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  1. #51
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    Quote Originally Posted by RanRan79 View Post
    But that just goes to show that RCA leadership was apparently on a constant 80s coke binge. The first day of Central Park has gone down in music and television history. I'm still confused about what it was with the second day that was a downer. Yet still, Diana's Central Park concert was a huge deal. I think it possible that it could've sold very well, so why veto that?
    listening to the audio of a concert is a very different experience. the Central Park concerts are iconic because we can SEE Diana on stage, menacing clouds all around. her chiffon cape and hair blowing dramatically in the wind. the CP stuff is really more about the visual than the audio. her performances are ok but nothing magical. given the stunning quality of her vocals on the Evening With lp or the HBO special which eventually ended up on VHS, the CP concert isn't her strongest.

  2. #52
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    I don't know why everyone is so down on Last Time I Saw Him.

    The single didn't get great airplay which is why it "only"went top 20 and hindered the album and then the hideous Sleepin' finished it off.

    But the single was massive in Adult Contemporary finishing #1 for the year in this genre and it was one of Diana's bigger selling singles.

    IMO aside from the title track Turn Around, Stone Liberty, I Heard A Love Song, No-Ones Gonna Be A Fool Forever and Behind Closed Doors are all great songs.

    The big shock was that the Last Time single did so badly in the UK - it sounds at the very least Top 20 to me.

    Maybe Motown was smarting from being forced to rein back on the Touch Me album and didn't promote it - I have nt real knowledge of that period.

    We Need You was apparently earmarked as the follow-up to All Of My Life although I'm not sure the lyrics weren't too deep for the mass public.

    In retrospect Leave A Little Room probably had the better prospects.

  3. #53
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    Quote Originally Posted by BobbyC View Post
    Summer never made any rock records anyway
    Hot Stuff won the 1979 Grammy for best female rock vocal and Donna received further nominations in this category in 1982 [[Cold Love) & 1983 [[Protection).

    Quote Originally Posted by BobbyC View Post
    I have yet to hear a Donna Summer record I'd call rock. When I think of rock, I think of Bruce Springsteen
    So like the Springsteen song Protection which he wrote for Donna? He'd actually written 'Cover Me' [[which later went US top ten) for Donna but was persuaded by his manager to keep it for himself.
    Last edited by Levi Stubbs Tears; 11-11-2020 at 03:07 PM.

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    All I can say is that to me, it's the production, how the song is crafted, that makes it sound like rock vs some other genre--rather than who wrote it. Donna's version of MacArthur Park was 100% disco/dance music, but the original hit version by Richard Harris was almost a ballad. To my ears, Fire by the Pointer Sisters was pop bordering on country, even though Springsteen wrote it. Does that make sense?

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    Quote Originally Posted by BobbyC View Post
    Sorry guys but I have yet to hear a Donna Summer record I'd call rock. I've heard Hot Stuff and the Wanderer, but wouldn't call either rock music. When I think of rock, I think of Bruce Springsteen, Heart, AC/DC and stuff like that. I can't see any of those bands recording Hot Stuff, frankly.
    What about Cold Love?

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    I don't know Cold Love--I'll give it a listen. I just listened to Protection for the first time--and to me, it sounds like dance music.

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    OMIGOD--just listened to Cold Love for the first time. That hook is almost identical to the guitar hook in Michael Jackson's Black or White!! Shocking!

  8. #58
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    Quote Originally Posted by florence View Post
    I don't know why everyone is so down on Last Time I Saw Him.

    The single didn't get great airplay which is why it "only"went top 20 and hindered the album and then the hideous Sleepin' finished it off.

    But the single was massive in Adult Contemporary finishing #1 for the year in this genre and it was one of Diana's bigger selling singles.

    IMO aside from the title track Turn Around, Stone Liberty, I Heard A Love Song, No-Ones Gonna Be A Fool Forever and Behind Closed Doors are all great songs.

    The big shock was that the Last Time single did so badly in the UK - it sounds at the very least Top 20 to me.

    Maybe Motown was smarting from being forced to rein back on the Touch Me album and didn't promote it - I have nt real knowledge of that period.

