Little Girl Blue

One more clue that I'm getting a little long in the tooth: I bought an impulse-purchase CD at Starbucks today as I was getting an iced coffee. Isn't this exactly the type of thing I'd make fun of my mom for doing? But there those sad eyes were staring at me: Miss Ross -- The Boss: Diana Ross: "Blue" -- The Unreleased 1972 Album of Standards, by Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, and More. Last time I saw her royal Supremeness she was drunk off her ass in a police video falling down in the parking lot of a Blockbuster Video in Tucson, tacky rental car in the background. And now here was a chance to experience Diana Ross at the height of her fame -- riding high off the success of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and her Oscar-nominated role as Billie Holiday in "Lady Sings the Blues." It doesn't get any better than that.

In my defense, it turns out this isn't a Starbucks-only release (that would have been really embarrassing), it's coming out in wide release on June 20 (not sure why Starbucks has first dibs on it). It seems that there was a lot of outrage back in 1972 over Diana's pop interpretations of Billie Holiday's work back then -- an approach Berry Gordy claims was his idea to make her "more relatable to a general audience" -- and these jazzier, more true versions were recorded back then as well, to be released as a companion to the film and the film's original motion picture soundtrack. This project, however, was shelved (not sure why) and "lost in the vaults" until recently. Talk about "a find"! Diana nails it with a group of top jazz musicians supporting her , with beautiful arrangements by Benny Golson and Oliver Nelson. Her renditions of "Had You Been Around," "I Love Ya Porgy," "Smile" and "But Beautiful" give me goosebumps.

Get your own "Blue" from Amazon.com.