Diana Ross - Greatest Hits: The RCA Years Review

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(More customer reviews)Ironically, the music that Diana Ross recorded at the height of her celebrity and bankability (by 1983, she was one of the highest-paid entertainers in the world) is largely forgotten today.
The RCA Years have long divided fans; certainly, Ross' output from this period doesn't begin to approach the consistency and quality of her earlier or subsequent work. Listening to her RCA albums today, it is obvious that Ross was coasting; self-producing a large portion of the material, she simply sounds disinterested and soulless on many tracks.
This scattershot compilation manages to pull together most of Ross' major hits from 1981-1987, and, surprisingly, some of them hold up very well. However, many are mere footnotes in a legendary career.
The "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" album was a platinum-selling record, and spawned two Top 10 hits: the title track and "Mirror, Mirror." The former is one of Ross' least memorable hits, a why-bother synth-pop update of the 1956 Frankie Lymon classic. The latter, however, is one of the more compelling sides Ross recorded at RCA; a punchy, hard-driving rock-dance number featuring a juicy background track.
Unfortunately, the remainder of the album was soft-focus mush, as evidenced by "It's Never Too Late," a thankless disco retread that must have sounded dated even in 1981. More worthwhile, although similarly unneccessary, is Ross' emotional but overwrought solo rendition of "Endless Love," her chart-topping duet with Lionel Richie. Curiously ommitted from this package is "Work That Body," a camp novelty which was a major Top 10 hit for Ross in England. Although its 5-minute album version is way too much of a mediocre thing, its single edit (available on the UK compilaion, "Life & Love") is an amusing curiosity.
1982's "Silk Electric" went gold on the strength of the brilliant, erotic single, "Muscles," penned for Ross by Michael Jackson. The tight, steamy arrangement and Ross' intensely sexy performance can still raise temperatures. The same cannot be said of the album as a whole, which is largely (and rightfully) considered by most to be Ross' weakest. Bafflingly, neither "So Close" (the second single and a Top 40 hit) nor "Love Lies," the strongest album track, are included here--instead, "In Your Arms" is offered. A mediocre song to begin with, it is given a phoned-in interpretation and a watered-down arrangement. Whitney Houston and Teddy Pendergrass would invest considerably more feeling into their subsequent version, re-titled "Hold Me."
"Ross" (1983) is perhaps the most underrated album in the diva's RCA catalog. The infamous "drugged-out" cover shot probably hasn't helped its reputation, but it's actually a decent slice of soul- and pop-lite, with production duties divided ably between Gary Katz of Steely Dan and Ray Parker, Jr. "Pieces of Ice," a quirky but irresistible dance number, was the Top 40 hit of the set, but is maddeningly not offered on "The RCA Years." Neither is the driving, similarly overlooked "Up Front," a minor chart hit. "Let's Go Up" (another lower-rung charter) and "Love or Loneliness" are fine, but the omission of the aforementioned two tracks is unfortunate.
Commercially, "Swept Away" (1984) represented a rebound after the disappointing sales of "Ross." The album went gold, while the crunching, Daryl Hall & Arthur Baker-produced title track (another fabulous dance-rock number) hit the pop Top 20 and #3 on the R&B chart. "Missing You," the album's centerpiece ballad, ranks among Ross' finest performances ever, and is unquestionably the best song she recorded at RCA. Written and produced by Lionel Richie, it remains elegant, heartfelt perfection. Unfortunately, Ross' kitsch-clasic Top 20 duet with Julio Iglesias, "All of You," is MIA, as is the standout album track, "Forever Young." Also missing is the calypso-flavored "Touch by Touch," a favorite among fans (and a minor UK hit) and the Nile Rodgers-produced "Telephone," a substantial R&B hit.
The best of Ross' RCA albums, "Eaten Alive" (1985), is best remembered for the fan favorite, "Chain Reaction," a sublime 60's throwback which was a massive #1 hit in England. Another audience pleaser, "Experience," is included here, as is "I Love Being in Love with You." The highly underrated title track (another of Ross' rock-influenced dance tracks) was a Top 10 R&B hit, but--you guessed it, it's nowhere to be found here. Also, the album's original closer, "Don't Give Up on Each Other," is a terrific performance which could easily have replaced several of the filler tracks on this compilation.
Diana's RCA tenure ended quietly with the much-hyped but ultimately disappointing "Red Hot Rhythm & Blues" (1987). Producer Tom Dowd co-produced Dusty Springfield's seminal "Dusty in Memphis," and engineered and arranged such essential Aretha albums as "I Never Loved a Man" and "Lady Soul," but you'd never guess it from his sterile work here. Never living up to the promise of its title, the album was a bland mix of largely indifferent contemporary material and empty covers of cutesy 50's and 60's hits--Ross' revivals of The Bobbettes' "Mr. Lee," The Drifters' "There Goes My Baby" and Jackie Ross' "Selfish One" are inoffensive but thoroughly unremarkable. The sultry "Dirty Looks" was a respectable Top 20 R&B hit, but is yet another inexplicable omission here. Leonard Cohen's haunting "Summertime" and Luther Vandross' delicious "It's Hard for Me to Say" are the original album's definite highlights, and so their inclusion here is warranted; but the banal "Tell Me Again" and forgettable "Cross My Heart" are pure trifles.
Clearly, Diana Ross' RCA years were patchy to begin with, and the often baffling choices made by the producers of this compilation don't help matters. It's a decent CD for completist Ross fanatics who would like newly-mastered versions of some of these songs, and novice Ross fans who are unable to obtain her largely deleted RCA catalog on CD. But it certainly doesn't showcase the diva at her frequent best.

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