Exquisite performance
Beautiful performance.
It is !!
Lovely quiet presentation with the simple staging and controlled lighting . She looks lovely and her dress, hair, and make-up are perfect imo. What year is this ?
[[I don't believe this is being performed before an audience though, the applause at the end sounds inserted.)
Lovely performance of a lovely song. It was always a personal favorite of Diana's, and she requested it to be the 5th single from the album when we had decided upon Change of heart. She did a great performance of it on Top of the Pops too. She was on top of her game around this time.
Unless you're called Michael Jackson you're pushing to get a 5th hit single in the UK from one album and while this a superior album track and Diana gave a few stunning performances it was never going to go big in the charts with 500k+ having bought the Force album.
I think Bluebrock has said before that Change Of Heart was then going to be the SIXTH single from the album!!!! but since Diana would be unavailable for promotion it was canned.
Never saw this as a big hit single either although I know many Diana fans really love it - thank goodness it wasn't the first single in the UK.
To me it has the same vibe as Gettin' Ready For Love.
I thought Waiting In The Wings with its reggae influence would have been a good single for the UK but I would have taken a chance on Battlefield.
It could have been a great big flop but could have taken on in a big way if it had managed to get national airplay.
It got very good reviews from sections of the music press who normally dismissed Diana's music [[their minds more or less made up before they even heard it!)
The difference between Change and Getting Ready for Love is that Change has a lot of hooks to catch you with and those are nearly completely absent from Getting Ready for Love
I agree that Waiting in the wings and Battlefield both had hit potential. In fact the whole album was stacked with great songs. It may not have been her absolute best album, but it holds a very special place in my heart because of my personal involvement. It was a very special time. Diana was at her vocal peak and was blissfully happy. She enjoyed spending most of her time in London, and was only too happy to promote this album which she regarded as one of her personal favorites. Happy memories.
Classic Ross album. In my top ten
i bought this album at the time of release and attended her concert promoting it. i've always thought it was... fine
Looking back on the album i enjoy it more than i did at the time. I can appreciate is for mature, sophisticated pop/r&b.
but i don't think it was contemporary pop/soul/r&b for 1991. Compared to what top artists were doing at the time, it doesn't shock me that it didn't make the charts in the US. Nothing struck me as truly unique or cutting edge. All nice and enjoyable. Nothing special
It's too bad that in the USA you have to have a certain sound in a certain era - and if you don't have that, your odds of success diminish.
Stunning and classy!
I think this was a performance on the UK Lotto TV draw I do believe that this album was the strongest of the Motown return, still EMI in the UK, and it did bring Diana back to the UK chart for first time since Chain Reaction, again not USA hit I hope that when the tour arrives in the UK next year the set has been adjusted to include some of these hits and drop more today than yesterday, I will Survive
I do not recall this performance. It certainly looks like the set for the Lottery Show, but i don't remember her doing Heart on this show. She certainly appeared on the Lottery Show several times, but the only live performance of Heart that i recall was on Top of the Pops. I shall have to dig out diaries to check the dates. Maybe Florence can enlighten us as to where this performance took place?
Thank you Bluebrock I would like to think that Miss Ross might tailor the Glastonbury set to her biggest UK hits as its only a 60 minute slot, but I the tour shows will probably be around 80/90 minutes having recently seeing the Radio City Show in June I was slightly disappointed that the set hadn't been changed since I saw her last in the UK [[ apart from More Today and Look of love ) personally I would like to see her finish the set with mahogany/ mountain encore Reach out and touch. Leave them standing and swaying
I remember seeing Diana quite a few times around this period. I lived opposite Battersea Park and would sometimes see her out walking in the park with Arne and on one occasion walking across Albert Bridge with his children. It's nice to hear this was a happy period in her life.
I think she waited to long with a follow up to TFBTP. Admittedly her 30 year celebrations and christmas got in the way, but by 95 i think she had lost a little of the momentum she had built with the TFBTP set. 94 would have been the perfect time for TMH..........me thinks.
Perhaps you are right, but she did release the One Woman cd and the boxset. She wasn't totally idle. She was attempting to balance her career with her family responsibilities.
She would have gladly retired after Force, but her contract stipulated further albums and compilations. She loved life in London. Perhaps she should have stayed. I know she almost did.
I think ..once again..Motown dropped the ball.
Not marketed at all.
