All the Great Hits -- Diana Ross (1981)

 


All The Great Hits was a compilation of Diana Ross's solo career on Motown Records releaed in 1981 (I think) and  it pretty much collects all the great hits (as the title would suggest) as well as a couple of hits that aren't that great. 

The original release on this was on double vinyl, which perhaps explains the rather weird tracklist which puts ballads as the first four songs (i.e. the first side). Most of the rest of the collection is culled from her later stuff, especially the disco era. And then Side 4 comes and there's a thirteen miinute (or so) Medley of Supremes Hits, Stars on 45 Style. Completely unneccessary for me, so that's a skipper. 

On CD the tracklist comes off as unbalanced and rather unvaried, but the songs are mostly all good (save for the Medley and a maybe one of the ballads, which is a bit generic movie soundtrack pop balladry.)

I rearrange this into a chronological playlist and cut the medley completely, as I have all of those songs elsewhere. 

For the most part this is a good collection and probably all I'll ever need of Diana Ross's 70s output. The sound is quite good and she is a great singer: there aren't a lot of diva pyrotechnics, her voice just conveys melody really really well and there's some kine of indefiniable oomph to her phrasing that delivers.

As an aside, boy, does her disco stuff sound like Michael Jackson (or, rather, Jackson's late seventes and early eighties stuff sounds like her disco stuff.)

3.7/5

I have an early American CD version of All The Great Hits which mimics the original American tracklist. The European release was shortened to one disc on vinyl, and I'm not sure if there was a CD of that version or not; in 2001 or so the album was reissued akk over with an alterred tracklist and one extra song, but as is typical of 20th century CDs, it is apparently brickwalled.

Coming Up:

A.M. Wilco

A.T.O.M. - Carbon Silicon

ABBA - ABBA 

ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits

Abbey Road - The Beatles

Achtung, Baby! U2

Actually - Pet Shop Boys

Adult/Child- The Beach Boys

Aerosmith's Greatest Hits

After The Gold Rush - Neil Young

Afterglow - Crowded House

Aftermath (UK Version) - The Rolling Stones

Against The Odds: 1974-1982 Blondie (three disc version)

Aimee Mann Live at St. Ann's Warehouse

Aiming For Your Head - Betchadupa

The Album -- ABBA

The Album That Never Was - The Kinks

All Four One - The Motels

All Over the Place - The Bangles

All Summer Long -- The Beach Boys

All the Great Hits -- Diana Ross

All Things Must Pass -- George Harrison

All This Useless Beauty -- Elvis Costello & the Attractions

All-Time Greatest Hits - Neil Diamond

Alluvium -- Eddie Rayner

Almost Blue -- Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Almost Summer - Celebration

Alpha Mike Foxtrot -- Wilco*

The Alphabetchadupa - Betchadupa

Altitude - ALT

American Idiot Green Day*

American Prayer -- The Doors

Amnesiac Radiohead*

And I Feel Fine...The Best of the IRS years (1982-1987) - R.E.M.

Animals - Pink Floyd

Anodyne - Uncle Tupelo

Another Life - Another Life

Another Music in Another Kitchen: The Buzzcocks

Another Side of Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan

Anthology: Diana Ross & The Supremes

Anthology: Smokey Robinson & The Beatles

Anthology 1: The Beatles

Anthology 2: The Beatles

Anthology 3 The Beatles

Anthology: North South, East West - Tim Finn

Apple Venus: Volume One -- XTC

Apollo 18 - They Might Be Giants

The ArchAndroid: Janelle Monae

Are the Village Green Preservation Society -- The Kinks

Are Well-Respected Men - The Kinks

Armed Forces -Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Around the World in a Day - Prince

Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) - The Kinks

At My Piano - Brian Wilson

Autoamerican - Blondie

Automatic for the People - R.E.M.

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