Search - Diana Ross :: Touch Me in the Morning: Expanded Edition

Substantial gift for Ross fans

barry | Boston, MA United States | 04/30/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hip-O Select has been doing an amazing job bringing us Diana's solo career album by album with great packaging, in depth liner notes, bonus tracks that are not filler and superb digital remastering. The latest TOUCH ME IN THE MORNING - EXPANDED EDITION is certainly the best by far. The liner notes are actually a booklet with amazing information and beautiful, rare pictures. This was Diana Ross's first release after the LADY SINGS THE BLUES film and soundtrack. Diana is one of those rare artists who has had a huge critically acclaimed career and never won a Grammy. Up to LADY SINGS THE BLUES her solo career consisted of releases with very tight r&b tracks with some pop mixed in. Most tracks certainly showed her vocal range and versatility.



After LADY SINGS THE BLUES I think her career took a turn that definitely missed out on the chance of showing her true gifts as an artist. BLUE was meant to be released in tangent with the soundtrack and actually shows Diana to even better artistry. She was also taking a truly creative part in her career and put together the personal, cohesively themed project TO THE BABY. Berry Gordy wanted the Oscar for Diana and even more success so he put both those projects on hold and put together the album TOUCH ME IN THE MORNING which was the most comercial, pop release Diana had done thus far. He wanted hits and radio friendly material. So sad that he had such control over her and her career. BLUE and TO THE BABY both could have shown such greater dimension in her talent.



Not to say that the album was not good. TOUCH ME IN THE MORNING was nominated for a Grammy and tracks ALL OF MY LIFE, WE NEED YOU and LEAVE A LITTLE ROOM all have that special Diana touch and are intimate, emotional songs. It is interesting to hear the alternate versions on many of the tracks especially two more of TOUCH ME IN THE MORNING. They are all so different and show how important decisions are in making an album. The biggest gift here is to finally have TO THE BABY complete with two tracks from the seessions that were found years later. The mastering is impeccable and the entire cd is sung with true emotion by Ms. Ross. it is so special and sensitive. Some of the tracks were used on TOUCH ME IN THE MORNING. I found the medley Diana put together of IMAGINE/SAVE THE CHILDREN better than the Gordy version BROWN BABY/SAVE THE CHILDREN. We see a true intimate Diana Ross here. Even with all her great recordings to have a full cd of such raw emotion is such a gift. Had it been released I truly believe the music industry would have taken a more serious look at Diana Ross and her talent. But for her fans now, this expanded edition is a huge gift. It's musical history."

Finally

Jim Andrews | Chicago, Illinois USA | 04/16/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Kewpie Doll," as I remember, originally was titled "Teddy Bear" and was to have become part of an album Smokey was producing for Diana. The album had a one-word title but darned if I can remember it right now (I'm thinking "Satisfaction" but I don't think that's it). The single from that album was to have been "Whatever Makes You Happy." "To The Baby" was to have been titled at one point "The Baby Album." What I'm impressed with here is the enormous amount of music Diana was recording with no letdown in quality and compromises with creativity. She has always been quite the workhorse, but on her it's always looked easy. It's also impressive how quickly after departing the Supremes she evolved into a different artist, with a depth of understanding, subtlety and craft no one would have suspected from her Supremes recordings, which whatever the songs were never went very deep. I found it so interesting that Berry Gordy chose to succeed her in the Supremes a singer of great depth, feeling and nuance, Jean Terrell. When Jean sang the Diana-led hits she couldn't resist from noodling around with them and improvising with them. Diana never played with them ever, and still doesn't. But she certainly quickly headed down a road far removed from her Supremes days."

The best diana ross re-release

C. T. Petersen | South Africa | 04/07/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This cd is excellent. It contains the unrealesed "for the baby" album and also includes alternative versions of 'leave a little room', 'we need you', 'all of my life' and a two other versions of 'touch me in the morning'. This is by far the best re-release (with extras) of a diana ross album. It also contains an insert booklet with information about the recording sessions and some personal notes of the album's producer. The sound quality is also very clear. Look out for alternate versions (at least lead vocals by diana) on 'turn around' (slightly different from the one on 'last time i saw him' cd) and also an enhanced (sound quality) of 'young mothers'. The 'for the baby' disc on the album also contains other unreleased songs of diana ross such as 'kewpie doll', a part duet (if you can call it that)with Smokey Robinson."