| Donna 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.
She 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. |