    We Need You was apparently earmarked as the follow-up to All Of My Life although I'm not sure the lyrics weren't too deep for the mass public.

    In retrospect Leave A Little Room probably had the better prospects.
    i don’t think folks are down on LTISH as a song, but as a single - especially as a follow-up to TMITM. It’s insane. The song may be fun, and appeal to a very niche market, but ultimately, widespread pop audiences were very unlikely to flock to a Dixieland novelTy tune. Album buyers often make their decisions on whether or not they want to buy an album by how a single sounds, and I can’t imagine very many people hearing that song and having them think that I would like a whole album of that. Since there was nothing else really to release on that album except maybe Stone liberty that’s all the public really had to go on, so the album sold to her hard-core fans only. There was always a copy or two in used record store bins not that long after it was released.
    I like the song just fine, but it broke my heart that it showed none of the promise and magic of its predecessor. By all accounts, it was a stupid,stupid,stupid move.

    as far as we need you versus leave a little room, I would have to flip a coin I certainly think we need you is a wonderful wonderful record and if it caught on to go to number one and get a Grammy nod. It has that kind of quality. Or, it could Miss of course. LALR is a nice easy track, it starts off a little Mamby-pamby and slow, but really has a great build and payoff. I think both would hit, but WNY has that potential to go the next level of respect.

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    I’ve told the general story of why Diana’s career at RCA petered out in the past. For some reason I couldn’t find it in the archives here so I’ll quote myself from a different website to give some general context to the goings on at the label circa 85-88...

    ‘“Catching back up on the thread and saw this so I'll fill in the details as I've learned them from Kenny's memoir and a few other industry books. When Bob Buziak replaced Bob Summers as head of RCA around 84-85, he found the label was in a major drought thanks to massive overpressing of titles, poor A&R, rampant overspending by the prior regime, and overpriced contracts. Diana Ross was signed for $20 million for example and would only score 1 platinum & 2 gold sellers out of 6 releases in 7 years. Kenny was guaranteed 4 million per album no matter how well it did. Even the album with Islands In The Stream only did a million. The follow up and the Dolly Xmas projects in 84 did as well and then he went off the cliff until his contract ended in 88. Rogers requested a sitdown with Buziak when his sales and pop chart action went south. There he was told that no matter what product he turned in the label had no real interest in marketing him anymore. Buziak added that if they did, it would make the folks that hired him wonder why they fired Summers. It was rumored this logic also applied to Ross. He was only going to only promote his signings. He also considered Barry Manilow's deal unrecoupable so he cut him from the label after a year and 2 releases to let him run back to Clive Davis. This may also help explain why Hall & Oates and the Pointer Sisters also suddenly stopped having consistent hits and a slew of new signings took off culminating in a mega Soundtrack we'll discuss in a bit that netted RCA $150 million.

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    I’ll also clarify Geffen Records did struggle to get rock airplay for The Wanderer. In general, that format wasn’t looking to add Donna or the Pointer Sisters similarly themed work to their playlists in 80. There was mild accusations of racism attached as no one batted an eye lash at playing white females like Chrissie Hynde or Pat Benatar’s current efforts. Billboard covered this plight back then. It also didn’t help Geffen as a label suddenly stopped promoting Donna’s album the moment they had to figure out how to get tons of copies of their second release, John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s “Double Fantasy” pressed to meet the sudden demand after his murder. You can see Donna’s album crash 20 some places the next week if you pull the chart. It gave the whole project a whiff of failure that even a great single like Cold Love couldn’t overcome.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Glenpwood View Post
    I’ll also clarify Geffen Records did struggle to get rock airplay for The Wanderer. In general, that format wasn’t looking to add Donna or the Pointer Sisters similarly themed work to their playlists in 80. There was mild accusations of racism attached as no one batted an eye lash at playing white females like Chrissie Hynde or Pat Benatar’s current efforts. Billboard covered this plight back then. It also didn’t help Geffen as a label suddenly stopped promoting Donna’s album the moment they had to figure out how to get tons of copies of their second release, John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s “Double Fantasy” pressed to meet the sudden demand after his murder. You can see Donna’s album crash 20 some places the next week if you pull the chart. It gave the whole project a whiff of failure that even a great single like Cold Love couldn’t overcome.
    I haven't read all of each-and-every post, but an extra irony as you, Glenpwood, may remember, is that Lennon chatted up 'Cold Love'.

