“’The Boss’ was about Diana taking charge of her career. She was the boss!” -Songwriter Valerie Simpson
By Michael P Coleman
Diana Ross dominates dance floors nationwide this week, as the Eric Kupper remix of her classic “The Boss” sits atop Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart. The song’s resurgence comes 40 years after it topped the same chart in the spring of 1979.
It is the third consecutive #1 Dance song for Ross, with this new streak having begun last year with another Kupper remix, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Both tunes were written by the legendary duo Ashford & Simpson.
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| Songwriter Valerie Simpson |
During our EXCLUSIVE interview, Valerie Simpson said she and her husband, the late Nickolas Ashford, wrote “The Boss” specifically for music’s greatest diva.
“ ‘The Boss’ was about Diana doing her own thing,” Simpson shared by phone. “She was taking charge of her career, and she told us that. She was in charge. She was the boss!”
“People call her ‘the boss’ as a result of that song,” Simpson continued. “It’s nice when you, as a songwriter, kinda worm your way into what a person is about at a particular moment, because we’re different things at different points in our lives. At that point, Diana was stepping into her own.”
Simpson said she’s “tickled” by the new interest in “The Boss” and other songs she and Ashford wrote decades ago.
“It’s a songwriter’s dream that your songs would have longevity, but to have this kind of number one treatment and reaching whole new audiences, the dance crowd and the whole thing…it’s just nothing you can plan for or expect,” Simpson humbly said.
While Kupper’s remix updates the song’s musical bed, Ross’ transcendent vocal is left blissfully intact. The result sounds as fresh as it did two generations ago.
Of Ross’ stratospheric vocal runs on “The Boss,” Simpson debunked the myth that she augmented Ross’ voice with her own in the studio.
“When ‘The Boss’ first came out, it was so unlike Diana that a lot of people wanted to give me the credit,” Simpson recalled. “That wasn’t me at all. I wouldn’t have even thought to do that at the end of that record. She was just being free. As producers, we like to keep tape rolling if the artist is fooling around, and she did that in one take — just like that. We didn’t ask her to do it, but there was a long instrumental break and that’s what she was feeling. She did that really exuberant high thing, and it’s really special.”
“I’m glad to see that Diana has put ‘The Boss’ back in her show, because there was a period when she wasn’t doing it,” Simpson continued. “We’ll never know why all of a sudden the universe just rallied around this song. These things just can’t be planned. You just have to say ‘Thank, you, Lord!’ “
We may not be able to plan for it, but dance music fans can pray for it…and Simpson has a wish for Ross’ next single:
“I can’t wait until they discover ‘No One Gets The Prize,” Simpson declared. “That’s one of my favorites!”
Miss Ross? Eric Kupper? Motown? Are you listening?? Let’s give Ross four number #1s in a row!
The Eric Kupper remix of Diana Ross’ “The Boss” is available at digital outlets and dance clubs everywhere!
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