Diana Ross: Surrender

I bought a handful of records at Flat, Black, and Circular while in East Lansing, MI before the end of 2012. I bought Diana Ross's Surrender on a whim. I was struck by the cover, and thought I'd correct my lack of knowledge on her post-Supremes sound. I've since read that this is considered a rather sea-level effort for that part of her career. But I'll be the first to admit I really liked what I heard upon the first spin. Two tracks in particular strike me.

At first, I thought the last track of Side A was a super strange minor/major version of "I'll Be There". That song was made famous, of course, by the Jackson 5 (and didn't Diana Ross have a hand in that?). News to me that "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" is actually a different Holland-Dozier-Holland composition and was written in this really harmonically complex way. Need to take a few more listens to this one to see how it is structured.

Meanwhile, "Didn't You Know (You'd Have to Cry Sometime)" is just an awesome soul-pop song, pound-for-pound. It's the kind of song that, when you first hear the groove, you think, this has to be a sample somewhere. I just WhoSampled it... No samples! It is, however, a cover of Gladys Knight & The Pips (showcasing my ignorance here). Well, maybe I'll be the first (?) to give it a go.