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Diana Ross Bio
Diana Ross is one of the most
successful female singers of the rock era. If
you factor in her work as the lead singer of
the Supremes in the 1960s, she may be
the most successful.
With her friends Mary Wilson,
Florence Ballard, and Barbara Martin, Ross
formed the Primettes vocal quartet in 1959. In
1960, they were signed to local Motown Records,
changing their name to the Supremes in 1961.
Martin then left, and the group continued as a
trio. Over the next eight years, the Supremes
(renamed "Diana Ross and the Supremes" in 1967,
when Cindy Birdsong replaced Ballard) scored 12
number one pop hits. After the last one,
"Someday We'll Be Together" (October 1969),
Ross launched a solo career.
Motown initially paired her
with writer/producers Nickolas Ashford and
Valerie Simpson, who gave her four Top 40 pop
hits, including the number one "Ain't No
Mountain High Enough" (July 1970). Ross
branched out into acting, starring in a film
biography of Billie Holiday, Lady Sings the
Blues (November 1972). The soundtrack went to
number one, and Ross was nominated for an
Academy Award.
Diana Ross returned to
record-making with the Top Ten album Touch Me
in the Morning (June 1973) and its
chart-topping title song. This was followed by
a duet album with Marvin Gaye, Diana Marvin
(October 1973), that produced three chart hits.
Ross acted in her second movie, Mahogany
(October 1975), and it brought her another
chart-topping single in the theme song, "Do You
Know Where You're Going To." That and her next
number one, the disco-oriented "Love Hangover"
(March 1976), were featured on her second album
to be titled simply Diana Ross (February 1976),
which rose into the Top Ten.
Ross' third film role came in
The Wiz (October 1978). The Boss (May 1979) was
a gold-selling album, followed by the
platinum-selling Diana (May 1980) (the second
of her solo albums with that name, though the
other, a 1971 TV soundtrack, had an exclamation
mark). It featured the number one single
"Upside Down" and the Top Ten hit "I'm Coming
Out."
Ross scored a third Top Ten hit
in 1980 singing the title theme from the movie
It's My Turn. She then scored the biggest hit
of her career with another movie theme,
duetting with Lionel Richie on "Endless Love"
(June 1981). It was her last big hit on Motown;
after more than 20 years, she decamped for RCA.
She was rewarded immediately with a
million-selling album, titled after her remake
of the old Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers hit,
"Why Do Fools Fall in Love," which became her
next Top Ten hit. The album also included the
Top Ten hit "Mirror, Mirror."
Silk Electric (October 1982)
was a gold-seller, featuring the Top Ten hit
"Muscles," written and produced by Michael
Jackson, and Swept Away (September 1984) was
another successful album, containing the hit
"Missing You," but Ross had trouble selling
records in the second half of the 1980s. By
1989, she had returned to Motown, and by 1993
was turning more to pop standards, notably on
the concert album Diana Ross Live: The Lady
Sings...Jazz Blues, Stolen Moments (April
1993).
Motown released a
four-CD/cassette box set retrospective, Forever
Diana, in October 1993, and the singer
published her autobiography in 1994. Take Me
Higher followed a year later, and in 1999 she
returned with Every Day Is a New Day. 2000's
Gift of Love was promoted by a concert tour
featuring the Supremes, although neither Mary
Wilson nor Cindy Byrdsong appeared -- their
roles were instead assumed by singers Lynda
Laurence and Scherrie Payne, neither of whom
ever performed with Ross during the group's
glory days.
- William Ruhlmann, All Music
Guide
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