Quote Originally Posted by Boogiedown View Post
Could it be that we want to credit Diana Ross too much as being a musically invested person? She mostly stuck her finger in the air to see which way the wind was blowing and recorded accordingly.

I don't think she cared one iota that she was presenting something as meaningful as Billie Holiday's story to the world or how accurate she was being. This was her vehicle to stardom.
... As is all the music.

There was never a songbook of personal favorites. Apparently FOOLS FALLING IN LOVE was about it.
yes and no

for much of her early solo career, she definitely just recorded what was placed in front of her. but i think there was enough collaboration between her and Gordy that there was alignment most of the time on what was right and all. true, she would on occasion be forced to work with a producer or do a specific song. but i think in general she was thinking this was the right type of stuff to do

as for Lady, the story goes that she hardly knew anything about her until Berry started making her go get some records and listen. this was a few years prior to the movie. then she got pretty immersed into the idea of singing this material. then when it went public that she would be doing this role and the world went bonkers about how wrong she was, she wanted out. berry wouldn't let her and forced her to stick it out. and I think in the end she grew to truly love the music. the fact that it was always such a significant part of her shows, that she did Stolen Moments, shows that this music was important to her

then there was the story about the development of the big extravaganza of An Evening With Diana Ross, which was around 75 or 76. she worked with Joe Layton who was a famous director doing some of Barbra's early shows, did Sound Of Music on broadway. this was a for real director! and they came up with the structure of the show. it was a 2 Act show, with an intermission in the middle. and each act was in 2 parts. Act 1 starts with a typical exciting intro and some recent hits, while part 2 is The Girls, focusing on females that were influential on her life - her girls, the women of color that had preceded her. then Act 2 is motown/supremes and then the One Giant Step which used Chorus Line to parallel her journey into solo stardom and movies. From all accounts Berry wasn't particularly involved in the show design and so she would have been selecting the content.