Quote Originally Posted by sup_fan View Post
i definitely think you have a point out the Touch me album. it's a wonderful piece in it's entirety. We Need You is a stunning song but i think as a stand-alone single it's a no. the lyric are too down. All of My Life probably was the most pop-radio friendly.

I do agree that Last Time is an odd follow up to Touch Me. while i like the song a lot, it isn't the magic of TMITM.

as we've all discussed with the sup/tops duets, the M/D duets also played havoc with the released. TMITM was released as a single on 5/3/73 but didn't peak on the charts until 12 weeks later!! that's an incredibly long time to reach your peak chart position. after reaching #1 [[for 1 week) it remained in the Top 10 for a further 5 weeks.

Motown then released You're a Special Part of Me in Sept 73 and it started it's chart run in early Oct. And in Oct it released the duets album. It charted pretty quickly and was moving up the chart. but then...

Motown released both the single and album for LTISH in Dec. this clearly cut into the sales and momentum for the duets album.

frankly while i think the duet album never really lives up to what could have happened with this pairing, it isn't a bad album. it does have some lush and lovely songs on it and, sonically at least, it follows the TMITM album perfectly. And frankly it also is a fine follow up to Marvin's Let GEt it On.

my speculation is that Diana was hot here in 73 and there was no way Motown wasn't going to have a new stand-alone Diana Ross album ready for Christmas. So they quickly threw together the LTISM package. while the front cover art is fun they clearly lacked any degree of creativity with the back cover graphics. IMO this was about money, not artistic statement
I would tend to agree. LTISH was a blatant attempt to cash in on the lucrative Christmas market. Diana herself was bemused that Motown kind of pushed the TMITM album aside when it was a proud artistic moment for her, but she was immersed in family matters at this time and had already agreed an extended hiatus to spend time with her growing family, and of course she was interested in continuing her fledgling movie career. Marvin was also said to be unhappy about the timing of the duets album - an album that he was forced into doing against his will. Berry's decision making around this time was questionable to say the very least.