You're correct that Diana was essentially finished on the US mainstream with this song, but she was far from over in the UK. One of her signature songs in the UK is still about five years away (When You Tell Me That You Love Me), one so beloved there that she took it to #2 on the charts both in 1991 and again in 2005 with a re-recorded duet version with UK boyband Westlife.
Poison broke through when I was in 9th grade. I remember a girl in my class bringing the Look What The Cat Dragged In cassette to school and showing our gym teacher. "Ms. House, do you think these are guys or girls?" The teacher took a glance at the cover and said, "They're in-betweens!"
"Rock Me Amadeus" This is another one of those hits that came seemingly out of nowhere. It was definitely almost like a throwback to the early days of MTV synthpop, when anything could be a hit if it was weird enough. (There is another synthpop #1 coming up but it seems decidedly more on the "serious side"). I'll admit buying the tape of Falco 3. He had another minor hit with "Vienna Calling," but then his star faded fast in America. I always thought the extended version listing the important dates in his life ("in 1781" or whatever, "he becomes a Freemason," plus how the narrator's voice drops slightly when he says "Mozart dies." And of course, "1985, Austrian rock singer Falco creates....Rock Me Amadeus! (echo).") A year later, I was a freshman in HS and Falco's popularity was definitely in the rear view mirror. We had an exchange student from Austria in our class, named Helmut, who was an extremely funny guy, and he would always bristle in mock-indignation when we mentioned Falco.
Rock Me Amadeus Never really cared for this. It's pretty good for what it is, which, to me, is novelty number.
the best falco-album is the first ... "der kommissar" was a moderate hit, but the best song is this... great new wave sound..
Rock Me Amadeus was the Gangnam Style of the 80s. Regardless, I loved this moment from the cult 90s WB teen show Popular (Ryan Murphy's first show, better known today for American Horror Story, and the actress who played Mary Cherry on that has been on several AHS seasons)
I LOVE Chain Reaction, and did immediately the first time I heard it in 1986. Some have opined that with the release of Mary Wilson's book on January 1, 1986.... Diana's reputation was harmed a great deal. She certainly never hit the top 40 again the US (With the possible exception of a duet with Al B Sure on the R&B chart). Mary's book was an instant best seller, and remains as one of the biggest selling music auto biographies of all time. Diana not showing up for the Rock and roll hall of fame induction 18 months after this did nothing to help her image. Or it might have just been her shelf life in the US had expired. I guess we'll never know.
The story behind it is interesting, the Bee Gees had finished recording the whole album with her, and needed one more song. They had "Chain Reaction" the whole time, but was afraid to show it to her, because it was basically crafted like a Supremes song. She didn't want to record it, and according to Robin.... they basically had to tell her it was all they had and she had no choice but to do it. THEN... after she recorded it, and heard the finished product... she loved it.
Rock Me Amadeus As others here have said, it's a novelty song. Long streak of weak number ones still not broken.
Rock Me Amadeus Purchasers of the U.S. single had the option of which side they preferred - the "American Edit" which ran 3:10 and was mostly in German, or the "Canadian version" at 4:02 on the flip side, with the brief history lecture over the bridge and backup vocalist chanting "baby, baby, do it to me, rock me." It went to #1 in Canada in February, almost two whole months ahead of its U.S. peak on March 29, and our pop stations (we had two local competitors and others nearby) played the Canadian version. American Top 40 played the U.S. edit during its chart run - the only times I ever heard it on the radio - though they also played the studio version of McCartney's (sans Wings) "Coming Up" when it was big in 1980...maybe just a timing thing? In total, not including later remixes/remakes, "Rock Me Amadeus" had eleven different versions in release in 1985/1986. Your mileage may vary.
In the UK, "Rock Me Amadeus" topped Gallup's "official" chart and NME, but had to settle for #2 in Melody Maker.
I was not listening to much pop music at this point, being buried in my engineering courses at college. Was sort of on a '60s binge at this point that lasted for a couple years. I remember hearing about Rock Me Amadeus at some point then, and I remember thinking that maybe songwriters were running out of ideas.
Thanks for mentioning this - I was gonna bring it up. Diana's diva behavior at the Motown Anniversary special and then Mary Wilson's book definitely didn't do her image any favors.
