Diana Ross and Chic team up for 1980's most infectious single

Diana Ross : Upside Down

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In July of 1980 Diana Ross returned to both the UK and US charts by joining forces with Chic to produce "Upside Down". The song, written by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edward and performed by their band,  hit #1 in the US and #2 in the UK. Though  "Love Hangover" ushered in the disco age in 1976, Ross had gone four years without a #1 hit. Then she caught a Chic concert in Santa Monica, California.

"Diana couldn't believe the crowd reaction," Rodgers told Billboard magazine. "She said, 'I haven't seen this since the Jackson 5.' She was backstage, dancing and into it. 'My kids made me come and see this show, all they were talking about was Chic, Chic, Chic. That's what I want my record to sound like.'"

But Ross only wanted to sound like Chic up to a point. When she heard the final mix, she went into the lab with Motown producer Russ Terrana and remixed the whole thing, pushing her vocals further to the front. This pissed off Rodgers and Edwards to the point where they almost had their names taken off of the project. 

"The basic problem was that we had two different concepts of what her voice should sound like," Rodgers told Billboard. "She hears her voice in one way and we hear it in another way. When it got a point where she wanted her voice to sound a certain way, we couldn't take the responsibility for it because that's just not how we make records."

The single helped sell ten million copies of propel Diana worldwide and introduce a new 80's vibe to the dance club scene.

Don't Call a Doctor

                                           The Players Association : Love Hangover

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I discovered this beauty on a deep dive through the Opium Hum blog, and only learned recently that The Players Association debut was actually a pretty popular album in its time. It danced its way into the Top 40 Jazz album chart ( thanks to all the flute, sax and trumpet solos) and even made its way into the Top 30 Black albums chart thanks in large part to their disco/jazz take of the Diana Ross #1 smash "Love Hangover". Drummer Chris Hills led the New York City based band. Jazz musicians would swing by to fill in here and there. That's Return to Forever veteran Joe Farrell playing flute on "Love Hangover", which was a popular tune at the discos in 1977.

40 Year Itch: Some We Missed from Oct '72

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Mellow man David Gates takes center stage on Bread's follow up to Baby I'm A Want You, the final album before a 1977 reunion. Guitar Man hit #18 in the album charts thanks to the soft rock numbers like the #11 title track, "Aubrey" (#15) and "Sweet Surrender" (#15). The rest sounds like filler.

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The second James Gang album after the departure of Joe Walsh is probably the low point. By the following album Tommy Bolin would be adding some guitar fire, raising the band's fortunes for a few years at least.

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Vilified for an album cover that made Don Stevenson giving the finger on Moby Grape's debut seem gentlemanly in comparison, Mom's Apple Pie jams Chicago-style about as competently as Grand Funk Railroad used to rock.

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Diana Ross earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of doomed jazz singer Billie Holiday and the soundtrack hit #1 on the Billboard charts. The album contains far too many snippets of dialogue from the movie but overall, Ross deserves all the plaudits she received. She's not "doing" Billie. Thank God.