Memorable Movie Music - Diana Ross : Theme From Mahogany

In 1975, Diana Ross, ex-lead singer of The Supremes and arguably one of Motown's most popular female artistes, starred in Mahogany. In the romantic drama, Ross starred as a poor African-American woman who rose to become a big-time fashion designer but found that "success is nothing without someone you love to share it with".

The film also starred Billy Dee Williams (of Dynasty) and Anthony Perkins (of Psycho) as Ross' love interests. 

The film was not critically acclaimed but was a box-office hit.

Ross also sang the theme song for the film sub-titled "Do You Know Where You're Going To".

The song written by Michael Masser (who wrote hits like Whitney Houston's Saving All My Love For You  and Tonight I Celebrate My Love For You) by Roberta Flack & Peabo Bryson and Gerry Goffin (one half of the songwriting team of Carole King & Gerry Goffin responsible for hits like The Loco-Motion (a huge hit for Kylie) and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow) was a huge hit ... topping the charts in the States and reaching No. 5 in the UK. The song was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song in 1975.

The song lost out to "I'm Easy" from the movie Nashville. I honestly don't know ... perhaps the movie was bigger than the song.

This song has been covered by the likes of Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez. JLo's version has a Latino flavour with flamenco guitars added in while Mimi's overblown (in my opinion) version has her doing her trademark runs and improvisations and ends with her signature screech.

Feel free to compare the 3 version. My opinion - Diana's version is still the best.



ABBA : Dancing Queen

Once in a while a song comes along that not only defines its artiste but also an era. Dancing Queen is one such hit.

 

ABBA had been the darlings of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 when they so triumphantly won it (for the first time) for Sweden. However the group was dismissed by some circles as a one-hit wonder. As ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus said once in an interview people expected ABBA to be a one-hit wonder because they were perceived as a "Eurovision group" and that's what usually happens to "Eurovision groups" ... they have one huge hit and they go away.

 

 

 

As it happened, ABBA was to prove the critics wrong as they went on to have hit after hit and ABBA became Sweden's hottest pop export and, arguably, one of the biggest groups of the 1970s and early 1980s.

 

 

Dancing Queen was released in August

1976 and included on the album Arrival.

 

 

Upon its

release this monster hit went on to top the charts of more than 15 countries. It is easily ABBA's most recognised hit. It is also one of the songs to define the disco era and once topped a most popular disco hits poll on British telly - this despite ABBA not actually being a disco group.

 

 

The song has been covered by many artistes as diverse as U2, Donna Summer, The Sex Pistols and Kylie Minogue who performed it at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. In fact, Dancing Queen was to be the inspiration for what was later to become Kylie's showgirl persona.

 

 

As a special treat I also feature ABBA singing Dancing Queen in Swedish costumes specially for the royal wedding of King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden to Silvia Sommerlath (who would soon be Sweden's own Dancing Queen). Enjoy ...