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/ News

Ease On Down! Motown Unveils Lost Diana Ross Album For Digital Release

November 27, 2015 By Mike Duquette 5 Comments

Diana Ross Sings The WizOn the eve of NBC's new production of The Wiz next week, Motown/UMe have dug into the vaults to release a lost album of songs from the Broadway musical by Diana Ross.

The pairing, of course, is no mistake: the 1975 Tony Award-winning "super soul musical" was adapted into a film in 1978, with Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell and original cast member Ted Ross as Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion, respectively. Produced by Motown and directed by Sidney Lumet, with a young Joel Schumacher adapting the show into a screenplay and Quincy Jones as musical director (the first time Jackson and Jones would work together), the film was a commercial and critical disappointment but has since achieved cult classic status.

What fans may not know is that this initial underperformance curtailed the 1979 release of a new Diana Ross album where she performed the songs from the show in their entirety. Produced by Ross, Suzanne de Passe and Lee Holdridge, who'd arranged Diana's chart-topping "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)," the album would be entirely scrapped in favor of a new collaboration with Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson on The Boss.

Diana Ross Sings Songs from The Wiz features beloved songs from the musical including "Ease On Down the Road," "You Can't Win," "Home," the Luther Vandross-penned "Everybody Rejoice," and Ashford and Simpson's "Is This What Feeling Gets? (Dorothy's Theme)" as well as "Wonder Wonder Why," a song cut from Charlie Smalls' original Broadway score and unused until a revival in 1984.

Produced by UMe's usual Supreme dream team of Andy Skurow, George Solomon and Harry Weinger (who also pen an essay in the set's booklet, which will feature unseen photos of Miss Ross), Diana Ross Sings Songs from The Wiz will be available to all digital retailers on November 27.

Diana Ross, Diana Ross Sings Songs from The Wiz (Motown/UMe, 2015 - intended for release 1979) (Amazon U.S.)

  1. The Feeling We Once Had
  2. He's the Wizard
  3. Soon as I Get Home
  4. Trio Medley: You Can't Win/Slide Some Oil/[I'm A] Mean Ole Lion
  5. Ease On Down the Road
  6. Be a Lion
  7. So You Wanted to Meet the Wizard
  8. Is This What Feeling Gets? [Dorothy's Theme]
  9. Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News
  10. Wonder Wonder Why
  11. A Brand New Day (Everybody Rejoice)
  12. Believe in Yourself
  13. Home

Categories: News Formats: Digital Download Genre: R&B/Soul Tags: Diana Ross

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Mike Duquette

Mike Duquette (Founder) was fascinated with catalog music ever since he was a teenager. A 2009 graduate of Seton Hall University with a B.A. in journalism, Mike paired his profession with his passion through The Second Disc, one of the first sites to focus on all reissue labels great and small. His passion for reissues turned into a career, holding positions at Legacy Recordings and Rhino Records and contributing to Allmusic, Discogs, City Pages, Ultimate Classic Rock and Mondo Records, for whom he penned liner notes for his favorite piece of music: John Williams' Oscar-winning score to 'E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.' Born and raised in New Jersey, Mike lives in Astoria, Queens with his wife, a cat named Ravioli, twin daughters and a large yet tasteful collection of music.

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Comments

  1. Scott says

    November 29, 2015 at 1:58 am

    Was really excited to read this until I went to Amazon and discovered it was a digital-only release. 🙁

    Reply
  2. Phil Cohen says

    November 30, 2015 at 10:59 am

    I won't buy lossy MP3 or AAC downloads. With Universal having shut down Hip-O Select, Universal must find an outlet to release Motown archival product either on CD or lossless download to American consumers.
    I'm aware that Universal licenses some Motown archival tracks to the Uk label "ACE" for CD release, but those are strictly 1962-64 recordings by more obscure artists.

    Reply
    • Phillip says

      December 3, 2015 at 6:13 am

      In the US, this is available in a lossless format (16-bit, 44.1k FLAC) on ponomusic.com

      Reply
  3. Earl Kunz says

    November 30, 2015 at 11:28 am

    If digital release is the only way these will be made available, I can live with that. That said, this is an interesting curiosity piece and being a Ross/Supremes collector I am glad to have it. There are a few nice tracks but it is not something that will get repeated playing. Keep them coming! BTW, I burn to printable CD and create a disc case insert and keep digital booklets on a flash drive. This works for me. Sometimes content triumphs disdain for format.

    Reply
  4. Mark I. says

    December 1, 2015 at 2:45 pm

    Thanks for alerting me to this, so at least I can enjoy as part of my Apple Music unlimited streaming subscription.

    Reply

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