Comments on: DIANA ROSS – “Chain Reaction”

By: Izzy

Izzy — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:06:20 +0000

You tell ‘em, Mary. Those idiots aren’t actually stopping you from listening to or enjoying the song though, and they do seem to have more interesting things to say about it than you do. Would you care to tell us why you like it exactly?

By: mary w.

mary w. — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:36:47 +0000

I love this record……..and i love diana ross…this record went to number 1 all over the world…except for in the usa…seems the world knows a great song when they hear it. and for those of you that dont like the song…there is one simple solution…DONT LISTEN TO IT AND DONT SPOIL IT FOR THE REST THAT LOVE THE SONG. Reviews here of the song seem to be written by some deaf tone idiots!

By: JonnyB

JonnyB — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:08:20 +0000

I’d never noticed the lyrics before. Thanks punctum – sort of – for filling me in.

I’d also never noticed, until I listened to the YouTube clip, that Diana’s voice sounds – almost deliberately so – like Barry Gibb’s. At least at the song’s start, anyway. Or is this just me and my speakers?

It’s great stuff. I love the way that the writers just KNOW that the chorus is so strong that they can get away with that key-change after key-change.

By: MikeMCSG

MikeMCSG — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:55:29 +0000

#32 Conrad, that probably is the biggest if you discount appearances on charity ensembles.

By: LondonLee

LondonLee — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:12:03 +0000

#30 – I’d put Babs top if only for ‘Guilty’

By: Conrad

Conrad — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:12:52 +0000

#26, I can think of one longer gap between bona fide* Number 1 singles – Blondie, Tide Is High 1980 and ***** in 1999, so a gap of 19 years.

*not counting re-releases (eg Elvis in 2005)

By: Rory

Rory — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:45:27 +0000

I remember dismissing this at the time as an attempt to dress up a past-it star in contemporary chart clothing (“Upside Down” was better), but it’s actually a bit stronger than that; the chorus is certainly memorable. Can’t say the same for the lyrics – I’d never noticed the ones Tom and punctum have cited – and the production does sound thin (“big and thin” is a good call) – but it all makes for a tolerable enough concoction. I’m in the middle of a tolerable concoction… 5 from me.

Three weeks at number one in Australia, from 21 April 1986.

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:33:22 +0000

Re 22: “The UK pop audience being more receptive to slightly “dated” R&B sounds”… that’s yr northern soul right there. Been happening since around 1967!

Anyone else feel like ranking this with the Gibbs’ other 80s collaborations? I’d go:

1. Dionne Warwick
2. Kenny & Dolly
3. Babs Streisand
4. Miss Ross
5. Jimmy Ruffin (Hold On To My Love? meh)

might have forgotten one or two there… but this is no way better than Heartbreaker, or Guilty, or Islands In The Stream.

By: lonepilgrim

lonepilgrim — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:10:00 +0000

I like this enough to hum along with it if it’s on the radio but wouldn’t feel compelled to pay money for it. Ross’s girlish tones always seem more adaptable to changing fashions in music over the decades than more conventional/authentic ‘soul’ singers such as Billy Ocean (for instance). 6 seems fair to me.

By: swanstep

swanstep — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:26:52 +0000

that mechanical stomping feels like a typical 00’s thing
@JJ. I was thinking (roughly) the same thing. On the one hand, the bass drum sounds like a washing-machine – tweak it a bit and you can get the Double Speed Mayhem bass drum from the clubbing scene in _Morvern Callar_. In general, you could easily toughen up CR, make the inhuman source of the, um, chain reaction a bit clearer!
On the other hand, the vid. reminded me of Hey Ya’s, and, rounded shoulders notwithstanding, doesn’t Ross look amazing in the B&W bits? Free associating, one could imagine Outkast producing this song in a warmer but equally million-selling direction.

Not in the same league as Love Hangover (the full 8 minute mix please), Upside Side, or I’m Coming Out (three of the most fantastic records I’ve ever heard, 10s the lot in my view), and the underlying song here does seem to want to do something horrible to Where did our love go? without ever coming out and just *doing* it a la Soft Cell. I guess Tom’s score of 6 does feel about right to me, but there are so many louche mash-up and remix targets in this track, I’m tempted to go higher. Alas, sanity must prevail. This vid, which keeps most of the good CR video stuff is worth a look.

By: Jungman Jansson

Jungman Jansson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:57:13 +0000

Meh. I was going to use that “mechanised warfare” metaphor too. Diana’s singing really is at odds with the incessant, militaristic drums, but I like the effect. This is not at all bad, actually – I didn’t recognise the title and was expecting something really torpid, but I was pleasantly surprised. It does sound somewhat familiar as well; emerging from some nameless primordial childhood soup of songs.

The key changes are great and the climax certainly feels like a good way to end the song. Ross gets gradually more lost in the noise as the song progresses, but it works together with the rising intensity – if individual words go unheard, it’s no big deal.

Am I entirely out on a limb when I think it sounds rather contemporary? Tweak the production slightly and you have something that would fit in pretty well with the trends of the last few years – that mechanical stomping feels like a typical 00′s thing. (Which is more or less what the Steps version did; I don’t know whether that proves my point or not).

I’d go for a 7 here.

SwedenWatch: Didn’t chart, nor did it appear on the Tracks chart. So I’m not sure why I think it sounds familiar; Steps’ version didn’t chart here either.