  12. #62
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    one plus for the RCA years rarely mentioned was Diana's early awareness of the music video a fair amount are glossy expensive and hold up today - "Mirror Mirror" is a tour de force with Diana giving her all Eaten Alive Missing You Chain Reaction All Of You and a few aimed very much at the Gay dollar - Muscles,Swept Away..other artists such as Dionne Gladys or Striesand and their labels just didnt step up to new medium Chain Reaction reached no.1 in the UK largely due to the videos appeal..Geffen refused Chera budget for 1987s' " I Found Someone" so she paid for the video herself..Geffen for Ross would have been a mistake

  13. #63
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    Quote Originally Posted by BobbyC View Post
    OMIGOD--just listened to Cold Love for the first time. That hook is almost identical to the guitar hook in Michael Jackson's Black or White!! Shocking!
    And it came out several years prior to Black or White.

  14. #64
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheMotownManiac View Post
    i don’t think folks are down on LTISH as a song, but as a single - especially as a follow-up to TMITM. It’s insane. The song may be fun, and appeal to a very niche market, but ultimately, widespread pop audiences were very unlikely to flock to a Dixieland novelTy tune. Album buyers often make their decisions on whether or not they want to buy an album by how a single sounds, and I can’t imagine very many people hearing that song and having them think that I would like a whole album of that. Since there was nothing else really to release on that album except maybe Stone liberty that’s all the public really had to go on, so the album sold to her hard-core fans only. There was always a copy or two in used record store bins not that long after it was released.
    I like the song just fine, but it broke my heart that it showed none of the promise and magic of its predecessor. By all accounts, it was a stupid,stupid,stupid move.

    as far as we need you versus leave a little room, I would have to flip a coin I certainly think we need you is a wonderful wonderful record and if it caught on to go to number one and get a Grammy nod. It has that kind of quality. Or, it could Miss of course. LALR is a nice easy track, it starts off a little Mamby-pamby and slow, but really has a great build and payoff. I think both would hit, but WNY has that potential to go the next level of respect.
    Excellent analysis except , l would have released “Won’t Last A Day” as the second single in the USA and third in the UK.
    Last edited by Ollie9; 11-12-2020 at 08:39 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Glenpwood View Post
    I’ve told the general story of why Diana’s career at RCA petered out in the past. For some reason I couldn’t find it in the archives here so I’ll quote myself from a different website to give some general context to the goings on at the label circa 85-88...

    ‘“Catching back up on the thread and saw this so I'll fill in the details as I've learned them from Kenny's memoir and a few other industry books. When Bob Buziak replaced Bob Summers as head of RCA around 84-85, he found the label was in a major drought thanks to massive overpressing of titles, poor A&R, rampant overspending by the prior regime, and overpriced contracts. Diana Ross was signed for $20 million for example and would only score 1 platinum & 2 gold sellers out of 6 releases in 7 years. Kenny was guaranteed 4 million per album no matter how well it did. Even the album with Islands In The Stream only did a million. The follow up and the Dolly Xmas projects in 84 did as well and then he went off the cliff until his contract ended in 88. Rogers requested a sitdown with Buziak when his sales and pop chart action went south. There he was told that no matter what product he turned in the label had no real interest in marketing him anymore. Buziak added that if they did, it would make the folks that hired him wonder why they fired Summers. It was rumored this logic also applied to Ross. He was only going to only promote his signings. He also considered Barry Manilow's deal unrecoupable so he cut him from the label after a year and 2 releases to let him run back to Clive Davis. This may also help explain why Hall & Oates and the Pointer Sisters also suddenly stopped having consistent hits and a slew of new signings took off culminating in a mega Soundtrack we'll discuss in a bit that netted RCA $150 million.
    Interesting stuff Glenpwood.

