A quick thought: who did it better - CHER, Ms. Ross or Tina Turner?

They wrote the book on endurance and can still cause a scene if and when they want to. They don't have anything to prove, having extended their careers well beyond periods where it looked over, spilled over to the big screen with critical and commercial success (in one way or another), with different eras in their careers illustrating exactly why they are legends. Madonna carved her own template (with a little inspiration from Ms. Harry), but figures like Beyonce are complete pastiche to what we have here from these three leading ladies.
  

Cher was very good friends with Diana for a brief moment (when Cher's career wasn't so hot and Diana's was as good as it got for her), but Diana really cannot be friends with other women. I used to think it was the Gene connection that blew it, but Simmons was Cher's hand me down and they shared another man before, designer Bob Mackie, and Cher never understood why Diana just suddenly disappeared. I do love the quote that Diana supposedly said "oh she's such a tragedy queen for sure" about Cher, but they both rolled their eyes at the other's self-inflicted predicaments. "Who cares about Cher? She'll go to the opening of a hot dog stand!" When Cher's friendship with Diana and Bette Midler (a long-running rivalry there) cooled off, Cher included drag queens impersonating them in her act. Diana's excuse for being furious was she could no longer wear a particular ensemble.



Cher and Tina have a very good showbiz friendship (it's not like Cher flew to Europe for Tina's recent wedding), but they performed a few times, most notably on Cher's highly-rated solo TV gig, and then on VH1 divas live. They refused to appear on stage with Whitney for the finale supposedly because of the drugs, but maybe also because the show just emphasized her more. Cher did pose with Whitney at the '99 Brits, so maybe that was enough. Cher recently introduced Tina's annihilation of competition winner Beyonce at some awards do or other.


As seen on Double Platinum, Diana's Every Day Is A New Day was an rn'b record that seemed to get caught in the storm as far as its two singles seemingly required to undergo dance treatments just to get noticed (the comedy Hex Hector remix is stunning). The Metro edit of Not Over You Yet would have been an understated standout on the Believe album, so it doesn't matter to me if it was blatantly turning up 5 hours late to Cher's house party (let's not forget Take Me Higher).

Diana wins the 60s as part of an ensemble, Cher wins the 70s, Tina sticks her head through the door in the 80s but Cher had a momentum that neither Diana nor Tina had ever experienced on their own, and Cher literally has the 90s and her face sewn up despite a notable slump, and Cher kind of wins the period since as she's toured extensively and successfully stays in the press without resorting to DUIs or looking like a bag lady without her make-up.

Cher's 70s work is underrated though: song-wise and vocally, Stars outshines the other two too easily to warrant any discussion quite frankly. However, Diana's singles were often actually much stronger, albeit as stand-alone tracks. Both Diana the album and Private Dancer are certainly better than Cher's 80s output. I just don't know much of Tina though.

Obviously Cher has had more success at the movies (and even she didn't reach her full potential despite bagging numerous awards, not least the Oscar), but Diana wanted to be the leading lady and wouldn't settle for anything less (least of all stoop to blaxploitation or be caught dead doing ensemble - am I wrong in thinking she was offered Witches of Eastwick? Even if not, that would have been the best film of all time for the 'chemistry' alone). 


I barely know anything about Tina apart from Private Dancer, the Lulu ballad and the absolutely awesome When The Heartache Is Over (again, not much of a dance album despite pumping up the lead single to do a Cher). I really don't ever want to hear The Best ever again - it reminds me of Rangers football club and John Menzies.

Diana Ross - Diana Ross (1976)

With a seemless persona often depriving her of a concentration on the music, Diana Ross was born to sing and with only 44 albums released if only she had worked a bit harder in her career. Unfalteringly glamourous, never less than mildly enjoyable, Diana Ross (1976) is one of her great ones. The lush, accentuated settings are what her warm timbre was made for. The exhaustion of love songs means some numbers seem blurred into the next, but her bright, direct intonation injects her uniquely gifted guile that intensifies their meaning. Her voice is a rich instrument that is precise and really does know where it's going to.

