Diana (album) - Reception

Reception

Released in May 1980, the Diana album introduced Ross to a new generation of fans worldwide. Reaching number two on the Billboard 200 chart and number one on the Billboard Soul Albums Chart, as well as yielding two top ten singles including the number-one single "Upside Down", the album would sell over six million copies in the United States and be certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. In the UK it spun off three successful singles; "Upside Down" (number two, twelve weeks on the chart—marking the highest peak performance from Ross as a solo artist since "I'm Still Waiting" in 1971), "My Old Piano" (number five, nine weeks) and "I'm Coming Out" (number thirteen, ten weeks). A fourth single, "Tenderness", was also released in certain territories and was later included on several greatest hits compilations. Some thirty years after its release diana remains Ross' best-selling studio album to date having sold a total of over ten million copies worldwide.

Diana was one of four albums written and produced by Edwards and Rodgers in 1980, the other three being Sister Sledge's Love Somebody Today, Sheila and B. Devotion's King of the World including European hit single "Spacer", and Chic's fourth studio album Real People.

Following the release of two more singles, the duet "Endless Love" with Lionel Richie and "It's My Turn", both worldwide hits, Ross left Motown and signed a then-record breaking $20 million recording deal with RCA Records. The first album for the label was 1981's self-produced Why Do Fools Fall in Love, which went platinum and spawned two Top 10 hits in the US. Diana was remastered and released as a double CD in 2003 containing the original unremixed versions, together with a selection of other Motown dance tracks from the same period.