By: thefatgit

thefatgit — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:42:36 +0000

Is this the longest gap between 2 #1′s by one artist? “I’m Still Waiting” was 1971.

By: LondonLee

LondonLee — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:45:18 +0000

I think Brits are just suckers for that Motown beat or anything that hints at it. And it did have the 80s vogue for old-timey soul to give it a leg up too.

#18 Bowie might have been helped by the hype around the movie (I really can’t remember) but it being by far the best single in the post-Scary Monsters wasteland of his creativity helped too. Wonderful record.

By: Elsa

Elsa — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:36:31 +0000

I’m a Yank who doesn’t remember this song at all. I don’t know about “slightly dated R&B,” this is more like 20 years dated. Sometimes full-on retro does work in the US charts if the arrangement is suitably dynamic (“Uptown Girl,” “You Can’t Hurry Love”) but I suppose that depends on individual taste.

By: Steve Mannion

Steve Mannion — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:14:10 +0000

I think the Freemasons remix of Solange’s ‘I Decided’ is a strong nod to this btw. Big and thin yes (not necessarily a bad thing).

By: col124

col124 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:01:15 +0000

as Tom Lane noted, this went nowhere in the US, and so it continues the odd streak of American R&B stars having UK #1s that barely got airplay in the States (Phyllis Nelson, Sister Sledge). I wonder what the deal was? The UK pop audience being more receptive to slightly “dated” R&B records? It’s a bit odd.

but yes, it does sound big and thin. Not doing much for me–a 5 at best.

By: col124

col124 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:59:03 +0000

but yes, it does sound big and thin. Not doing much for me–a 5 at best.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:26:27 +0000

It sounds big AND thin to me!

By: MBI

MBI — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:03:32 +0000

“It was one of those records that you knew would be Number One as soon as you heard it ”

Wow. Man, I guess I had to have been there, because there is really not that much about this that screams “huge hit” to me, and I certainly do not hear anything that sounds remotely “big” or “kiloton drums,” not even at the end. If it can be called big, it’s a lumbering, stodgy kind of big (like an Iron Man suit!) But no, I don’t see it even there. Coming within a few years of Duran Duran and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, this sounds quite thin actually. Neither Diana Ross or The Bee Gees have voices I’ve ever really equated with sheer muscle or force — I mean, if we’re doing it comparatively, then yes, the Gibbs and Miss Di sound bigger than they usually do, but not compared to the other hits surrounding it. I’d give it about a 5.

By: MikeMCSG

MikeMCSG — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:48:25 +0000

#15 Bowie was helped by the absolute saturation coverage given to the very mediocre and anachronistic film of the same name because it was thought the entire future of the British film industry rested on its shoulders after the disaster of “Revolution”. A couple of months later “Mona Lisa” made such predictions look silly.

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:47:33 +0000

Punctum, I’m not sure about Stigwood stopping them (can look it up in their vast biog later) but I remember a similar story, the brothers travelling in a car hearing Heartbreaker on the radio and feeling frustrated that it wasn’t THEIR record.

Best Bee Gees key changes are on the astonishing finale of their other proto-bad sex award single, Fanny (Be Tender With My Love). Why didn’t they just call it Annie (Be Tender With My Love)?

By: TomLane

TomLane — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:26:20 +0000

This song charted twice in the U.S. and both times never made Top 40. In November ’85 it got to #95 and then in May ’86 it stopped at #66. The latter showing was due to a remix of the song. This did no better on our R&B chart (#85). I always liked the back to the 60′s Motown sound that the Gibb Brothers concocted, it still sounds fresh coming out of my speakers today, and wondered why it never charted better in the States. A good high 7 from me.

By: Erithian

Erithian — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:14:33 +0000

I actively disliked this, and not just because the Bee Gees were a bête noire of mine from Saturday Night Fever onwards. Diana Ross made some beautiful solo records in the 70s, not least the sublime one-two of “Love Hangover” and the theme from “Mahogany” in ’76, but it was striking from her cover of “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” onwards that much of her 80s output was pretty soulless and, as pop, not all that good. Similarly with this vocal, and matched with the unsubtle beat, this one just seemed to me like a bit of a clunker. Speaking of clunkers, those lines Marcello quotes at #1 above – were the Gibbs going for some kind of prototype Bad Sex Award?

Number Two Watch: two more deserving candidates for the top in my book, the Bangles’ “Manic Monday” and the really rather underrated “Absolute Beginners”, Bowie’s last serious stab at the singles chart.

By: Kat but logged out innit

Kat but logged out innit — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:12:17 +0000

I loved this as a kid – those key changes just seemed to go on for ever and ever.

By: Izzy

Izzy — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:12:05 +0000

I don’t like this. Like #3 it’s the Gibb voices I hear, and like #5 I see much to admire in the craft. It really is very skilful, the knitting together of all those hooks.

But like it? No way – you couldn’t, it’d be like loving a Rubik’s Cube.

I was reading Paul McCartney’s ‘Many Years From Now’ last night – he was describing scoring ‘Yesterday’, specifically learning the variation of wandering up & down in pitch, as opposed to his rock tendency to block out all his chords. That ‘blocking out’ is exactly how I think of the Bee Gees’ vocals. They’re just too full-on, there’s nowhere for the listener to insert yourself into the song.