A few weeks ago when I stopped by Daybreak Records in Fremont they were playing this 1984 Diana Ross song, and they were playing it loud. I hate to have to say it, but...I was swept away! Diana Ross is one of my favorite singers of the 1980s, but it seems like her hits from that decade have mostly been forgotten (guess how many of them I've heard on Seattle's two '80s radio stations over the past year. ZERO!), perhaps overshadowed by her spectacular earlier work with The Supremes.
But I still remember Diana's cover of "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" (#7 in December of 1981) as one of the popular songs I liked most when I first began paying close attention to what was playing on the radio in early 1982...and then her campy follow-up single, "Mirror Mirror" (#8 in March of 1982), was even better! I had just missed out on basking in "Upside Down" and "I'm Coming Out" during their actual heyday, since they were hits for Ross in 1980 (#1 and #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively), but I turned the radio volume knob a few notches higher whenever either of those came on. Oh, and speaking of camp, does anybody remember Diana's breathy hit called "Muscles" (#10 in November of 1982), written by Ross' good friend Michael Jackson? I Endlessly Love that song.
"Swept Away" was written and produced (so I just discovered) by Daryl Hall, of Hall & Oates fame. That's also Daryl on guitar for the zippy solo, and he's contributing his chords to the backing vocals too. The song only peaked at #19 (in October of 1984; the album's follow-up single, "Missing You," performed better, topping out at #10 on the Hot 100 in April of '85) but here tonight "Swept Away" is #1 on my singles chart. And I'm playing it loud.
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