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After the emotional blockbuster that was "The Boss", diana" was designed to lighten up the mood in celebration of the 10 million fans worldwide's that inevitability enjoyed its commercial success. Memorial Day launches a summer of festivities, Motown hadn't even selected a single going into the holiday weekend '80. Still, it was wise to release the album that weekend because it literally set the pace for the entire summer. It was the #1 Dance R&B Album in Billboard for some 17-18 weeks from Memorial Day to way past Labor Day.
After the look inside one's soul that "The Wiz" purported to be, "The Boss" dealt with deeply moving issues and had her singing at a level we had not heard before. "The Boss" could be an intense listening experience. I had a friend who only knew how to celebrate and listen to "The Boss" with such intended passion. "diana" would prove to be a little off course. Diana reportedly felt like the album sounded too much like a Chic album. Some Diana fans felt like it didn't sound enough like a Chic album to insure a hit. The artwork was cutting edge and hot. After "The Boss", we thought it would be difficult to top that au naturel cover of the album. Well, "diana" took it one step further with some stunning shots by Francesco Scavullo. We had not seen this mediterrean Diana before.
The song titles sounded light and refreshing and easy though none of them sounded like I thought they would upon reading the titles of the songs. I thought surely "I'm Coming Out" was going to be more lyrically political, but, alas, it was more existential and ethereal. When it was finally decided that "Upside Down" would be the first single, it shot into the Top 10 in 4 weeks and spent 4 weeks at the top of the singles chart. My favorite part of that song had to be the extended instrumental break. That was different for a Diana Ross record. It takes a real secure singer to allow instrumental passages to near rival the vocal riffs. But she did it and it worked in her favor.
"Tenderness" would have been an instant 4th single if they edited to keep the bulk of the instrumental passage at the end. But with Motown also releasing the soundtrack to "It's My Turn", Diana celebrated 3 Top 10 singles in the states at once with "Upside Down", "I'm Coming Out" and "It's My Turn". "My Old Piano" was one of my favorites, supposedly the only song not written specifically for this album. Though it wasn't released as a single in the states, it was an international top 5 smash. Diana's recording career was always healthier international after 1985 when "Chain Reaction" was the #1 International Smash for 7 weeks and hardly made a dent in the Hot 100 here after a 2nd release. But as far back as her second "Everything is Everything" album gave Diana her second international #1 after "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", with "I"m Still Waiting". "I'm Still Waiting" would barely make an impression in the states. On "Touch Me in the Morning", she would have two back to back hits internationally off that album with "All of My Life" hitting Top 10 while not even being released in the states. So it came as little surprise that "diana" posted 4 singles internationally that undoubtedly took the album to its 10 million global sales making it Diana's biggest solo success until "The Force Behind the Power" would return her to the upper echelon of the international charts again.
For once, that was no heart swept ballad on "diana". "Friend to Friend" and "Now That You're Gone" are both nice songs but nothing that allows Diana to truly sink her soul into like "All for One" on "The Boss" and "Endless Love" the follow-up in a sense to the hysteria caused by "diana" globally. (The "diana" full length art stayed on a vacant showcase window on the Champs de Ellysess for the rest of the decade into the early 90s. I am sure it is gone by now).
I gave this album 5 stars for its performance not necessarily for my connection to the content. Years later, I still love the instrumental breather at the end of the Diana Chic version of "Upside Down" and the extended vamp on the Diana Chic version of "Tenderness". Tony Thompson's drumming on "Im Coming Out" is still something to marvel. Since it was yet another album from our Diva that was self titled, it has come to known as "diana Chic", "Chic diana", "diana '80, etc.
Here it is nearly 35 years later, and I keep getting clearer messages of what this album was designed to accomplish. It was the 2nd album In a row that Diana recorded out of the Motown system. Recorded at the Power Station, "diana" bristles with a renewed freshness that has really, really taken me and the classic Motown sound and flips it inside/out. Yet in other ways, it is very much a Motown album, as we look at the vast amount of classic albums Motown began releasing in the 70s, NARAS' blatant rejection of the Motown dynasty becomes even more offensively obvious. By rights, "diana" should have been a Grammy multi-nominated album. It didn't even register a token R&B nod.
Its taken me a lifetime to fully acclimate myself to the vision of Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards into Diana's world. Better late than never I guess. Like a great vintage bottle of wine, "diana" keeps fermenting.......so much so, I would love Diana to perform the album in its entirety. It would further give perspective to all parties from diana & Nile & Bernard & Berry & Russ. Did Diana and Russ Terrana do the right thing remixing the original recordings? 10 million in sales confirm that question. Would the Chic mixes have performed as well? We may never know. I just now know that I have done a 180 in my perception of the original mixes.....Diana wasn't sure, Berry couldn't hear it, Russ went along with Diana's confusion and Berry's rejection....but, Nile and Bernard weren't resting on their laurels. There is an undeniable "Chicness" about the album.....but it doesn't sound like any previously released Chic or Sister Sledge album. In fact, it inspired "Real People", the edgiest Chic album to date, "KooKoo" a fresh take at Deborah Harry as a solo artist into Nile's incredible run as a more rock oriented producer, transforming Madonna, Duran Duran and The Power station. An adversely shelving a Johnny Mathis album that could have suffered Diana's fate and underscore a myth, that Nile and Bernard surely knew how to "Have Fun (Again)".
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