Diana Ross Last Album

[Catherine Rubeo]

This 10 track album opens with lead single Dirty Looks, which is a great little track, and gives Diana some wonderful pop vocals, including a few breathy lines to smoulder down the mic. This was Diana in her early 40s. If you think about what Madonna or Kylie released at that age, then this is quite gentile.

Next up is Shine, which I was surprised to see was written solely by Mick Hucknall from Simply Red. Back in 1987, Mick was working on the second Simply Red album Men And Women with veteran Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier, and so it was probably with little effort, that he ended up giving this track to Diana.

After what feels like a bit of a 70s show theme intro, Selfish One gives Diana another great little pop number. This again feels like its roots were somewhere in the Motown garden. Musically, lyrically and stylistically, it reminds me of something from her vast 60s back catalogue.

Seventh track Cross My Heart is up next, and this is another well formed 80s track, giving Diana a great range of vocals, although the lyrics are a little. It comes complete with soaring strings, although I think they take a bit too much of a back seat.

Penultimate track, another ballad, sees Luther Vandross gain a co-writer credit, and backing vocal appearance. The track gives Diana another chance to showcase her vocals without much of challenge from the music.

We rescue them from their uncertain futures in charity shops, thrift stores, carboot sales, and online auctions, and then dust them off and give them a brand new track-by-track review, allowing you to discover forgotten gems, or reminisce on yesteryear.

Diana Ross sold tons of records with the Supremes during the 60s, and then again as a solo artist from the 70s onwards, hitting top 10 hits in the US or the UK every decade up to the 00s.

One of her neighbors was Smokey Robinson, the leader of The Miracles who penned the very first hits of the Motown label, and likely the one who made it all possible for the Detroit record company. In part thanks to this connection, and after much insistence to convince Berry Gordy due to their young age, the Primettes ultimately joined the upcoming industry force in 1961, changing their name to The Supremes.

They broke over the main audience in the summer of 1964, when Diana Ross had just turned 20. They started to pill #1s effortlessly, en route for a superb career that saw them sell over 76 million equivalent album sales. By the end of 1967, the group was rebranded as Diana Ross & The Supremes, a first step to her inevitable solo career.

By that point, in the US pop charts alone she was up to 16 #1s, 12 with the Supremes and 4 solo. Since the Hot 100 was introduced in 1958, only the Beatles had recorded more with 20 for the group plus solo songs. The next highest score was way down at 7, held by both Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones. Her 4 solo chart toppers were already enough to make her the all-time record holder among solo female artists.

By that time, in 1986, her popularity faded away suddenly in the US, after more than two decades of success. She remained a huge selling force in the UK though, continuing to score hits until the 00s.

If you are not yet familiar with the CSPC method, below is a nice and short video of explaining the concept. I recommend watching it before going on the view the sales figures. Of course, if you are a regular visitor feel free to skip the video and go straight to the numbers!

Just like The Supremes, albums from Diana Ross were often quickly replaced by compilations, strongly reduced their recurrent sales in the long run. The market was more and more favorable to albums yet, and we can see that she has been able to break the million mark way more often than her former band, 13 times instead of 3.

Her first big one was Lady Sings the Blues, which topped US charts for two weeks. where it sold nearly 70% of its units. Her success overseas quickly increased after this soundtrack, with Touch Me in the Morning selling half of its copies in the US, and Diana & Marvin, a collaboration album with Marvin Gaye, moving 63% of its units overseas. The latter was extensively reissued on budget labels in Europe, most notably in the UK where it became a huge seller.

We can notice that several pre-1978 albums, which were unable to get RIAA Gold or Platinum awards due to the Motown not being affiliated to the organization, did sell more than 500,000 or 1 million units in the US. Lady Sing the Blues is eligible for Platinum, while 6 more albums have sales worth of a Gold disc.

Diana Ross still cleared the million mark one last time with The Force Behind the Power, in good part thanks to its 585,000 UK sales. Naturally, numbers went down album after album in recent decades. The total of her 25 studio albums is a noteworthy 30.7 million.

