The album was released in the Spring of 1987, her last effort for her $20 million dollar / 7 year contract for RCA which she signed on May 20, 1981. It also gave her complete control of her albums while contracted to RCA. Her first album, "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" was a monster hit in 1981 selling 2M copies, her follow-up "Silk Electric" was a more modest hit selling Gold in 1982. The others which followed didn't really live up to RCA expectations ('Ross' - 1983 and 'Eaten' Alive' - 1985 were bombs, 'Swept Away' - 1984 was a moderate hit selling Gold, but no more million + selling albums). A lot was riding on this last album which was released on May 8, 1987, including whether or not RCA would be renewing her contract for another seven years. The album was released just a few weeks before an ABC television special of the same name, which covered some of the songs on the album and a few which didn't get an album release. The special was a ratings hit, and won a couple of Emmy nominations for Ross.
"Red Hot Rhythm and Blues" was proposed as a concept album returning Ross to her early pop/ R&B roots (the same way Streisand's "The Broadway Album" was constructed for Streisand a year prior, selling over 5 million copies). Yet, once again, Ross fumbled to the finish line. Instead of sticking with the 'oldies' from the 50s and the 60s, she included a cover of 'Dirty Looks' which had just been released by Warp 9 on Motown a year earlier. 'Shine' was a song recorded by Simply Red, and released on their album at the same time. There was a new song written and produced by Luther Vandross ('It's Hard for Me to Say') and the never-before recorded "Summertime" written by the legendary Leonard Cohen. "Shockwaves", cowritten by Ross herself, was yet another new song added to the album.
She did cover some of the 'R&B' oldies' she intended to dedicate the whole album to in the first place - covers of 'There Goes My Baby', and 'Selfish One'. In the US release, she left off classics like 'Mr. Lee', 'Tell Mama', 'Sweet Soul Music' (which was available on imports from EMI and later on, an expanded US release) and even '99 1/2' (which appeared on her 1993 boxed set). If she included these four songs on the original release, and dropped the 'new, contemporary' songs she added, she would have been so much closer to her original concept.
Overall, it's a decent album which didn't sell well at all (125,000 copies), peaking at #73 on the US Billboard Chart and #47 on the UK Album Chart. The single 'Dirty Looks' didn't chart at all on the US Hot 100 singles, but peaked at #12 on the US R&B Singles Chart. The big ballad "Tell Me Again" was released as a second single, but also went nowhere very quickly. RCA didn't bother releasing any more singles after that in the US, and decided to drop her from her contract.
What do other DLrs think of the album ?
