A hit single for 32 consecutive years!
Diana’s solo career started the moment she left The Supremes, her final gig was on the 14th of January 1970. She left with a single at the top of the charts, Someday We’ll Be Together from the album Farewell. Funnily enough, it was only Diana who sang on it!
Her first solo album came in 1970 and was overseen by Ashford and Simpson who simply took their two best tunes that had already been successful, and had Diana redo them. The two hits were Ain’t No Mountain High Enough and You’re All I Need To Get By.
On the debut, we also heard Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand), which was the lead single.
The same year she released her second solo album. This was less successful and contained more previously released tunes like The Long And Winding Road, and, on the extended version, Something, both Beatles tunes. We also find the Burt Bacharach tune Close To You.
None of these covers did particularly well, as in, we all still listen to the original versions, not Diana’s.
Next year, in 1971, she keeps churning out covers. This time it’s Reach Out I’ll Be There, the old Four Tops hit. Again, it didn’t work particularly well.
1973 and we got another album, Touch Me in the Morning. Here she covered Imagine (John Lennon) but again, even though the album charted reasonably well, it was hardly a success.
The same year, now relocated to California, Berry Gordy pairs Diana with Marvin Gaye, and together they released Diana & Marvin. The sales and charts would suggest that this was the success everyone had been waiting for but none of the tunes have had a strong legacy.
Legendary hits or not, you can’t knock Diana’s work ethic. In 1973, she released a third album, Last Time I Saw Him. The lead single (title track) did reach #1 but, really, do you remember it?
As crazy as it sounds, Diana also managed to portray Billie Holiday in Lady Sings The Blues in the early ’70s as well so when she released her 1973 album Live At Caesar’s Palace, she got the entire Supremes back catalogue, her solo hits, the covers, as well as all of Billie Holiday’s hits to pick from.
Looking at the career and work ethic of artists in the ’60s and ’70s like this really puts what we see since the year 2000 to shame!
Anyway, in 1976 we get another Diana Ross solo album, again, not a smash hit on there although the Charlie Chaplin tune Smile was a good choice, just not released as a single.
Next, she delivers two greatest hits/compilations, a live album, three studio albums, and a soundtrack for Wiz with Michael Jackson during 1976-79. No new hits are to be found that stood the test of time and became classics. Mind you, she still charted with something every year.
When Diana met Nile
However, by Diana’s standards, only worldwide super hit tunes will do so Berry decides that it’s time to switch it up and calls Nile Rodgers for help. Nile had just had an incredible year (1979) with Sister Sledge and his own band Chic, so he had certainly earned the opportunity.
What Nile did was write songs specifically for Diana, and apply his now well-established band to record and produce.
The album, simply called Diana, was unbelievably successful. Tunes like I’m Coming Out and Upside Down came to define Diana’s career which is pretty nuts considering how much she had already achieved.
Released in 1980, when Disco was supposedly dead, it sold over a million copies in the U.S. alone and has since become recognized as a truly iconic piece of work.
I’m Coming Out has gone on to become an LGBT anthem which makes complete sense as Nile came up with the idea when he was in a club in New York, saw a transvestite at the urinal, and sang to himself: I’m Coming Out!
He didn’t sell it to Diana with that story, to convince her, he said: This is going to be your anthem, the tune you will be walking out to for every gig. Nile was right, Diana has opened up with I’m Coming Out ever since.
The following year, she released another album, this time without Nile. It was a disaster with only 200.000 copies sold.
Perhaps getting desperate, in 1981 there’s another Greatest Hits album. This one came with Endless Love, a duet with Lionel Richie that became a worldwide hit.
In ‘94, Luther Vandross covered it with Mariah Carey and put it back in the charts again.
Following this up wasn’t easy, it would take several albums and singles before she got it right again in 1985 with Chain Reaction. Written by Barry Gibbs, it went to #1 in the U.K. and a few more countries.
Since the 1985 hit, Diana would go on to release many, many more albums, greatest hits, Christmas and Jazz-themed releases, and even a cover of the old disco tune I Will Survive. But nothing managed to bring back the heights of her days in the ’60s with Supremes or her ’70s and ’80s glory days as a solo artist.
But did she sit around and complain? No chance, she just kept going, and amazingly in 2022, Diana Ross headlined the Glastonbury Festival. Splitting the bill with Paul McCartney was frowned upon by many as the two legends were now in their late ’70s. Perhaps this says more about the current climate than anything else.
Still, over 40 years later, Diana started the show with I’m Coming Out, and Upside Down was obviously the highlight of the show.
On a final note, in order for us to really appreciate how great Diana’s career really was, here’s a fun fact:
Between the years 1964 and 1996, Diana Ross had a charting hit in the top 75. That’s 32 years of consecutive hit tunes, a record surely nobody will ever beat!
Diana Ross Tunes | Related Pages
(They Long To Be) Close To You
Learn how to play (They Long To Be) Close To You by Carpenters using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and a Spytunes video guitar lesson.
| Csus2 | Bm | Bm7 | Em Esus2 E5 Em7 |
Why do birds suddenly appear, every time, you are near…
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
You can learn how to play Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye using chords, chord analysis, lyrics, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| Bm7/A | G#m7b5 | Gmaj7 | Em9 |
Ain’t no mountain high, ain’t no valley low, ain’t no river wide enough, baby…
I Will Survive
You can learn how to play I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| Am | Dm7 |
At first I was afraid, I was petrified…
I’m Coming Out
You can learn how to play I’m Coming Out by Diana Ross using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| Dm7 Am7 | Gm7 | F/A Bb Bb6 | F/A Bb Bb6 Am7 |
I’m coming out, I want the world to know, got to let it show…
The Look Of Love
You can learn how to play The Look Of Love by Dusty Springfield using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| C#m7 | C#7sus4 | G#m7 | G#m7 |
The look of love is in your eyes…
Reach Out I’ll Be There
You can learn how to play Reach Out I’ll Be There by the Four Tops using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| Abm7 Gb/Bb | Db | Abm7 Gb/Bb | Db |
Now if you feel that you can’t go on, because all of your hope is gone…
Upside Down
You can learn how to play Upside Down by Diana Ross using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| Bb B C | F Gm | Bb B C | F Gm |
Upside down, boy you turn me. Inside out and round and round…
You’re All I Need To Get By
You can learn how to play You’re All I Need To Get By by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell using chords, lyrics, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| A | B/A |
(You’re all I need to get by) Like sweet morning dew, I took one look at you…
Diana on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was an article about Diana Ross tunes, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not by practising scales or studying theory in isolation.
