Dianna Ross n Lionel Richie: Endless Love + Endless Love (INSTRUMENTAL) classic 7″ Check video. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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Diana Ross and Lionel Richie recorded ‘Endless love’ for the soundtrack of the movie ‘Endless love’ starring Brooke Shields. It was also released as a single in 1981. While the movie was a failure, the song became the second biggest-selling single of the year in the USA (second only to ‘Physical’ by Olivia Newton-John). The single reached number 7 in the UK singles chart

The song became the biggest-selling single of Ross’ career, while it was one of several hits for Richie as the Eighties progressed. Ross recorded a solo version of the song for her first RCA Records album, ‘Why do fools fall in love?’. The song was covered by Luther Vandross and Mariah Carey in 1994.


Endless Love:  When Lionel Richie first met with producer Jon Peters and director Franco Zeffirelli to discuss writing some music for the upcoming film Endless Love, little did any of them know that the result would be one of the most successful singles in the history of popular music.  According to The Billboard Book of Number One Hits, Zeffirelli suggested Diana Ross as a possible candidate to sing with Richie on the title ballad, and although Miss Ross had just left Motown for RCA, the labels allowed the duo to go ahead and record together (Motown would release the single).  Within just a few weeks of hitting the airwaves, “Endless Love” had climbed to the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, where it would remain for a staggering nine weeks; the song went on to garner an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song, along with Grammy nominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Duo of Group.  Although the record’s success was unprecedented, it’s entirely justified; as schmaltzy as some might deem it to be, “Endless Love” is a perfect pop love ballad, simple in melody and lyric and delivered with tasteful power by its superstar vocalists.  Certainly there’s no way Ross or RCA were going to miss out on a chance to share in some of the gold dust sprinkled by “Endless Love,” which is why Diana re-cut the song during sessions for Why Do Fools Fall In Love and included a solo, self-produced version on the album.  To be fair, Ross gets some credit for not producing a carbon copy of the original recording; here, every element is cranked up several notches, from the glossy instrumental track embellished by a prominent flute to Diana’s showier and emotive vocal performance.  Although Rolling Stone praised this “Endless Love,” calling it “much more impassioned” than the duet version and a Billboard Spotlight review dubbed it “marvelous and sensitive,” the truth is that Diana’s own version of the song is a perfect example of the old adage “less is more.”  The simplicity of the original duet was a perfect counterpoint to the saccharine lyrics, something Richie probably instinctively knew; it’s easy for love ballads to fall into a syrupy trap, and he managed to walk the narrow line by keeping the performances fairly restrained and honest.  Diana Ross, with this version, falls headfirst into that syrupy trap.  There’s no denying her voice sounds very powerful in this solo version; she’s extremely committed to the performance, and her voice soars (even if she occasionally falls into her old Supremes bit of over-enunciating to the point of self-parody).  However, the over-production really kills the song; the instrumental is so clouded and muddled and overdone that it sounds more like sappy elevator music than an appropriate track for Diana Ross.  Though the original duet is an undeniable highlight of Ross’s career, the version on this LP is barely listenable; amazingly, RCA considered releasing this solo version as a single and edited it down for a promotional release before wisely deciding to go with another one of the album’s tracks.

“Diana said, ‘Get me the best band in New York!’ She had people picking songs for her. She had people doing arrangements. She assembled a really great crew, which is what producers do. We get along really well. I love Diana. She’s very creative, has a lot of ideas, and she doesn’t like to be told no…She wants to try her ideas. If they don’t work, she’s the first one to say so.” -Engineer Larry Alexander, Tape Op (May/June 2013)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDNlYho3A2Y

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