Cheap Red Hot Rhythm & Blues (Music) (Diana Ross) Price

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Customer Reviews of Red Hot Rhythm & Blues

Find "Dirty Looks" on a greatest hits complilation somewhere, that will suffice. Furthermore, I wouldn't even base my selection of the greatest hits compilation on whether or not it includes "Dirty Looks", its not exactly a must-have song.

Lastly, can you imagine if the album had been true to its title and actually was "Red hot rhythm and blues" from a legend like Diana? That is the album I want to hear.

THE FADING OF A DIVA!
Diana Ross is a recognize voice of the industry and this album is to damn Boring!, she's more known as a Uplifting artist, she should know that!. Try other Ross Albums. The best cuts though is DIRTY LOOKS AND SHOCK WAVES!. Great cover photos and design well she's Diana Ross, but the music still missing!.

Tepid "Rhythm and Blues"
La Ross' fifth RCA album was a rather uneven set although it did make attempts at what was considered at the time "modern R & B". Fashioned after Tina Turner's "Typical Male", the first single "Dirty Looks" reached #12 on the R & B chart but failed to make the inroads at Top Forty that Turner's "Typical Male" did.

It was only 4 years prior to this that Ross who was still at the top her game in the industry dispensed unsolicited counsel to Turner prior to her breakthrough in the United States with her "Private Dancer" set about such trifle matters as clothing, hair and makeup. "Do this, Tina - you will look better". All this was recounted in the life story of Tina Turner in so far as how little it mattered to Tina and how Tina was unreceptive to La Ross' suggestions.

In a strange karmic twist, Ross would later take a page from the Turner playbook when she aped the vibe of "Typical Male" on "Dirty Looks". I guess the music and not the hair or other aspects of attire are what really matters after all, and clearly Diana, who was said to have been floundering musically with those albums for RCA, was indeed at a loss for direction. Her last set "Eaten Alive" was the one where things started to go awry in the United States. The fact that the worldwide smash "Chain Reaction" could not even translate into a Top 40 American hit started to show that Ross' appeal was starting to erode.

By today's standards, "Red Hot Rhythm and Blues",which clocks in at a very unsatisfying 38 minutes and 12 seconds brings to mind the staggeringly brief half-hearted opus by another diva of today Whitney Houston: her "Just Whitney" plays for that amount of time as well.

"Red Hot Rhythm and Blues" would stall at a disappointing #73 on the United States Billboard Hot 200 Pop Albums chart and would not even yield one Hot 100 Pop single. The album was produced by the now deceased Tom Dowd and for the most part was even less of an entity than her three previous RCA albums which may not have been utterly enjoyable across the board, but had more memorable moments.

"Shockwaves" which seems to have been modeled after "Chain Reaction" from 1985's "Eaten Alive" is rendered abdurd by Ross' ridiculous adlib "BRRRRRRRRRR". Was it cold that day in the studio, Diana? Mark S. Cawley, who would later work with Taylor Dayne on her 1993 set "Soul Dancing" co-wrote the number. "Tell Me Again" was as equally dull as some of the other filler that made it on to the previous set "Eaten Alive".

Luckily, there were a couple of shining moments. "Shine", the Mick Hucknall/Simply Red cut is given more of a sheen by Ross whose delivery makes it better than the original. The music is tighter and seems less overwrought and grating than the original. Ross brings more soul to the song with her supple vocal which is well-suited to jazzy-pop.

Another gem is "Stranger in Paradise", which because of its its immediately following "Dirty Looks" would seem to have indicated that Ross was going in the direction of modern R & B. "Stranger in Paradise" is a cool-relax modern R and B number.

The other highlight of the set is "Summertime" on which Ross sparkles. This is perhaps one of Ross' finest vocals. It is an understated delivery classy and airy delivery which compliments a song about about the simple yet understated joys of the delicacies of summertime we all await - it is a tender aural bath that brings to mind what the first tastes and breaths and feelings of summer. Ross' voice also plays well off the orchestral arrangement of the song.

There are a few gems to make this - like every Ross release - worth your time.