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Forever Diana: Musical Memoirs | ||||
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Box set by | ||||
Released | October 5, 1993 | |||
Recorded | 1962–1993 | |||
Genre | Pop, Soul, Disco | |||
Label | Motown | |||
Diana Ross chronology | ||||
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Singles from Forever Diana: Musical Memoirs | ||||
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Source | Rating |
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Music Week | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Forever Diana: Musical Memoirs is a four-CD box set of recordings by American singer Diana Ross released on October 5, 1993 by Motown Records.
In addition to all of her eighteen #1 hits, the seventy-eight track set contained five previously unreleased tracks.
Disc 1 collects Ross' greatest hits with The Supremes from 1962 to 1969, disc 2 covers her early solo career from her eponymous debut album through to the 1978 soundtrack The Wiz, disc 3 her disco era hits with Chic and her recordings for the RCA label up until 1985's "Chain Reaction", all in chronological order. Disc 4 mainly features tracks from Ross' then most recent studio albums Workin' Overtime (1989) and The Force Behind the Power (1991) together with five newly recorded tracks as well as three previously unreleased live recordings.
While Forever Diana: Musical Memoirs undoubtedly is the most comprehensive retrospective of Ross' career to date, with its seventy-seven tracks and a total running time of near 300 minutes, the box set received mixed reviews from both fans and music critics on its release, mainly for omitting a number of her greatest hits and signature tunes from the 1970s and 1980s - including no tracks from either 1983's Ross or 1987's Red Hot Rhythm & Blues - but also for using edited 7" versions of both "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Love Hangover" instead of the original full-length album versions that have been featured on a number of other best of compilations issued by Motown Records/Universal Music both before and since. Additional controversy erupted due to the faulty mastering of the Mono singles featured on the album, resulting in uneven sound quality that was so disappointing, Motown had to recall the first pressings.
There is an error on many of the pressings of Disc 2. Instead of the listed track "Surrender", the track that was actually included is "I Can't Give Back The Love I Feel For You", which was a track featured on the 1971 album Surrender .
The box-set was duly promoted with her New York Times Best Seller autobiography, Secrets of a Sparrow. The album art by Michel Comte' was also used as the cover art of her autobiography. Merchandising items including a retail stand-up and posters were cross marketed at record stores and book stores concurrently. Diana also held a couple of rare book signings at Harrods in London and Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. According to Billboard magazine, "Forever Diana: Musical Memoirs" has sold 73,000 US copies since its release. It peaked at #88 on the Top R&B Albums chart.
Disc 1: Reflections
The Supremes/Diana Ross & The Supremes
All tracks by Holland–Dozier–Holland unless otherwise noted
Disc 2: Reach Out and Touch
Disc 3: Chain Reaction
Disc 4: The Best Years of My Life
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Easy is an album recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, and released by Motown Records on September 16, 1969 under the Tamla Records label. One song on the album, "Good Lovin' Ain't Easy To Come By", was a hit single and remains popular to this day. Terrell had been ill, suffering from complications caused by a brain tumor, since the fall of 1967. Marvin Gaye later claimed that as a result, most of the female vocals on this album were performed by Valerie Simpson, who served as co-songwriter and co-producer for the LP with her boyfriend and future husband Nickolas Ashford.
Released in 1966 The Supremes A' Go-Go is the ninth studio album released by Motown singing group the Supremes. It was the first album by an all-female group to reach number-one on the Billboard 200 album charts in the United States.
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" is a song written by Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson in 1966 for the Tamla label, a division of Motown. The composition was first successful as a 1967 hit single recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, and became a hit again in 1970 when recorded by former Supremes frontwoman Diana Ross. The song became Ross's first solo number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
The Supremes is a 2000 box set compilation of the material by Motown's most popular act of the 1960s, The Supremes. The set covers The Supremes' entire recording history, from its first recordings as The Primettes in 1960 to its final recordings in 1976.
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Diana Ross & the Supremes Join the Temptations is, as the title implies, a collaborative album combining Motown's two best selling groups, Diana Ross & the Supremes and the Temptations. Issued by Motown in late 1968 to coincide with the broadcast of the Supremes/Temptations TCB television special, the album was a success, reaching #2 on the Billboard 200. Diana Ross & the Supremes Join the Temptations spent four weeks at number one on the UK Albums Chart.
Love Child is the fifteenth studio album released by Diana Ross & the Supremes for the Motown label in 1968. The LP was the group's first studio LP not to include any songs written or produced by any member of the Holland–Dozier–Holland production team, who had previously overseen most of the Supremes' releases.
How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You is the fifth studio album released by American singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye, released in 1965. The album features the successful title track, which at the time was his best-selling single and was famously covered by James Taylor in 1975. Other hits include "Try It Baby" and "Baby Don't You Do It" . Inspired by Jackie Gleason’s trademark expression.
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Diana Ross & the Supremes: Greatest Hits Vol. 3 is a 1969 compilation album by Diana Ross & the Supremes, released on the Motown label. It features all of the hits released by the group between 1967 and 1969 save for the Supremes/Temptations duet singles. After Florence Ballard's mid-1967 departure from the group, Supremes singles were recorded by Diana Ross with session singers The Andantes on backgrounds instead of new Supreme Cindy Birdsong and founding member Mary Wilson, including "Love Child" and "Someday We'll Be Together".
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One Woman: The Ultimate Collection is a compilation album released by American R&B singer Diana Ross by EMI on October 18, 1993. The single-disc collection was the alternative to Ross' 1993 four-CD box set, Forever Diana: Musical Memoirs, which was a 30th anniversary commemorative of her hit-making years over three decades including work with The Supremes. This collection was similar featuring both Supremes hits and solo hits.
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Tamla Motown Gold: The Sound of Young America is a three-disc compilation album released by the Tamla Motown label in 2001. It features all the hits from the label in the 1960s, by various artists.
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Motown Chartbusters is a series of compilation albums first released by EMI under licence on the Tamla Motown label in Britain. In total, 12 editions were released in the UK between 1967 and 1982. Volumes 1 and 2 were originally called British Motown Chartbusters; after this the title Motown Chartbusters was used.
20 Golden Greats is a 1977 compilation album by Diana Ross & the Supremes, released on the Motown label in the United Kingdom. The release spent seven weeks at number one on the UK Albums Chart, selling over 1,000,000 copies. Despite the album's title and that Ross & the Supremes had scored 21 UK chart hit singles, the compilation included two tracks that had never been hit singles in the UK: "My World Is Empty Without You" and "Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart", which were top 10 hits on the US Hot 100. All the other 18 tracks had made the UK singles chart. The three other hits scored by the group in partnership with The Temptations, were all excluded.
Love Starved Heart: Rare and Unreleased is a compilation album by Marvin Gaye. Released in 1994 on Motown Records, the collection features some rarities from the soul singer's catalog during his formative years in the label between his breakthrough year as an R&B star in 1963 to around the time of his late-1960s hits including "I Heard It through the Grapevine". Covering material he worked on with figures such as Holland-Dozier-Holland, Smokey Robinson and William "Mickey" Stevenson, the disc showcases Gaye's growth as a vocalist. In 1999, an expanded version was released under the title Lost and Found: Love Starved Heart, including bonus tracks and a rare interview.