| Eaten Alive | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 24, 1985 | |||
| Recorded | 1985 | |||
| Studio |
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| Genre | ||||
| Length | 40:25 | |||
| Label | RCA | |||
| Producer | ||||
| Diana Ross chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Eaten Alive | ||||
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Eaten Alive is the sixteenth studio album by AmericanR&B singerDiana Ross, released on September 24, 1985, byRCA Records in the United States, withEMI Records distributing elsewhere. It was Ross' fifth of six albums released by the label during the decade. Primarily written and produced byBarry Gibb of theBee Gees, with co-writing from his brothersAndy,Maurice, andRobin, the album also includes a contribution from Ross' friendMichael Jackson who co-wrote and performed (uncredited) on thetitle track.
Eaten Alive was deemed a commercial failure in the US, where it peaked at No. 45 on the USBillboard 200 and sold around 300,000 copies, spending 20 weeks on the chart. It fared better internationally, entering the top 10 in the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland, whilst reaching number 11 in Australia and theUK. It also made the top 20 in Germany, Italy, Austria and Japan.
Eaten Alive produced the singles "Eaten Alive", "Chain Reaction", and "Experience", the most successful of these being "Chain Reaction", which topped the charts in both theUK[1] andAustralia. In his biography of Ross,J. Randy Taraborrelli attributed the album's poor performance in the US to the release of the title track as its first single, rather than one of the other two songs. He noted that "Eaten Alive" was "like nothing else on the record", and with its "incomprehensible" lyrics, "set an unfair tone for the album with record buyers".[2]
Eaten Alive was primarily conceived by Barry Gibb, who had co-written and co-produced successful albums forBarbra Streisand,Dionne Warwick, andKenny Rogers earlier that decade. Most of the tracks were written by Gibb and at least one of his three brothers, as well as Albhy Galuten and Michael Jackson. "Chain Reaction" was written last to provide the album with an obvious single, and was intended to sound like aMotown song Ross might have recorded withThe Supremes (although when first played to her, she rejected it for that reason).[3]
The album was remastered and re-released on September 29, 2014, by Funky Town Grooves, with bonus material on a second CD.[4] This reissue was licensed from RCA, which owns rights to the album in the U.S. and Canada and is available in these countries (plus, through imports from Solid Records, also in Japan, even when actuallyWarner Music Group owns rights here).[5]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [6] |
In a retrospective review forAllMusic, critic Ron Wynn gave the album three stars out of five and wrote that "Diana Ross got a lot of mileage from this album, although it didn't duplicate the success she'd enjoyed withSwept Away. The title track was a Top Ten R&B hit, thanks in part toMichael Jackson's presence on background vocals, and another single also made the charts. Ross wasn't the powerhouse she was in the 1970s, but she was still doing well enough to keep making records."[6]
The Eaten Alive Demos as sung by Barry Gibb were made available asdownloads oniTunes in October 2006. The album contained most of the songs except for the title track and "Chain Reaction".[7] In the spring of 2009, when iTunes changed intoDRM-free downloads with higher bit-rates, all of the Barry Gibb demos were no longer available. In August 2011 all of the Barry Gibb demos reappeared on iTunes shortly after the opening of the download store on his official website where many of the same tracks were available. Another demo of the title track byMichael Jackson is known to have been recorded, but, to this date, has not yet surfaced.
All tracks written byBarry, Robin and Maurice Gibb and produced byGibb-Galuten-Richardson, except where noted.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Eaten Alive" |
| 3:54 | |
| 2. | "Oh Teacher" | 3:40 | ||
| 3. | "Experience" |
| 4:57 | |
| 4. | "Chain Reaction" | 3:49 | ||
| 5. | "More and More" |
| 3:06 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6. | "I'm Watching You" | 3:51 | |
| 7. | "Love on the Line" | 4:21 | |
| 8. | "(I Love) Being in Love with You" | 4:33 | |
| 9. | "Crime of Passion" | 3:34 | |
| 10. | "Don't Give Up on Each Other" |
| 3:45 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11. | "Eaten Alive" (Extended Re-Mix) |
|
| 5:52 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Eaten Alive" (Single Mix) | 3:53 |
| 2. | "Eaten Alive" (Single Mix Instrumental) | 3:59 |
| 3. | "Eaten Alive" (Hot Extended Dance Mix) | 5:53 |
| 4. | "Eaten Alive" (Hot Extended Dance Mix Instrumental) | 5:52 |
| 5. | "Experience" (Single Version) | 4:06 |
| 6. | "Experience" (Instrumental) | 4:50 |
| 7. | "Experience" (Special Dance Mix) | 5:46 |
| 8. | "Chain Reaction" (Special Single Mix) | 4:21 |
| 9. | "Chain Reaction" (Special Dance Mix) | 6:55 |
Notes
Credits are adapted from theEaten Alive liner notes.[8]
Performers
Production
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
