Diana's Duets

[sup_fan]

with the other thread highlighting the website The Diana Ross Project, i jumped over there to re-read some of the reviews. I typically skipped over his recap of the Diana's Duets album but it made me think. now that there's so much more material, what would YOU make up for a recap album of Diana's Collaborations?

there's the work with the Temps, marvin, Julio, Lionel, MJ and the cast of Wiz, Al B Sure, Brandy and others

pick 10 -12 songs that would be on your compilation. album tracks, alt versions, technically unreleased tunes like Dreaming Of You.

[sup_fan]

for reference, here's a link to his review of the actual US release of Diana's Duets back in 81 along with the song lineup

I'm gonna make you love me
My Mistake
I'll try something new
Include me in your life
I'll keep my light in my window
Try it baby
Pops we love you
You are everything
Stubborn kind of fellow
Ain't nothing like the real thing


https://dianarossproject.wordpress.c...as-duets-1981/

[Ollie9]

My pick…
The Impossible Dream - Paul Williams
Bread & Gravy - Ethel Waters
Crazy He Calls Me- Billie Holiday
Room Enough For Two - Billy Preston.
Dreaming Of You - Lionel
All Of You - Julio
You’ve Got What It Takes - Billy Dee Williams
Forever Young - Diana Ross
Big Bad Love - Ray Charles
Upside Down - Jamiroquai
When You Tell Me - Westlife
Love Is All That Matters - Brandy
Crush On You - Rod Stewart.

[Albator]

All of you
you are everything
just say
stop look listen
ease on down the road
endless love

[Ollie9]

A well considered duets album might have proved a massive success for Diana during these past forty years while helping to keep her musically relevant.
It’s interesting how she has appeared almost adverse to the idea, not seeming to recognise the huge commercial potential in such a project.
Her refusal to duet with Barry Gibb on the “EA” album, no further collaborations with Lionel and missing the opportunity to duet with Luther on “Hard For Me To Say” being prime examples.
It’s certainly a move that has helped restore many a flagging career.

[captainjames]

Dreaming of You with Lionel Richie
Big Bad Love with Ray Charles
Endless Love Lionel Richie
Love Is All that Matters with Brandy
All Of You with Julio
I'm Gonna Make you Love Me with The Temptaions
I'll Keep My Light or anything from the album with Marvin Gaye
Crush on You with Rod Stewart
I Want to Know Waht Love Is with Whitney Houston
Baby Love/Stop In The name of Love with Mirah Carey
Why Must We fall In Fall with The Temptations
Ease on Down the Road or Eaten Alive with Michael Jackson
Just to name a few..................

[khansperac]

A duet between Diana and Barry Gibb? People actually want to hear that?

[Ollie9]

Dreaming of You with Lionel Richie
Big Bad Love with Ray Charles
Endless Love Lionel Richie
Love Is All that Matters with Brandy
All Of You with Julio
I'm Gonna Make you Love Me with The Temptaions
I'll Keep My Light or anything from the album with Marvin Gaye
Crush on You with Rod Stewart
I Want to Know Waht Love Is with Whitney Houston
Baby Love/Stop In The name of Love with Mirah Carey
Why Must We fall In Fall with The Temptations
Ease on Down the Road or Eaten Alive with Michael Jackson
Just to name a few..................

I did mention these past forty years, with some of those songs listed from tv specials and not official releases.
I was thinking more along the lines of a complete album that with some decent marketing might have sold squilions. Preferably at a time when her sales were starting to dip from mid 80’s onwards. The opportunity was certainly there.

[Ollie9]

A duet between Diana and Barry Gibb? People actually want to hear that?

I think “Love On The Line” would have made for a good duet. Featuring the two names together would if nothing else garnered plenty of media interest resulting in increased airplay.

[Jaap]

It is surprising that Ross [[or her producers) did not opt to do a duet on the Thank You album, as most "legacy artists" do when they release new material -- if only for the promotional value. An duet with Smokey Robinson or Stevie Wonder would have worked really well within the concept of the Thank You album -- or with a younger female singer, like Alicia Keys.

[sup_fan]

my guess about the EA sessions is that she had recorded the Julio duet for the previous package. so maybe she was worried that there were too many duets over the years? given the way Barry produced her vocals on EA, i think a duet between he and she would have been an auditory nightmare.

the Al B Sure collab seems to have gone by with little to no fanfare. I don't know if the two labels couldn't come to an agreement about getting it on Force or what. same with the work with Brandy later in the decade

i like the idea of using a retrospective to help boost a current duet. by the 2000s, i think that would have been great. if she and Ray or someone did a couple songs and then fill in with her best duets. or maybe she specifically works with a few people and records several new duets and adds in the historic ones too.

[daviddh]

there was a duet with Smokey from the mid 70s that the title ecapes me
i think it was released on the TMITM expanded edition
great track, another gem left in the vault way too long

had to look it up
Kewpie Doll

[captainjames]

I think “Love On The Line” would have made for a good duet. Featuring the two names together would if nothing else garnered plenty of media interest resulting in increased airplay.

"Love on the Line" was one of my favorites on the LP and would have worked good as a single.

[Ollie9]

"Love on the Line" was one of my favorites on the LP and would have worked good as a single.

My fave as well and very radio friendly. After CR” probably the most commercial track on the album.