I’ve never bought the theory that Dreamgirl killed her career. It’s not a flattering book by any means but it’s really more about Diana’s ambition to succeed alienating Mary, Flo, and many other Motowners along the way. Even if they all benefited in certain ways from the doors she opened so they could follow behind like becoming the first black group to play the Copa and breaking other racial barriers. Berry Gordy built a lot off her sweat equity. Being his girlfriend might have helped her get attention but ultimately she had to deliver the goods to sustain a career that large for 24 years at this point in the timeline. Also, to sell that book Mary had to dish the dirt- even if some of it was later proven embellished. A ghostwriter allegedly quit the project when Ms. Wilson didn’t want to include the fact she had gotten a loan from Ross to buy a home after divorcing her abusive husband. Mary did eventually include it in her second book - which flopped hard due to it focusing on life after Diana had left. The public wasn’t as interested in the seventies Supremes, her Motown lawsuits, and messy marriage. The hype that Dreamgirl was one of the biggest selling rock bios of all time might be true but if so, those types of books must not sell much. Here is The NY Times best sellers hardcover info for via some research I did a few years back.... “Dreamgirl only peaked at #6 on the New York Times Hardcovers Bestsellers list, spending seven weeks in the Top 15... 8,10,7,6, 13, 15 - out Not to dismiss the accomplishments of the book but the theory it sold millions in Hardcover & paperback is overstating its performance. The top selling book of 1987 in hardback or paperback sold 1.3 Million (Stephen King's "Tommyknockers"). The biggest selling nonfiction book only moved 760,000 (Spycatcher by Peter Wright) and Dreamgirl didn't make the end of the year's Top 10 best sellers for 1987 in paperback. Ironically, the biggest selling paperback of 1987 was from another Motown affiliated act - Bill Cosby. Also, a paperback book can ship 1.5 million copies but that doesn't mean they all sold. Bookstores/Supermarkets/Drug Stores that carry paperbacks, like magazines, only have to return the cover of the book for credit then dump water on the rest of the book and throw it out! Dreamgirl did extremely well but this theory that goes around that it was a multi million selling number one doesn't really seem to be accurate. It may have topped the paperback chart but books in general in 1986-87 weren't moving those big sums. Plus, if Mary only made a million off the book as is often quoted in the press she must have signed a book deal as bad as the Primettes first with Hitsville so something isn't quite right, who would cut a deal to make less than a buck a book?” I’m not shading Mary. I appreciate all nine former Supremes. I did this for Soulful Detroit when a particularly crazed Wilson fan was making the argument how this book destroyed Diana’s career. She was running out a contract with a label that would no longer promote her to top 40, had crossed the 40 age barrier, was focused on her new marriage and resultant pregnancies (that was the main reason besides not wanting to give Mary any reason to pick a public fight again she skipped the R&R Hall Of Fame. I believe Evan was like 6 weeks old at the time), and then re-signed with a label that was beyond messy at promotion although she landed a top three R&B single in 89 with Workin’ Overtime then one more urban top 5 with her Al B Sure collaboration in 91. As I said before, EMI UK was more careful with picking singles and promotional slots. Hence, she had a fairly good string of top 40 hits throughout the nineties overseas - only fading in the early new millennium after she stopped recording when her covers album flopped in 04. Overall I think her age, label, and material choices were her downfall here. She needed a Clive Davis type to assist her but wound up in deals where no one cared. It didn’t help that she started scaling her stage show in the mid nineties back into something so basic and repetitive that she’s wound up playing small theaters where if she hadn’t she probably could’ve pulled a Cher and stayed at stadium level with a fresh evolving show. Anyways, her younger successors for ballads (Whitney) and uptempos (Janet) had arrived with better tunes so it probably wouldn’t have made much difference. Another contemporary of hers from the sixties will briefly break through at pop shortly to take up any available space left on the airwaves. She’ll also have more consistent success on the R&B chart clear to the new millennium. Light karma for stealing her fellow group member back in 1967.
Good analysis. But I will honestly say as someone who saw Cher in an arena in early 2019 and Diana last year shortly before the pandemic broke in a theater, that I honestly enjoyed Diana's show better. She seemed more invested in the show and having more fun whereas Cher phones it in these days (I saw her on the Believe and Farewell Tours and she was way better then) and with questionable song choices, skipping the majority of her hits while doing ABBA covers... if I want to hear 70s songs at a Cher concert, I'd want to hear Gypsies, Tramps And Thieves, Half Breed and Dark Lady, not Waterloo and Fernando (and I love ABBA)
Yeah I heard Cher dropped the early seventies stuff but heck for an artist who has double the hits via her Supremes days to basically try and stir excitement by adding a head scratching cover of All I Do Is Win while flogging I Will Survive which never was a single here for the thousandth time along with the same set list for over a decade now irks me. At least Cher is actually performing something new. Diana is supposed to finally make a new album this year with Mark Ronson but unless she adds it to her act, I’ll keep the memories of my last show 6 years ago.
I am for performing new music at a concert, but the problem I think with Cher is that she was promoting a covers album of a contemporary act of hers, so its different when she was performing Closer To The Truth material on that respective tour than playing warhorses associated so closely with ABBA that doing their songs take setlist time away from her own. Though you're right with "I Will Survive", funny how Diana's tried to make it one of her standards when she has enough of her own.
This was climbing the charts at the time of Falco's run at the top. While she had a number of r&b hits under her belt by spring 1986, this signaled Janet's arrival to the mainstream pop world, and the first of many top 10 hits to come
In the UK, this made #1 on the Melody Maker chart, and #3 in both NME and the Gallup "official" chart.
Being a producer freak... I'm of the opinion that her not wanting to work with Michael Masser anymore gave her issues when it came to record sales.
Well, he was still pretty hot as a songwriter thru the end of the '80s, if not all that hot as a producer (although he delivered some hits for Natalie Cole at the end of the decade). I dunno. That relationship with Ross might have been played out. And would he have offered his best material to her after Whitney starting routinely having hits with his songs? Why didn't she work with Masser anymore?
