Diana Ross

Diana Ross is the debut studio album by American singer Diana Ross, released on June 19, 1970 by Motown Records. The ultimate test to see if the former Supremes frontwoman could make it as a solo act, the album was overseen by the songwriting-producing team of Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, who had Ross re-record several of the songs the duo had recorded on other Motown acts. Johnny Bristol, producer of her final single with The Supremes, contributed on The Velvelettes cover "These Things Will Keep Me Loving You." The album reached number 19 on the US Billboard 200 and peaked at number one on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Diana Ross would later go on to sell 500,000 copies in the United States. Ross' first solo single, "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)", sold over 500,000 copies in the US, but was somewhat of a disappointment in terms of chart success, when it charted at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its follow-up, a cover of Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", peaked at number one on the Hot 100, selling approximately 1,245,000 copies in the US, while garnering a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The 2002 Expanded Edition re-release of the album featured a number of bonus tracks, including four from her unreleased sessions with 5th Dimension producer Bones Howe. These included two Laura Nyro covers which would subsequently be recorded by Barbra Streisand for her 1971 album Stoney End as well as "Love's Lines, Angles and Rhymes" which become a Fifth Dimension hit in 1971. Album Cover The album cover comes from a 1970 photo shoot with photographer Harry Langdon. Hundreds of photos were taken before eventually settling on a look which shunned the glamour Diana was previously known for, a decisive statement marking the turn in her career. Langdon described the look as an attempt to be novel and edgy after seeing so much of the same glamorous aesthetic.