The diva did break over the 2 million mark, in great fashion. Upside Down, just like its parent album, claims almost 5 million sales, while Endless Love is at 4 million. While the latter leads in the US with 2.5 million sales, the former was super huge all over Europe, with over half a million units in both the UK and Germany and around 360,000 sales in both France and Italy.

Missing You, a Lionel Richie-written tribute to Marvin Gaye following his tragic passing, also remains a favorite, getting pushed, somewhat sadly, at every bad news. Many more songs register sales in the 150,000-350,000 range. Among disappointments, Why Do Fools Fall in Love is the most obvious case, with a mere 75,000 units.

The gap is large compared to the next song, When You Tell Me that You Love Me, which stands at 80,000 units. That is still a great news for the 90s song, which surprisinly outperforms her top 70s hits. A UK #2 hit in 1991, the song has been covered a lot, including by Westlife which made it a #2 hit again in the UK in 2005. It was a mere 170 copies away from topping the ranking on Christmas week.

After Chain Reaction at 67,000 copies, many former hits fill the list with numbers from 20,000 to 50,000, which are mostly disappointing. Interestingly, two songs from her 2021 album Thank You manage to rank inside her personal top 20.

All those packaging-only records do not create value. They exploit the value originating from the parent studio album with each of its tracks instead. Inevitably, this downgrades catalog sales of the original LP when such compilations are issued.

Thus, to accurately gauge the worth of these releases, we need to re-assign sales proportionally to its contribution of all the compilations which feature its songs. The following table explains this method:

More highlights include special releases from the 90s, like 1.4 million seller Christmas in Vienna, and the 800,000 seller Making Spirits Bright. The latter is virtually unknown, and never charted. That was due to the former Billboard rule which excluded exclusive albums from their rankings. Making Spirits Bright was a huge release for Hallmark in 1994.

As expected, the two biggest forces from her solo catalog her Why Do Fools Fall in Love at 4.8 million and Diana at 3.8 million. Over 1.4 million are 3 albums almost tied, Touch Me in the Morning, Mahogany, and The Force Behind the Power. Combined, these records generate 17.5 million sales.

So, after checking all the figures, how many overall equivalent album sales has each Diana Ross album achieved? Well, at this point we hardly need to add up all of the figures defined in this article!

Out of her first 18 studio albums, 16 crossed the million mark. Ironically, the only two which missed it are her two albums titled Ross, from 1978 and 1983. She last topped a million with A Very Special Season in 1994.

Parker actually mentioned Diana Ross in passing during an interview with Relix last year around Tame Impala's latest album The Slow Rush, and how he makes music first and figures out which project it suits later.

Last week, the group announced that fans will have to wait 'One More Year' for their long-awaited homecoming tour. The group's national run of dates has been pushed back from December 2021 to October 2022, but added Genesis Owusu and Sycco as special guests.

On Thursday, the legendary Diana Ross announced the release of her 25th studio album with a new single "Thank You." The album, of the same name, will be her first featuring entirely original music in 22 years. The 13-track album, set to be released this fall through Decca Records, is described as a "powerful, inclusive musical message of love and togetherness." Stream the new addition to her catalog below.

Ross' last all-new album was 1999's Every Day is a New Day, which featured production from Chuckii Booker, Daryl Simmons, Gen Rubin and Ric Wake. The album reached number 108 on the United States' Billboard 200.

Beyoncé celebrated her 42nd birthday on stage in Los Angeles on Monday in front of a star-studded audience. Diana Ross appeared on stage at SoFi Stadium to sing "Happy Birthday," which brought Beyoncé to tears.

"Thank you so much. You are so amazing. This is the legendary Diana Ross," Beyoncé told the crowd. In 2019, the roles were reversed when Beyoncé sang "Happy Birthday" to Ross at her 75th birthday, Entertainment Tonight reports.

Several other stars were photographed at the L.A. show. Meghan Markle posed with actress Kerry Washington and Beyoncé's former Destiny's Child bandmate Kelly Rowland. Chris Rock and Lizzo were also photographed together.

Beyoncé's daughter Blue Ivy Carter also appeared on stage during the concert, as she has for most of the Renaissance World Tour. The 11-year-old, whose dad is Jay-Z, is following in her parents' performing footsteps and regularly joins her mom on stage to dance to her song "My Power."

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