[sup_fan]

"Love on the Line" was one of my favorites on the LP and would have worked good as a single.

it's definitely a solid song but i think the end result we got was very underwhelming. Diana is singing in such a whispy breathy way. this is one of the "Best" examples IMO of how badly the Gibbs produced her vocals. I don't know what they instructed her to do or if she just refused to listen to them. but whatever the decision then they mixed the vocal so far back into the track that often it's almost intelligible. and i think the nasality of the Gibbs on backing vocals really doesn't mesh well.

but that all said lol, i do think this was a nice song had it been totally reworked. i can hear it being something much better than it was

[Ollie9]

it's definitely a solid song but i think the end result we got was very underwhelming. Diana is singing in such a whispy breathy way. this is one of the "Best" examples IMO of how badly the Gibbs produced her vocals. I don't know what they instructed her to do or if she just refused to listen to them. but whatever the decision then they mixed the vocal so far back into the track that often it's almost intelligible. and i think the nasality of the Gibbs on backing vocals really doesn't mesh well.

but that all said lol, i do think this was a nice song had it been totally reworked. i can hear it being something much better than it was

Nothing on “EA” for me is remotely as bad as the rather awful “Girls” which i seem to remember you dig Mr S lol.
The ”Eaten Alive” single should have been a duet with MJ with not a single Bee Gee falsetto in sight.
I don’t agree about “Love In The Line”, finding it a really good track that i think could have made for a memorable duet.
I actually like the fact Diana’s voice sounds a little different on this album.

[sup_fan]

Nothing on “EA” for me is remotely as bad as the rather awful “Girls” which i seem to remember you dig Mr S lol.
The ”Eaten Alive” single should have been a duet with MJ with not a single Bee Gee falsetto in sight.
I don’t agree about “Love In The Line”, finding it a really good track that i think could have made for a memorable duet.
I actually like the fact Diana’s voice sounds a little different on this album.

hahaha - yes i do happy to enjoy Girls. and I Am Me too lol. and even Turn Me Over! lol

now i wouldn't say those 3 tunes are all-time classics. but they're fun and innocuous. Turn Me Over is more like a "hidden track" even though those weren't really a thing back then. more just a playful element of the lp side being complete than any sort of serious song.

as for EA, even if her vocals were properly produced, i just don't find any of the tracks as magical as what Barry provided to Barbra for Guilty. I'll admit it's hard to separate my annoyance with the sound of the tunes but i don't think Love On The Live as a duet would be anywhere near as exciting as Guilty. and Oh Teacher and Crime of Passion are not to the level of Woman in Love or Promises. Same with Experience and Don't Give Up - not nearly as strong of songs as Run Wild or The Love Inside.

[Ollie9]

hahaha - yes i do happy to enjoy Girls. and I Am Me too lol. and even Turn Me Over! lol

now i wouldn't say those 3 tunes are all-time classics. but they're fun and innocuous. Turn Me Over is more like a "hidden track" even though those weren't really a thing back then. more just a playful element of the lp side being complete than any sort of serious song.

as for EA, even if her vocals were properly produced, i just don't find any of the tracks as magical as what Barry provided to Barbra for Guilty. I'll admit it's hard to separate my annoyance with the sound of the tunes but i don't think Love On The Live as a duet would be anywhere near as exciting as Guilty. and Oh Teacher and Crime of Passion are not to the level of Woman in Love or Promises. Same with Experience and Don't Give Up - not nearly as strong of songs as Run Wild or The Love Inside.

I love the songs on Guilty, but find some of Bab’s vocals interpretations a little sharp and hard edged at times.
I do agree that unlike Guilty, EA lacked a killer ballad to follow the irresistible “Chain Reaction”. I would have loved for Diana to have recorded “Run Wild”, probably my favourite track off that album.

[sup_fan]

i also believe that even if EA had been filled with timeless masterpieces, it had 0 hope of clicking in the US. by 1985 and 86, the name "Gibb" was simply poison among the youth. it was so inextricably tied to disco which had such a negative perception at the time. combine that with the precarious state of Diana's career by then and it was destined to fail. yes, she'd had some decent hits with Swept Away but she wasn't massive hot. she was a bit "old school" too for youth at the time.

[Ollie9]

i also believe that even if EA had been filled with timeless masterpieces, it had 0 hope of clicking in the US. by 1985 and 86, the name "Gibb" was simply poison among the youth. it was so inextricably tied to disco which had such a negative perception at the time. combine that with the precarious state of Diana's career by then and it was destined to fail. yes, she'd had some decent hits with Swept Away but she wasn't massive hot. she was a bit "old school" too for youth at the time.

I agree, the USA was so totally over her by then. Not so in other parts of the globe as proved by the massive success of “CR”.

[midnightman]

Diana could've done a lot of things, like another duets project, but since she's obsessed with being in control, it might've not worked out. She didn't really do too many duet projects after the Marvin Gaye project. Besides from a duet here or there with various artists [[MJ, Lionel, Al B. Sure, etc.).

[Ollie9]

Diana could've done a lot of things, like another duets project, but since she's obsessed with being in control, it might've not worked out. She didn't really do too many duet projects after the Marvin Gaye project. Besides from a duet here or there with various artists [[MJ, Lionel, Al B. Sure, etc.).

If worried as regards to catching Covid she could always record her parts separately, though realistically i kind of doubt she would be prepared to put the work in for such an album to come together, particularly at this stage.
It’s worth remembering we only ended up with “Thank You” owing to the fact she was at a loose end during the Covid lockdown.