https://www.albumism.com/features/di...-retrospective
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A lengthy glowing review
It is a glorious album and my favorite from her.
At the time, I didn’t listen to it a lot but in retrospect, it’s a very strong album
Great review, I agree with the last paragraph! No one was doing it like Diana Ross. NO ONE.
Love it! :)
agreed it's a wonderful set. shows great growth and development as a singer.
if you compare this to the mediocre albums like Cream of the Crop or Sunshine, the change is startling. although there was strong material being recorded in 68 and 69 that would line up nicely with were she was in 1970 with this album.
the only nit pick is the include of These Things. it's a fine track but acoustically, just so different from that A&S content. sort of interrupts things.
I love this LP....like Surrender, side 1 was instantly likable....side 2 took a longer time to enjoy...but other than Baby It's Me and [[GASP!) Ross '78 I did not like a complete LP from the get go....seems I am a side 1 guy: Reflections, Love Child, DR 76, The Boss, Last Time I Saw Him....side 1 got the big approval long before side 2 was played often.
Great article and really insightful review of the album. I was pretty young when I first heard the album, and concluded it was a bit too "sedate" for my taste at the time. Although I've grown to appreciate it much more since then, I still think it's a little too "one note" and would have benefited from a couple more upbeat numbers. There's nothing wrong with the album as a mood piece, but I just find some of the songs and arrangements too similar in mood and tone to be a classic.
”Baby It’s Me” and Ross 78 mentioned in the same breath...Hmmm lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by gman
An Interesting observation about side 1. Although they are all enjoyable, i also prefer the side 1 of all the albums you mention. In the case of LTISH most definitely so. It would appear that often, not always the moe radio friendly songs are put on the opening side. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
The exception for me is TMITM where I really dig the more adult orientated songs on side 2.
yeah....I really enjoy the ROSS '78 LP...with the exception of Together I love the entire Lp. I wasn't that wild about disco by this point, but that LP mix [[and only that particular mix) of Lovin' Livin' and Givin' is one of my all time fav DR songs...as far as Baby It's Me..Too Shy to Say and Confide In Me are my 2 least fav songs..
I agree with you about Together [[probably my least favorite Michael Masser song) and Lovin' [[Ross '78 version is also the only one for me).Quote:
Originally Posted by gman
Lol. I love all of BIM! Your Love Is So Good For Me had to grow on me. It might have fit better on Ross '78.Quote:
”Baby It’s Me” and Ross 78 mentioned in the same breath...Hmmm lol.
Yeah, come to think of it, TMITM is definitely one that I prefer Side 2 [[but I like the whole album).Quote:
The exception for me is TMITM where I really dig the more adult orientated songs on side 2.
For years I’d heard rumours of some folks enjoyment, but in truth never fully believed it.....Until now that is!!. :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by gman
Hmmm, now I have to ponder if I'm a side 1 or side 2 guy. Time for a new thread...
Oh, and about Diana's debut album...meh. Just kidding. While I'm not as wowed by it as so many others obviously are, it was a great debut. Diana hadn't recorded an album that cohesively good since Love Child.
ok Ran - since you're upset that i've been agreeing with you, here ya go ;) lolololQuote:
Originally Posted by RanRan79
xoxoxo :o
i would say motown hadn't released as cohesively good of an album on Diana Ross since Love Child.
you and i seem to love playing "producer" with our playlists. Sunshine, Cream and even the Reflections lps get a bit of black eyes since they're so hodge podge with content. if you sat down with all of the tracks available at the time of each lp release, you can shuffle tracks around and make some much stronger albums. and by doing so, some songs that were duds on one set because they seemed so out of place, begin to find a home alongside similar and appropriate content.
if you take a handful of the Cream tracks, a couple of the tracks from Sun and LC, plus some of the L&F tracks, you can make a wonderful interesting and mature-sounding final album for DRATS.
and now here's where you and i can start to cross swords lolol - arguing over which tracks to include in our re-produced albums lol
Ha! Yeah, blame Motown.:pQuote:
Originally Posted by sup_fan
Okay, I have to come back for a producer session of Sunshine/Cream. Don't have the time at the moment.
My complaint with this album is sales.
Great debute but how could an album this good sell only 500 000 copies.
Touch me sold over one million.
