Diana Ross: Touch Me In The Morning (Expanded Edition) on 2 CDs

n 1973, Diana Ross was coming off an Oscar® nomination for her searing portrayal of Billie Holiday in the feature film Lady Sings The Blues, a No. 1 album for its soundtrack, and questions about what she might do next.

Next was Touch Me In The Morning, a critical and commercial success that featured the No. 1 title track, a blazing return to “pop” form. The songs on Touch Me were reflective of the time: ballads about love lost and found, and classy covers of songs by the Carpenters, Marvin Gaye and John Lennon. The album was a smash, hitting No. 5 Pop and No. 1 on the Soul LP charts.

As with so many classic albums, there was more to the story: Touch Me includes songs from other simultaneously recorded projects, as you’ll discover on this new, lovingly produced 2-CD Expanded Edition.

When sessions for Touch Me began, Diana Ross had been working on two other albums at the same time: one, Blue, was to be a continuation of the jazz-inflected recordings she inhabited for the Lady Sings projects; the other was To The Baby, a collection of songs honoring her newborn daughter Rhonda.

Touch Me In The Morning: Expanded Edition includes a newly remastered version of the original album plus previously unreleased mixes, and a pair of alternate versions of “Touch Me In The Morning” demonstrating Ross’s versatility in the studio.

Disc 2 of the Expanded Edition contains the entire To The Baby album, which includes previously unreleased covers of Michael Jackson’s “Got To Be There” and Roberta Flack’s “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” as well as the original title tune, written by Diana’s brother Arthur “T-Boy” Ross. Also newly discovered is the original medley, “Imagine / Save The Children,” two songs that were split for Touch Me, plus alternate original mixes of songs intended for To The Baby that ended up on Touch Me In The Morning, and an alternate mix of “Young Mothers,” which previously had been issued in 1983 on Ross’ Anthology.

That’s not all. We’ve added, as an extra special bonus, two songs recorded during the same timeline: “Kewpie Doll,” written and co-produced by Smokey Robinson, and “When We Grow Up,” from Marlo Thomas’ 1972 album Free To Be… You And Me.

(In another classic Motown coincidence, this reissue arrives just months after Rhonda, the “baby” for whom the album was originally written, had her first child.)

Touch Me In The Morning: Expanded Edition includes a booklet with rare photos and memorabilia, the story behind both albums, and quotes from Ross’s manager Shelley Berger, producer Deke Richards, and from Miss Ross herself.