DIANA ROSS PT. 2: THE SOLO YEARS (with Hit Parade's Chris Molanphy)
Pop Pantheon
DJ Louie XIV
4.7 • 630 Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2022
⏱️ 76 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Pop critic, chart analyst, writer of Slate's "Why Is This Song No. 1?", and host of the podcast Hit Parade, Chris Molanphy, joins DJ Louie once again for the second part of our series on Diana Ross. This episode, Louie and Chris discuss Diana's initially rocky transition from lead singer for The Supremes into solo superstar and how she finally scored a solo #1 with an unexpected, avant-garde cover of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" in 1970. They then discuss her spotty track record through the early-mid '70s, sometimes scoring massive hits with mostly adult-contemporary ballads like "Touch Me in the Morning" and "Do You Know Where You're Going To", but just as often releasing records that made little impact, all while pursuing a secondary career as a movie star most notably in her Oscar-nominated performance as Billie Holiday in 1972's Lady Sings the Blues. Louie and Chris then chronicle various pop movements that coincided with and affected Diana's career in this '70s- the racial segregation of radio, the birth of the female pop singer-songwriter like Carole King and Joni Mitchell, innovative R&B artists like Roberta Flack and Chaka Khan- Diana's third wind as a disco queen, beginning with 1976's smash "Love Hangover", 1979's "The Boss" and eventually, her blockbuster, career-defining collaboration with Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, 1980's Diana and it's legendary singles, "I'm Coming Out" and "Upside Down". Finally, Louie and Chris debate what allowed Diana to beat the odds, defying pop's ageist bent with hits across three decades and what exactly makes Diana one of the ultimate Tier 1 Icons in the official Pop Pantheon.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, welcome to pop pantheon, the podcast where we completely overanalyze all of your favorite |
| 0:15.9 | pop stars and then rank them in the official Pop Pantheon. |
| 0:19.6 | This is your host, DJ Louis the 14th. |
| 0:22.0 | Thank you so, so much to everybody that's been listening, streaming the podcast. |
| 0:26.6 | I'm so grateful to all the new listeners that are here. |
| 0:29.9 | This has been one of the strongest periods of listeners, the podcast history. |
| 0:33.8 | I'm so incredibly grateful to everybody that's been enjoying |
| 0:37.0 | and giving such incredible |
| 0:38.9 | feedback on the podcast. And in that vein, I wanted to share once again some of my favorite |
| 0:46.7 | reviews. I've been asking everybody to please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:51.4 | And there was a few funny good ones this week that I wanted to share with |
| 0:55.3 | people. M's 2170, a very enjoyable listen. Well, thank you. Enjoyableness is definitely a huge goal |
| 1:02.4 | for me on the podcast. And then a couple that were on theme. One was Greg E. TB, who said love the |
| 1:09.3 | podcast, iconic, informational and insightful. Wow, incredible. Really enjoy Love the Podcast, iconic, informational, and insightful. |
| 1:12.0 | Wow, incredible. |
| 1:13.2 | Really enjoy the music clips, blah, blah, blah. |
| 1:15.0 | Can't wait for Mariah, Carrie, first of her name, breaker of records, and scaler of octaves. |
| 1:21.5 | Also, XTina. |
| 1:22.8 | Both good suggestions. |
| 1:24.0 | And then, of course, my favorite review of the week from jk j in l a la that just wrote maria so |
| 1:32.2 | clearly people are waiting for the m c pop pantheon so duly noted and on this note i'm starting a new |
| 1:40.6 | drive so the way that this is going to work is you leave a review on Apple |
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