16 September 1971
The wait is over: it’s September 1971 and Ireland finally has a number one single from Motown. That’s not to say we were theretofore completely oblivious to the brilliance coming out of Hitsville: The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, Mary Wells, The Temptations and Marvin Gaye had all had Irish top ten hits before this. If Berry Gordy had been nicer to Holland Dozier Holland then Freda Payne’s 1970 Irish chart-topper ‘Band Of Gold’ would have been racing in the Motown colours. Still, it’s odd and dispiriting that, despite them being clsssic and beloved sounds of that decade, no Motown records got to number one in Ireland during the ’60s. In particular, ‘Baby Love’ was kept off Ireland’s top spot by Dickie Rock and The Miami Showband’s ‘From The Candy Store On The Corner To The Chapel On The Hill’; that’s just wrong.
Anyway, by 1971 Motown’s biggest star had left The Supremes (latterly Diana Ross and The Supremes) and struck out as a sole trader. Her version of ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ was a US no. 1 in 1970 but only reached no. 14 in Ireland and no. 6 in the UK, so ‘I’m Still Waiting’ is her first solo chart-topper on our side of the pond. Those two tracks are emblematic of Diana Ross’s new ’70s sound: extravagantly melodramatic ballads that I suspect attracted words like “sophisticated” and “mature” as if the likes of ‘Stop! In The Name Of Love’, ‘Come See About Me’ and ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’ were mere finger-painting rather than real exemplars of sophistication in pop music.
Perhaps this is from looking back at it through the flak of subsequent power balladry, but the strange thing about ‘I’m Still Waiting’ is how Ross herself at the heart of it sounds so restrained: no money notes, melismas, whistle shrieks or other heavy artillery of the ’90s power diva. It adds a disappointed, resigned and relatable air, plus a charming lightness of touch, to a song which, if we’re honest, is a bit silly: you’ve avoided all relationships in your whole life ever because a ten-year-old brushed you off when you were only five. And what to make of the later load-bearing line “he could see I had no eyes”? Normally this sort of mawkish misery-pop wouldn’t leave a dry seat in the house. However, ‘I’m Still Waiting’ works fine for me, thanks to the shimmering presence and singular gifts of a genuine superstar.
