Originally Posted by
sup_fan
Ran - from what i've pieced together, motown released Reach out and Touch in April mostly due to Diana demanding it. when it limped to #20 Pop Berry panicked. he and motown had been lauding her talents since before the DRATS name change. this was to be the launch of the most highly anticipated solo singer for the 70s and her debut was 20?!?!? Most of the A&S was either done or nearly finished but all of those tunes had a much stronger r&b flavor than much of her Sups stuff. so i think the heads at motown thought "holy shit!! this A&S stuff might be SO not the right launch material - it's too black, it's too this, it's too that."
so Berry ran to Deke and said give me a pop album on Diana and i need it tomorrow. Deke and Hal quickly pulled together a range of tracks and the result was EIE. Motown rushed the lp out but then radio had started to favor Mountain, a song Berry didn't like because it defied every rule he'd ever had about what a hit single should be. But due to radio demand he released it and it exploded.
EIE was still slated for the fall released and went out. but then with Mountain being so big, Berry decided the follow up needed to be something spectacular and [[probably) more r&b than anything on EIE. So A&S pushed out Remember Me
what's odd is that they didn't hold back the EIE release. mountain was released in July and by mid Sept was #1. EIE was released in Nov. plenty of time to put that release on hold and focus on the A&S stuff
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