Even though this song has gone on to become one of her signature songs, it only peaked at #19 this summer. Diana Ross' 'The Boss' is a fantastic Disco song, and an anthem til today. It should have been a #1 tbh. The Boss was a sort of comeback album for her in 1979, although it of course looks weak next to the massive success of 1980's Diana. Still it is a great album and saw her reunite with Ashford & Simpson.
I've always found The Boss to be somewhat-generic late '70s disco. I think "It's My House" was more interesting, but it mostly stiffed on the charts.
It's My House is another great single from this album. It's been enjoying some newfound popularity in the indie scene over the last few years.
Just one thing: the bass line wasn't sampled, as that wasn't a possibility in 1979. It was played by their in-house band.
That means it's time to step up your activity on the Billboard R&B thread because they continued to have top 10 hits there. I don't know of any stigma with that album that will be released in another year. Well, then, keep up with then other thread. The reason I stress this is because this is almost the time where the pop and R&B music almost totally separated, bar a few top 10 single. The separation isn't quite as dramatic as the country chart was compared to either of them, but still, there was a huge divide.
I don't play the album much. In fact, I don't think i've ever played the entire thing. Maybe i'll do that right now.
I think its rediscovery predates that. The Wikipedia page mentions MC Hammer quoting from it in the '90s.
While they might not have had a sampler, I think the Fairlight was out by this time. Steve Wonder was using the Computer Music Melodian, which had come out in '76, on his Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants in '79. So it was a possibility by '79...just not very common. Keep in mind, tape loops could also be used in much the same way as a sampler. The Bee Gees had used a loop of the drums from "Night Fever" as the foundation for "Stayin' Alive". But if you had access to decent musicians, it was often simpler just to recreate the groove using them. That wouldn't be the case anymore within just a few years, though...
John Mayer covered it for Andy Cohen recently on WWHL because Andy worships Diana Ross. I know the song has also gotten love on Drag Race, which I'm sure RuPaul loves as he's similarly obsessed with Diana Ross.
Dreadful dreck for me, but I agree Mama Can’t Buy You Love is a very well done track. I liked little from him following his Rock Of The Westies album until 21 at 33 was released, and from there mainly just his better singles with a couple exceptions. It’s astounding how incredibly lost he seemed to be during that period.
That’s one of the few Ross albums I haven’t heard, and yet I like both songs from it that have been mentioned. It just occurred to me that I rarely see it in the used vinyl bin. I will have to pick up a copy.
I just played it a while ago. It's not a bad album, but it's really not one that I can see myself playing often. And, i've had the CD for 25 years!
With the exception of a handful of songs (This one not being one) Motown just simply didn't do disco well. Hal Davis did an amazing job with Thelma Houston, but then failed miserably with Mary Wilson's solo tracks.
It has been said that Mr. John's collaboration with Mr. Bell led to this one which seemed on the face of it, a bit more futile.
And I noticed that. The instrumentation seemed, well, different in every way from the musicianship of "Nile & 'nard."
Motown did its best disco early in the game. "Keep On Truckin'", "Boogie Down", "Love Power", "Forever Came Today", "Walk Away From Love", "Love Hangover" and "Don't leave Me This Way" are all disco classics. Come to think of it, Motown didn't do that will with funk, either, although there were a couple of classics there too, like "Shaky Ground". The rest of the best disco and funk they released were by more autonomous or self-contained bands like Commodores, Teena Marie, or Rick James. Motown was always looking for pop singles centered around love. One of my favorite pop tunes is "Harmour Love" by Syreeta. It took years for me to learn it was Syreeta and never picked up that it was a Stevie Wonder production. But, for 1975, it was so un-Motown-like!
Mama Can't Buy You Love : It does sound like something that could have easily charted in say, 1976 or '77 (when it was recorded) but it still sounded contemporary to me in 1979. I was 7 when this came out and at the time it didn't sound all that different from the other adult contemporary leaning tracks that were hitting the charts arond the same time such as "When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman".
This is the third cut from Elton John's "The Thom Bell Sessions," and was also the B-side of "Mama..." I liked it just as well. The Hartford record store at which I spent most of my money, Al Franklin's Music World, didn't know quite what to do with this LP, as it contained only three songs, so they stuck it in with (and priced it the same as) the 12" singles. Thinking I was getting an extended version of "Mama" and possibly "Three Way Love Affair", I bought it...and came home to discover that the only extended mix was "Are You Ready for Love," a song I've never really warmed up to.
Yes, I recall my friends and I trying to sing or “rap” all the words. It was so different and so cool. When my sister brought home the record from college I remember looking at the label, thinking “what does ‘rapper’ mean”? It was so new I wasn’t even familiar with the term.
Good Times Sorry to say, I don't like this one any more than Le Freak. If anything, it's even more tedious, although not as annoying for some reason. It also sounds a lot like Le Freak to my ears; they could almost be part 1 and part 2. However, learning Good Times was the framework for one of the first rap songs to make the charts earns it a little bit of infamy. "The beginning of the end" says I, chasing the kids off my lawn. No way I was going to listen to 14 minutes of rap, but from what I did listen to of Rapper's Delight, I had the same reaction I always have to rap: I'd rather just strip the rapper off the song and listen to the underlying music (and since they didn't originate that part, what is the point?). I just don't see what the guy droning on and on about whatever nonsense adds to the piece at all. Rap is most assuredly not my bag, baby. I'm willing to be convinced rap has actual value, but no one has been able to change my mind despite repeated tries.
It's so crazy that we're currently in August of 1979 in this thread, and here we are in August of 2019 for real where we're about to have the fist song in US History sit at #1 for 20 weeks lol. America will be late in the game in that regard, it seems like everyone has had a 20+ weeker but us.
It's only 1979 lol, is the end for you already near Some of us who follow the thread are still years away from any of the #1 hits we ACTUALLY remember from our lifetimes. Regardless for first #1 Hip-Hop song is still over 10 years away.
