I'm Still Waiting

Album: Everything Is Everything (1970)
Charted: 1 63
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Songfacts®:

  • In this song, Diana Ross is really hung up on her childhood crush. She's still waiting for him even though he makes it clear she should look elsewhere. Her justification: "I'm just a fool."
  • In America, "I'm Still Waiting" had little impact, but it was a #1 hit in the UK thanks to some twists of fate.

    Originally just an album track, the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show DJ Tony Blackburn, a massive Diana Ross fan, had other ideas. He told Motown Records that if they released it as a single, he would make it his "Record Of The Week," playing it every morning for five days. The label did, Blackburn kept his word, and the result was Diana Ross' first UK #1 as a solo artist. In the US, it stalled at #63.

    When Diana Ross performed the number on her UK tour, she was amazed at the reaction of the British public and even more astounded when she received standing ovations.
  • After a triumphant run with The Supremes, Diana Ross went solo in 1970 and had a huge hit with "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" from her debut album. "I'm Still Waiting" was part of her second album, Everything Is Everything. She released a lot of material around this time and it didn't always connect. In America the song and album were little heard, but Ross was right back at the top of the chart in 1973 with "Touch Me in the Morning."
  • "I'm Still Waiting" was written and produced by Deke Richards, who worked for Motown and had a hand in several hits for The Jackson 5, including "I Want You Back" and "I'll Be There." In the liner notes to the Everything Is Everything reissue, Richards said he wanted the song to be "simple and unassuming," adding, "Diana liked the song but the soft, vulnerable style took her by surprise."
  • This was Motown's biggest selling single in the UK until the Commodores' 1978 smash hit "Three Times A Lady."
  • The spoken part ("Love has never shown his face...") is something that shows up a lot in Diana Ross songs dating back to her time in The Supremes. A good example is the Supremes song "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone."

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