Great tour. Should have been marketed as adult contempary style album like Clive Davis did with manilow but of course...the Ross version with new songs
Looks like it was Wogan then but I can't recall it at all.
Diana gave a superb performance on Top Of The Pops which usually means an increase in sales but strangely the record dropped the following week and then quickly fell off the UK chart.
Perhaps a fifth single from Force was one too far despite some good promotion slots, maybe better we didn't get a sixth.
Ah, "Waiting in the Wings" from the same album...I really want to like this particular arrangement; however, I recall when I first heard it, I thought to myself, "Did they manipulate the instrumental and background voices track to slow it down and then had Diana to sing over an edited version?" Her vocals are excellent, however, I feel that the tempo is somewhat slow and plods along. I usually always love background voices/harmonies; however, voicing of the background singers [[while I know they must be talented) led to a very drab sound. That's just my opinion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGv_jYoBLPQ
some of the top singles in the US in 1991 include:
C+C Music Factory - gonna make you sweat, things that make you go hmmmm
Mariah Carey - emotions, Someday, i don't want to cry
Paula Abdul - rush rush
Boys II Men - motown philly
Madonna - justify my love
Whitney Houston - i'm your baby tonight
George Micheal - Freedom
Extreme - More Than Words
Marky Mark - Good Vibrations
You also had the real emergence of rap, hip hop and new jack swing. whether or not it was to your personal liking [[frankly it's not really mine) you certainly can't deny the impact it had at the time on dance music. Bobby Brown, Bell Biv Devoe, Color me Bad, Tony Toni Tone. and hip hop artists like Tone Loc, MC Hammer, Dr Dre, Snoop Dog, Public Enemy, NWA, Ice T
now regardless of whether you enjoy these artists, songs or genres, THIS was the cutting edge music at the time. this is what was new and sought after.
I certainly would stop short at describing Paula Abdul as cutting edge. The woman couldn't carry a tune in a bucket.
Marky Mark? Bobby Brown?Very popular i have to concede, but once again not cutting edge.
All very geared to the youth market which i guess is the only market that matters in the singles chart, especially in the US.
lol - now i'm not attempting to discuss the "artistic merits and capabilities" of these artists. i was gonna list Vanilla Ice too but figured that would simply bring about a deluge of criticism lolol
i guess what i'm referring more to rather than "cutting edge" is the progression and trends in US pop music. this was a time when music that had been largely limited to the black communities exploded into the general pop realm. Rap had certainly been around for many years. and while i don't know exactly when rap pushed into the "ghetto" but from a chart ranking perspective it was in the late 80s/early 90s that this gathered a much more broad appeal.
Now obviously i don't think Diana should have ventured into this territory lolol good lord! lol and i also concede that her attempts at modern music on WO was not properly executed.
What i am saying is that with Force and even Take Me, i didn't get the feeling that her sound was really all that fresh and exciting. the songs were lovely but i didn't really think she was adapting current music to suit her. many of the songs just seemed like sort of generic attempts
I do think Everyday was much more fresh and contemporary when released. Of all her return to motown albums, i think that one had the most potential for real appeal with the younger generation and dance music.
I agree that Everyday probably was more fresh and contemporary but I didn't like it all that much when I first heard it. I much preferred the Take Me Higher album. Everyday has grown on me and I like it much more now than I did then. I don't think it helped that the cover was unattractive to me. Still, I felt the work on her return to Motown albums was better than her RCA material.
oh i def agree that, aside from WO, her Motown 2 material was much stronger than the RCA. if for no other reason than she's not muffled or singing in an echo chamber. just the production values alone are higher.
I do agree that EDIAND cover art isn't sensational. But frankly i didn't like the look on Take Me Higher either. Force was hot. WO - ick. but i think EVIAND is better than Take. the pic of her sitting in a galvanized washtub in the middle of country dirt road?!!? WTF?
TMH was much better than EDIAND
The Force Behind The Power is a nice album, very much suited to Diana... Every Day Is A New Day is not bad, it managed well to keep up with modern sounds... but Take Me Higher, I think, DOES BOTH, AND IS MY FAVE OF HER 90s ALBUMS!
“Everyday is a new day” is a great album. There is a part of Diana’s fan base that doesn’t like the “R&B” Diana and that’s ok. I prefer it. What I don’t get is how many imply it’s gloomy and sad.
Last edited by Bluebrock; 11-25-2019 at 02:15 PM. Reason: Not finished the post
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