  16. #66
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheMotownManiac View Post
    i don’t think folks are down on LTISH as a song, but as a single - especially as a follow-up to TMITM. It’s insane. The song may be fun, and appeal to a very niche market, but ultimately, widespread pop audiences were very unlikely to flock to a Dixieland novelTy tune. Album buyers often make their decisions on whether or not they want to buy an album by how a single sounds, and I can’t imagine very many people hearing that song and having them think that I would like a whole album of that. Since there was nothing else really to release on that album except maybe Stone liberty that’s all the public really had to go on, so the album sold to her hard-core fans only. There was always a copy or two in used record store bins not that long after it was released.
    I like the song just fine, but it broke my heart that it showed none of the promise and magic of its predecessor. By all accounts, it was a stupid,stupid,stupid move.

    as far as we need you versus leave a little room, I would have to flip a coin I certainly think we need you is a wonderful wonderful record and if it caught on to go to number one and get a Grammy nod. It has that kind of quality. Or, it could Miss of course. LALR is a nice easy track, it starts off a little Mamby-pamby and slow, but really has a great build and payoff. I think both would hit, but WNY has that potential to go the next level of respect.
    I'm definitely not hearing what some of the rest of you are hearing in terms of additional singles on TMITM. To my ears the album's success is in the cohesiveness of the tracks; a perfect example of the term "long playing record". I do think that either "All Of My Life" or "I Won't Last A Day" were the most likely to have a chance as follow up hits. But "We Need You"? "Leave A Little Room"? I have almost zero faith in either of these hitting as singles. Great songs within the album, but they lack the ear catching sound of the title cut. Even "I Won't Last" would probably need a different mix. On the other hand, your earlier suggestion about "Brown Baby" is intriguing. It's my favorite cut on the album and one of my all time favorite Diana vocals ever. But I'm not convinced it was a surefire hit either.

    I'm unbothered by the release of "Last Time I Saw Him" as a single. It's novelty for sure, but I think it works for Diana. And had she promoted it on television, it may have gone further than it did. The problem is that the song should've been a single only cut. Motown put together an album to capitalize off of the song and ended up with a non-cohesive group of cuts that was highly disappointing considering how fantastic TMITM had been. They could've saved it for the eventual Greatest Hits release.

    LTISH was just a boring album. To me the only cuts that have any sparkle are the Guadio cuts. I think if Gordy had allowed Bob to tackle the TMITM followup album, we would've ended up with a better product. Bring Ashford and Simpson back in. Deke too. Masser mostly makes great singles. I think a Masser album would bore me to tears.

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    Quote Originally Posted by nomis View Post
    one plus for the RCA years rarely mentioned was Diana's early awareness of the music video a fair amount are glossy expensive and hold up today - "Mirror Mirror" is a tour de force with Diana giving her all Eaten Alive Missing You Chain Reaction All Of You and a few aimed very much at the Gay dollar - Muscles,Swept Away..other artists such as Dionne Gladys or Striesand and their labels just didnt step up to new medium Chain Reaction reached no.1 in the UK largely due to the videos appeal..Geffen refused Chera budget for 1987s' " I Found Someone" so she paid for the video herself..Geffen for Ross would have been a mistake
    Good point about the videos. I remember loving the "Swept Away" and "Eaten Alive" videos as a kid.

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    Quote Originally Posted by RanRan79 View Post
    Good point about the videos. I remember loving the "Swept Away" and "Eaten Alive" videos as a kid.
    They stand up well even today. Regarding “Eaten Alive”, i just bought a posh new music system where the clarity is incredible. Thirty five years after its original release and i was taken aback at just how much of MJ voice is featured on the song lol. Bits I thought we’re Diana prove to me Michael. She is almost a guest on her own record.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ollie9 View Post
    A

    They stand up well even today. Regarding “Eaten Alive”, i just bought a posh new music system where the clarity is incredible. Thirty five years after its original release and i was taken aback at just how much of MJ voice is featured on the song lol. Bits I thought we’re Diana prove to me Michael. She is almost a guest on her own record.
    Good to know Ollie. I am thinking of updating my outdated system. You will have to let me know which particular system you decided upon, and i may even follow suit if the results are so impressive.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bluebrock View Post
    Good to know Ollie. I am thinking of updating my outdated system. You will have to let me know which particular system you decided upon, and i may even follow suit if the results are so impressive.
    Its a Naim Uniti Star All In One Audio Player.