Seems strange to me but I would concede that BG releasing EIE on top of this album hurt sales.... But even for the long run. What the fudge
I cross swords with everyone: I do not care for the Love Child album. From its tepid stereo mix to her hoarse vocals on too many tracks, I have to say, “meh.” I prefer Cream, Reflevtions and maybe even Sunshine ....yes I do. There’s really not one coat on the entire album I ever feel like listening to and that includes that awful stereo mix of the title tune. At least on the other albums, I can pick 12345 songs that I enjoy even if there are some horrible clinkers. On love child, there really aren’t any horrible clinkers, but there’s nothing I find compelling. Next to funny girl, and join the Temptations, it’s the Supremes album I play the least. My problem with it is, that I like commercial sounding songs with a hook and clever Production. I think the fact that the title song sold over 2 million copies and yet the album barely did any better than the reflections album. If word of mouth has been good on this album, it would easily have gone top 10.
Perhaps TCB and Join hurt the Love Child LP sales...plus there was the recent LIVE Talk of The Town Lp and Funny Girl....Late '68 there was a lot of recent Supremes stuff around...I was 8 yrs old and a brand new fan at the time...which is why I am partial to Cindy over Flo....AND every time I went and hung out at the new small record store down the street, I kept seeing this WHITE album getting picked up....they always had about 6 copies in the top first bin..and I saw a lot of Tommy James and the Shondells Lp's get taken to the register too....this store had ONE 6 across/6 up vertical record bin...but an entire wall of 8 Track tapes...I remember they sold players, and had some pre recorded Reel to Reel and cassette / mini PlayTapes too...but his big thing was Top 40 singles and 8 tracks. I was his first customer...I got the blue 2 LP Greatest Hits LP and he taped my $5 bill to the wall...I think it was $5.99
Great post. Wonderful story! I love that the iconic, best-selling Greatest Hits album was his first sale. I love that you were 8 years old, with such great taste [[and money, too).Quote:
Originally Posted by gman
There weren't too many [[any?) great Supremes albums. Not a surprise that Diana's first album was considered more of a 'concept album' though it wasn't still great. It probably took another 9 years before 'Boss' and then 'diana' could be considered real albums rather than just 'a couple of likely hits plus another few filler tracks on'.
Of all the Motown artists in the 60s & 70s only songwriters like Marvin or Stevie put out decent albums and often they had to fight against the Motown [[singles) quality control panel to gete them released.
it's actually surprising [[considering Berry/Diana had planned her solo career for quite a few years) that this album wasn't better.
This Album is very good. Great production, great vocals, and song selection. It stands as one of the best debut albums by a solo artist.
@gman I totally agree! You brought back memories of walking into those wonderful record shops back in the day, the sounds and the smells and the ambience when I was discovering this great music. Thank you!Quote:
Originally Posted by lucky2012
I agree that I don’t think the album Was great, but it was a giant step better than the studio albums of 68 and 69. [[As was as right on.) I disagree that the other albums were a lot of filler because personally I think touch me in the morning and diana ross 1976 were ideal for the time, and I think their sales indicated that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Levi Stubbs Tears
I’m also surprised that more thought and effort was put into her debut album, for that matter her debut single. They took her debut single, wrote “and The Supremes“ on it And there goes her guaranteed number one solo debut record. Instead we got reach out and touch. I don’t think Berry Gordy had been planning for quite a few years, or even quite a few months. I’m shocked that he brought in Bones Howe But the results were interesting and I think the interim would’ve been great on the first album instead of somethings on my mind or keep an eye retread.
Keep in mind that when the album was released, "Reach Out" was the only single. It was another month before "Mountain" was released and still a couple months before it hit #1. I wonder how much of the "official" sales tally came pre and post "Mountain". Also under consideration is would the album have sold better using "Mountain" as the title? And still one more thing to ponder: we die hard Diana fans love to think that the world was waiting with bated breath for her solo arrival, when in fact the world pretty much went "meh" when she did. And that may have extended to the debut album as well. The momentum of the massive success of "Mountain" is slowed by the stupidity that would be Diana's singles and albums schedule up until Lady Sings.Quote:
Originally Posted by daviddh
Motown was a singles label, it rarely sold many albums. Back in the '60s, the only constant album selling act there were the Supremes, but I believe of those albums:
Where Did Our Love Go only got as far as over 950,000, whereas The Supremes A Go-Go hovered around the one million mark but not quite getting there, while their Greatest Hits sold around over maybe, what, 1.5 million?
Whereas other Motown artists were lucky to sell 300,000 copies of an album. This includes established acts like Mary Wells, Marvin Gaye, the Four Tops, the Temptations, etc.