Recognizable for its syrupy opening refrain, Theme From Mahogany explores a tempo or marching drums, strings as lush as life itself and a spirited vocal that sounds like a bridge of sighs. Somber, sweet and sensual, I Thought It Took A Little Time is air-kiss soul at its sugary finest. Ross's languid crooning possesses a joyous restraint. Breathlessly inviting, the pouting excursion Love Hangover is an exacting and intoxicating showcase for the sultry abilities of Diana's exquisite characterization. A relay of disco speeds take the song from the bedroom to the dance-floor: and if already on the dance-floor, the acceleration into disco is most certainly bedroom-bound.  Suddenly taking a different swerve (saying nothing of her drunk driving), into her local piano bar no doubt, she finds a speedier groove to her repertoire on the arch Kiss Me Now.  On You're Good My Child, Ms. Ross eats up the rhythms with a vocal flight and agility that's her unique effortless style.  Airbrushing her ex husbands from memory, One Love In My Lifetime is an eloquent masterstroke.  Pledging slow-motion devotion, After You handles the conflicts thrown at her with romantic steel.  Never one to say no to a romantic ballad, Smile might be a touch too show biz for its own good, but I just can't say no. Country-tinged Sorry Doesn't Always Make It Right is another love vow.

With a voice that refuses to suffer, for the vivacious Diana Ross there ain't no high note high enough. Embellishing every sylable and making the words sparkle into sequins, she was hardly scaring Aretha into retirement with her range, but as a singer her timing is perfect. The proof is in her projection: she soaks up her accentuated settings; her lush vox framed to perfection.

Rating:

8/10

Kim Wilde - Snapshot tracklisting revealed

Here we are folks, the dream we've all dreamed of. Green-fingered goddess Kim Wilde has revealed the tracklisting for her covers album Snapshot and, as far as these stopgap projects go, it is not too shabby. You can be the judge:

01. It's Alright (East 17)
02. In Between Days (The Cure)
03. About You Now (Sugababes)
04. Sleeping Satellite (Tasmin Archer)
05. To France (Mike Oldfield)
06. A Little Respect (Erasure)
07. Remember Me (Diana Ross)
08. Anyone Who Had A Heart (Dionne/Dusty/Cilla)
09. Wonderful Life (Black)
10. They Don't Know About Us (Kirsty MacColl)
11. Beautiful Ones (Suede)
12. Just What I Needed (The Cars)
13. Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone) (Buzzcocks)
14. Kooks (David Bowie)


Originally released by the Triga-chic East 17, It's Alright reached #2 in Kim's main market Germany so I guess she is picking some clever songs. This version may be slightly tame, but it does the trick. Kim has recorded 2 other music videos: for Sleeping Satellite and To France.

If you can't wait for the album, try reading some of my previous in-depth, track by track Kim Wilde album reviews here.

Diva of Christmas Past

After a deal to produce her own brand of ketchup, Diana Soss, fell through, Diana Ross had no other option but to 'go fro with it' and release a sublime Christmas album, A Very Secial Season. Her soft whispering sigh is so often underrated with an unmatched ability to soar and land straight back down again - a knack that propelled a late bloom into the lucrative early 90s commercial market for furlorn power ballads. And no one in the world does cooing soggy ballads like Ms. Ross does. Note: if that last sentence was read without motioning a z-snap, do so now.

Her stop-gap holiday album presents itself as warm and tender interpretations of other peoples work - her fine voice does the usual quivering, skimming the surface as always in flighty rapture. On Winter Wonderland, refined and oh-so-lush, the big old lush herself opts to deliver a mischevious sense of drama: not everyone can match the perversity of Annie Lennox, but Ross never loses sight of her impeccable aesthetics. Her flirtatious excitement dwelling on the line 'two hearts are thrillin' sound like the old timer is propositioning a young police officer arresting her for drink driving. Sleigh bells tip-toe on her highly-competent version of Wonderful Christmastime, where her voice has all the giggling confidence and shameless majesty of drink-driver throwing up in her cell.

Sounding like her yoga session is being interrupted, she almost loses it on Happy Christmas (War Is Over). Her serenity comes under fire when her sincerity boils over into a heartwrenching pledge in order to avoid being upstaged by a childrens choir. It is a dramatic thrill for her to come so close to danger and come out the other side wig intact - she must have left the recording booth with more sweat beeding down her than one of her staff daring to make eye contact.

Most surprising is her poignant handling of the tear streamer Ave Maria, and never before has the diva sounded more statue-esque and convincingly humble since admitting to Oprah that in all her years she had learned: "absolutely nothing!"