio duet was recorded some time before its release. But I think Julio's first mainly English album wasn't released until 1984 so perhaps they held it back until then. I also vaguely recall reading something about Diana not giving approval for its release until then.
I was at the July 4 concert at Giant Stadium.Quote:
Originally Posted by reese
this would explain why Richard Perry remixed « So close »Quote:
Originally Posted by reese