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    Quote Originally Posted by RanRan79 View Post
    I'm definitely not hearing what some of the rest of you are hearing in terms of additional singles on TMITM. To my ears the album's success is in the cohesiveness of the tracks; a perfect example of the term "long playing record". I do think that either "All Of My Life" or "I Won't Last A Day" were the most likely to have a chance as follow up hits. But "We Need You"? "Leave A Little Room"? I have almost zero faith in either of these hitting as singles. Great songs within the album, but they lack the ear catching sound of the title cut. Even "I Won't Last" would probably need a different mix. On the other hand, your earlier suggestion about "Brown Baby" is intriguing. It's my favorite cut on the album and one of my all time favorite Diana vocals ever. But I'm not convinced it was a surefire hit either.

    I'm unbothered by the release of "Last Time I Saw Him" as a single. It's novelty for sure, but I think it works for Diana. And had she promoted it on television, it may have gone further than it did. The problem is that the song should've been a single only cut. Motown put together an album to capitalize off of the song and ended up with a non-cohesive group of cuts that was highly disappointing considering how fantastic TMITM had been. They could've saved it for the eventual Greatest Hits release.

    LTISH was just a boring album. To me the only cuts that have any sparkle are the Guadio cuts. I think if Gordy had allowed Bob to tackle the TMITM followup album, we would've ended up with a better product. Bring Ashford and Simpson back in. Deke too. Masser mostly makes great singles. I think a Masser album would bore me to tears.
    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

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    Quote Originally Posted by Glenpwood View Post
    I’ve told the general story of why Diana’s career at RCA petered out in the past. For some reason I couldn’t find it in the archives here so I’ll quote myself from a different website to give some general context to the goings on at the label circa 85-88...

    ‘“Catching back up on the thread and saw this so I'll fill in the details as I've learned them from Kenny's memoir and a few other industry books. When Bob Buziak replaced Bob Summers as head of RCA around 84-85, he found the label was in a major drought thanks to massive overpressing of titles, poor A&R, rampant overspending by the prior regime, and overpriced contracts. Diana Ross was signed for $20 million for example and would only score 1 platinum & 2 gold sellers out of 6 releases in 7 years. Kenny was guaranteed 4 million per album no matter how well it did. Even the album with Islands In The Stream only did a million. The follow up and the Dolly Xmas projects in 84 did as well and then he went off the cliff until his contract ended in 88. Rogers requested a sitdown with Buziak when his sales and pop chart action went south. There he was told that no matter what product he turned in the label had no real interest in marketing him anymore. Buziak added that if they did, it would make the folks that hired him wonder why they fired Summers. It was rumored this logic also applied to Ross. He was only going to only promote his signings. He also considered Barry Manilow's deal unrecoupable so he cut him from the label after a year and 2 releases to let him run back to Clive Davis. This may also help explain why Hall & Oates and the Pointer Sisters also suddenly stopped having consistent hits and a slew of new signings took off culminating in a mega Soundtrack we'll discuss in a bit that netted RCA $150 million.
    Glen - thank you so much for sharing this!! that definitely does seem to be a logical explanation of things. Buziak needed to prove himself. And lets face it - Diana's music during this time wasn't the level of quality she really needed anyway. some sold well enough but none were masterpieces. plus the public was ready for new sounds and artists.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ollie9 View Post
    Its a Naim Uniti Star All In One Audio Player.
    Thank you for that. I shall look into it.

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    For me, even weak albums such as LTISH are infinitely better then the majority of her recordings for RCA. They were of a certain quality.
    Had Motown continued to plunder TMITM for hit singles i think it would generally be a better known album today. It certainly contains some of Dianas best vocal performances ever. I personally love the sensual sophistication of the album.

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    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.

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    well i think it's questionable from an ARTISTIC standpoint. but this was a monetary decision [[most likely). even if they had released a second single from the TMITM set, the album had been out since June and peaked on the charts in Sept. sure they could have scraped up a few more sales of the album during the holidays. it would still have been in release either way so it still had sales.

