Diana Ross 'Chain Reaction'

Chart Peak: 1 [3 weeks]
YouTube

One of the biggest UK hits in the first half of 1986 and one of the most surprising absences from the main Now series - it was even on "home" label EMI - 'Chain Reaction' is one of the many hits in the 1980s written by the Bee Gees but not officially performed by them, though of course they add their usual prominent backing vocals. In fact, the Bee Gees scored only two UK Top 40 hits under their own name in the entire decade, and one of those was actually released in December 1979.

This song was apparently supposed to be some sort of Motown pastiche but while there are obvious elements of the beat, it is more unmistakably the work of Gibb Brothers, as much as 'Islands In The Stream'. It's mostly notable for the rather filthy lyric, which sailed entirely over my seven-year-old head at the time, but contains references to "after-midnight action" and "Your hand goes lower, you taste a little and you swallow slower". I'm not sure I wanted to think about Diana Ross and the Bee Gees having sex and the song doesn't really sound that good nowadays. The single was released twice in the US without making the Top 60 so maybe people in the US didn't want to think about it either.

Also appearing on: Now 21, 22, 44
Available on: Eaten Alive

Diana Ross 'Not Over You Yet'

Chart Peak: 9

YouTube

Quick trivia question - who was born first, Diana Ross or Bob Marley?


The answer is Miss Ross, by a matter of months. The reason I thought of the question was because Bob Marley is someone I never really remembered being alive, so he seems a(n) historically remote figure to me, whereas Ross continued to have hits regularly throughout the first couple of decades of my life. This was the last of them though, unless you count a collaboration with Westlife that nobody remembers.

The other reason I mention it is that I was struggling a bit to find much to say about the track itself. It's forgettable enough that I've actually had to listen to it a second time in order to say anything at all. The most remarkable thing about it is how anonymous it sounds, for a hit single by such a famous act.
Admittedly, she's not somebody you'd tend to associate with a particular style, but even her voice isn't readily recognisable, at least in the mix released as a UK single (the vocal has some pitchshifting effects reminiscent of the speed garage hits a couple of years earlier). It could easily be mistaken for Janet Jackson, and if I didn't know I'd have guessed it was a few years older than it actually is.

Apparently, this was nowhere near a hit in America, which is presumably why all the copies of the video on YouTube seem to have been taped from the British children's TV show Live & Kicking.

Also appearing on: Now 21, 22
Available on: Love and Life: The Very Best of Diana Ross