'Diana' by Diana Ross was released 40 years ago today

Diana's "gay panic":

Wait!! People born in 1980 will be 40 this year? *Screams* BTW, that album cover looks modern.

Upside Down went to #1.

Nile Rodgers said Diana didn't understand "I'm Coming Out" was "a gay thing."

Bitch had a decent career.

"I'm Coming Out" has one of the best rhythm guitar lines ever:

My Old Piano was also delightful.

That is a laughable video devoid of creativity, at R7. She is lunging around, literally, a piano.

The lyrics are so dumb so I prefer this version

Aretha Franklin claimed that she originally got these tracks from Nile and Bernard when they approached her about working together. But according to her, they had horrible attitudes and she walked out of the studio. Nile claims he wrote these tracks specifically for Diana.

Diana didn't think much of the album until she played it for legendary NY DJ Frankie Crocker, who told her the songs would ruin her career. That's when she decided to have it remixed for a more commercial sound.

Despite it being the biggest solo album of her career, she has never performed anything from it live aside from Upside Down and I'm Coming Out.

this is so much better

or this

"My Old Piano" is probably the only Diana Ross song (of those I've heard) that I like. It's pretty silly and the video is laughable, but I also have great memories of first hearing it 3 years ago in a gay pub with some new friends and how much we laughed at and ultimately bonded over the video. And I don't mean to sound rude about it, we were laughing in that way that says: "this is so twee but also completely harmless. Look at her dancing around that piano! She's [italic]loving[/italic] it!" 😂 One of the guys said that clearly the video cost no more than $10, 7 of which was for the hire of the piano.

Oh my god. She looks just like Michael Jackson in OP's pic. I thought it was Jackson. Was that his goal? To look like Diana Ross?

OP = Michael Jackson's ghost

My Aunt was a head buyer at Bloomingdales from 1980 - 1982 and she said the store had that album on repeat so much she never wanted to listen to it ever again. I can totally imagine Bloomingdales circa 1980 blasting that while you’re just trying to make it to the escalator without getting assaulted by 10 perfume ladies.

They had that hussy’s number.

I remember 9-year old me hearing Upside Down in the car back in 1980 and perking up like the budding gayling I was. I asked my mom if it was Olivia Newton-John as that was the only singer I knew at the time. (I can actually imagine Livvie recording this.) Still love the song 40 years later.

Diana's last album for Motown before leaving for RCA.

I believe Aretha. I remember reading back then that she was supposed to work with Rodgers and Edwards on her first Disco album. She worked with Van McCoy instead. I read somewhere that Rodgers and Edwards would give singers only a couple of lines at a time to sing. That's why Chic productions had that robotic vocals. I can see Aretha not going for that.

She was still a big star and had a few more hit albums but by the mid-eighties people like Whitney and Madonna were on the scene.

Miss Ross has outlasted by of them now though.

Imagine having a song stolen from you right on stage by a white stoner kid.

Jay Kay makes it his.

I love the song Tenderness on this album.

I didn't know she smoked.

Yes, but not as heavily as Dionne Warwick. I think she might've quit now.

Dionne still smokes like a chimney. Of course at nearly 80 years old there's really no point in quitting.

So Diana wasn't as pro gay in 1980 as we've been told.

By the time '95 rolled around, I guess she was desperate enough to use us for a video stunt =

Not necessarily homophobic.

The disco backlash had already happened by then.