Even with the "last superstars on the Motown assembly line", the Jackson 5, never had an album sell a million copies in the states, all of their hit albums [[namely the first four) hovered between 750,000-900,000 copies each, while their own Greatest Hits album MIGHT have sold a million, if that, whereas their other albums totally flopped afterwards.
So imagine an album with as much push as Diana Ross in the timeframe of 1970 when barely anyone was selling one million copies an album [[and the only ones doing that were Elvis and the Beatles), her debut doing over 500,000 copies was considered a huge success.
But that stopped being something to brag about once Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder began releasing their own automonous albums and suddenly these acts were selling between 1-5 million copies an album for a time in the 1970s and they both peaked in that timeframe around 1977.
Diana only had three million-selling albums as a solo artist while at Motown [[and one more after she left initially in the early '80s): "Lady Sings the Blues", "Touch Me in the Morning" and "Diana" from '80.
Whereas more modest releases like Surrender, the 1976 self-titled album and her duet album with Marvin hovered around, maybe, 450,000-700,000 copies.
Motown was trying too hard with Diana, I think. Instead of building on singles from the 1970 album, they moved quickly to a second album that came out in the end of the year and then another album right afterwards.Quote:
Originally Posted by RanRan79
Motown was oversaturating the market with so many LPs that many just didn't really pay attention. Berry Gordy just didn't know what he was doing half the time as far as Diana's music was concerned.
I always felt Diana could've been a better artist if Motown hadn't released album after album the way they did. They nearly worked that poor skinny girl to death! SMHQuote:
Originally Posted by RanRan79
If those figures are correct Midnight, that's an excellent point.Quote:
Originally Posted by midnightman
While I much prefer EIE to DR70, I'd be good if it ended up vaulted, and the follow up album had been Surrender. I think Surrender would've done better released when "Remember Me" had peaked and then the title cut was released as a single. Diana should've done some television promoting "Surrender" song. Maybe pull a third cut from the album or let it ride until Lady. The schedule of singles and albums between "Remember Me" and Lady Sings the Blues is absolutely horrible management. Somebody at the label wasn't doing his/her damn job.Quote:
Originally Posted by midnightman
it's always fun to compare! i like the LC album and find nearly all of the tracks well done. but there's such a stylistic and musical variety here that it's an odd album. on other albums there were some tracks that were weaker or needed to be part of the overall album set. Like The Boss lp - sparkle or I'm In The World. perfect within the context of that album. but maybe not so much so in another settingQuote:
Originally Posted by TheMotownManiac
LC is where nearly every song is strong but there's such an odd array.
i think you're right about Join and TCB cutting into LC sales. they were all released right on top of one another.Quote:
Originally Posted by gman
as fans, we seem to look for chart success and artistic integrity. At motown though [[i'm guessing) they were looking at total revenue and sales
If you release 1 great album, it might sell 1,000,000 copies
if you released 3 ok albums, each might sell 400,000. but you've now sold a total of 1,200,000 and made more money
i'd disagree with this a bit. there are some exceptional supremes studio albums [[i'm excluding Greatest Hits, anthologies, etc). and while nearly any lp could be improved upon, i'd say these have the quality to stand the test of timeQuote:
Originally Posted by Levi Stubbs Tears
Where did our love to
More hits
Rodger's and hart
Sam cooke
Right On
Touch
Mary Scherrie & Susaye
there are other strong lps but IMO these have more than stood the test of time, there's a level of quality throughout and iconic songs. very few WTF tracks
i think your sales figures are off. According to Wikipedia [[and i know - that's not an perfect source)Quote:
Originally Posted by midnightman
Where - over 3 million copies
Liverpool - 850K
CW&P - 200k
Sam Cook - 325K
More - 1.7M
Copa - 1.4M
Symphony - 1.9M
A Go go - 3.5M
HDH - 1.5M
R&H - 500K
GH - 6.2M
I would trust my dog before I trust Wikipedia lolQuote:
Originally Posted by sup_fan
in Wikipedia it says that the album was rereleased under the title of the hit single. I was wondering if anyone had ever seen the album with “ain’t no mountain high enough“ on the cover in addition to Diane‘s name?Quote:
Originally Posted by RanRan79
LOL!! That’s hilarious!Quote:
Originally Posted by RanRan79
I never saw an album with the new title.Quote:
Originally Posted by kenneth
But when it was first released on cd [[as a 2fer with SURRENDER), they re-titled it AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH and deleted the tracks "You're All I Need to Get By" and "These Things Will Keep Me Loving You." But the title on the actual album they used for the cover photo was still DIANA ROSS.
Its always helpful to know what side one bats for. :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by RanRan79