After Diana Ross left Motown in the early 80s, the queen signed a massive new record deal with RCA.
In 1980, shortly after the release of her massive album Diana, Miss Ross was leaving Motown Records. She had discovered that despite helping Motown to earn millions of dollars with her recordings in the twenty years she had been signed to the label, she only had around to $150,000 in her name. Despite doing most of the work in The Supremes, she had been paid the same as the other girls but after almost 20 years of success she thought she had made a lot more then what the label had been paying her.
When the news got out that she was leaving Motown, the offers started coming in from other labels. Eventually, Ross would settle on a $20 million deal with RCA Records. Before signing, however, head of Motown (and former boyfriend) Berry Gordy called her begging her to not leave Motown. Ross asked if Gordy could match the $20 million that RCA had offered her. When Gordy told her that he could not match it, Ross told him she was planning to leave the company. Ross signed with RCA on May 20, 1981, and her $20 million deal became then the most lucrative contract of any recording artist at the time. Her farewell at Motown was the massive number-one hit "Endless Love" with Lionel Richie.
Over at RCA Ross established her own production company, which she named Anaid Productions ("Diana" backwards) and got much more artistic control then she had previously had over at Motown. She started producing her music and doing just exactly what she wanted. While her RCA years did not result in as many hit singles (or albums) as her years at Motown, her work at the label is still an excellent (if somewhat uneven) body of work.
The first single from her second RCA album, Silk Electric, was released in September 1982. The song was written and produced by her good friend Michael Jackson and became hit, peaking at #10 in the US and #15 in the UK. The song earned Miss Ross her 12th Grammy nomination.
The music video does it's best to match the campness of the song - enjoy!
2 comments:
Dear Miss Ross and her sterling efforts to truly capture her gay audience! Camp is the word... Jx
Indeed! Of course she only needs to exist to capture little old me but when she does stuff like that video she's even more fabulous!
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