    But to market a BRAND NEW DIANA ROSS ALBUM for the holidays would generate much, much, much more sales than trying to squeeze a bit more juice out of TMITM.

    Motown was a business, first and foremost.

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    There is an unreleased remixed single edit of Brown Baby from 1973. It's 3:26. I thought we used it on Touch Me Expanded but just checked and discovered we didn't. It would be a nice addition to a compilation.

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    Quote Originally Posted by BobbyC View Post
    When I think of rock, I think of Bruce Springsteen, Heart, AC/DC and stuff like that
    It's very telling that your list doesn't include Tina Turner or Nona Hendryx [[not to mention Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, or Little Richard), but, by all means, let's blather on about how Black women in the music industry have experienced no special discrimination. Give me a break.

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    Quote Originally Posted by sup_fan View Post
    well i think it's questionable from an ARTISTIC standpoint. but this was a monetary decision [[most likely). even if they had released a second single from the TMITM set, the album had been out since June and peaked on the charts in Sept. sure they could have scraped up a few more sales of the album during the holidays. it would still have been in release either way so it still had sales.

    But to market a BRAND NEW DIANA ROSS ALBUM for the holidays would generate much, much, much more sales than trying to squeeze a bit more juice out of TMITM.

    Motown was a business, first and foremost.
    But LTISH hardly set the album charts alive. They could have squeezed another single or two from TMITM, and then concentrated on the duets album, and then leave the LTISH album until the following fall. There were no other studio albums from Diana until the Black album. I'm sure the fans would have responded better to LTISH having been deprived of new material for a while.
    However we will never know for sure will we?

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    Sansradio I have no idea what you are whining about. I just mentioned those three bands off the top of my head, but in your mind I was dismissing Tina Turner and Nona Hendryx. That's just insane. Nona's first solo album was definitely rock. The other albums were funk/R&B as Nona herself has said. Tina Turner is rock live, but on record, she is pop. The Pointer Sisters' Priority was rock. Mother's finest sometimes did rock as well as pop/funk. Have I left anyone out, god forbid? You clearly have some sort of victim mentality that I find ridiculous.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bluebrock View Post
    But LTISH hardly set the album charts alive. They could have squeezed another single or two from TMITM, and then concentrated on the duets album, and then leave the LTISH album until the following fall. There were no other studio albums from Diana until the Black album. I'm sure the fans would have responded better to LTISH having been deprived of new material for a while.
    However we will never know for sure will we?
    while i completely agree with your timeline, i think the idea was 'hey - diana is super hot. at the beginning of 73 we had the Academy Awards, then in spring she released TMITM and both album and single did great. here in the fall she's back on the charts with the duets" so strike while the iron is hot. so they quickly tossed out the LTISH album and single. Agree that it didn't set the charts afire but it was something in the stores.

    the album was released prior to the single by almost a month. that probably didn't help things - to not have a lead single helping push the album.

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    Quote Originally Posted by sup_fan View Post
    to bring us back to the original question, what about the other labels then? Sounds like Clive and Arista were never even in the mix. So what about Geffen or Broadwalk or Polydor?
    As far as Geffen is concerned that would have been interesting but back in 1981 David Geffen was the main producer of the Broadway musical, "Dreamgirls" and he released the cast album so I don't think Diana would have accepted any offers from him or his label.

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    Quote Originally Posted by sup_fan View Post
    while i completely agree with your timeline, i think the idea was 'hey - diana is super hot. at the beginning of 73 we had the Academy Awards, then in spring she released TMITM and both album and single did great. here in the fall she's back on the charts with the duets" so strike while the iron is hot. so they quickly tossed out the LTISH album and single. Agree that it didn't set the charts afire but it was something in the stores.

    the album was released prior to the single by almost a month. that probably didn't help things - to not have a lead single helping push the album.
    Reasonable deduction. I didn't remember the single following the lp release; I do remember the single being 'enough' of a hit on NYC top 40 radio and a popular sing-along song, at lease in my social circles!

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    What with the excellent, but totally non commercial “Sleepin” as the second single and having to compete with Diana & Marvin tracks, the LTISH album was up against it from the off.
    Had it been released a year later it might have done rather well.

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