‘Touch Me in the Morning’: The number one hit that put Diana Ross back on the map in 1973
Whenever a musician leaves a well-established band in an effort to break off on their own, the challenge is often proving you have enough talent and charisma to sustain the spotlight on your own. When Diana Ross left The Supremes, maintaining that momentum was all about enhancing what she’d already put out in the world.
As a member of the group, Ross had gained a reputation for being one of the most powerful women in music: she was confident, talented, and completely unafraid to stand proud in front of seas of people, carving out a distinctive reputation as one of Motown’s most defining faces.
When Berry Gordy first founded Motown in 1959, he had a vision to capture “the sound of young America”. He wanted to spotlight the lesser-celebrated Black communities and their talented music scenes while also blending soul with pop in a way that had mainstream appeal, so when Ross came along, she embodied exactly that, which is also why Gordy eventually upgraded her to the face of the group in 1963, setting her on an unrivalled path to stardom.
When the group rebranded to Diana Ross & The Supremes in the late 1960s, she was already a massively glamorous figure viewed by many as the official face of Motown. It was a move that irked some of the other members, but which ultimately solidified her place as one of the most significant frontwomen in pop music history, and because she kept rising beyond what she and even Gordy had likely anticipated at the start, there came a time when she realised she could break off on her own and try her hand at being a successful solo artist.
However, things wouldn’t be easy from the off, and while Ross already had a good footing to make a go of it, she needed to figure out how, exactly, she’d work things out on her own, and this is where Ron Miller came in.
A couple of years after leaving The Supremes on a high, Ross needed a powerful anthem that captured everything she’d be offering as a soloist: confident, free, and, more importantly, here for the long run. And so, when writing for her fourth studio album, Miller took a look at everything they could focus on to ensure her solo career was as powerful and longstanding as it could be.
Ross had already had a number one hit with ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ in 1970, and had since made her film debut playing Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues, placing her in a unique position as a force across both film and music. However, ‘Touch Me in the Morning’ was important in ensuring that she remained a sophisticated presence at the top of her reign.
As Miller later recalled, he’d already had the idea for ‘Touch Me in the Morning’, but wasn’t sure initially what it meant lyrically. Then he studied Ross somewhat, which helped him to realise that she had become an adult in the spotlight, now representing a “contemporary woman” who was “liberal about expressing her sexual values”, adding, “It was just a very cold, calculated and wonderful job of crafting”.
Those calculations evidently paid off, as the song marked Ross’ second number one and longest charting pop hit, despite the “draining experience” of working on it in the studio to get it exactly right. Although it was hard for her to sing it how she wanted to, it cemented her solo identity and marked her severance from her previous endeavours in The Supremes.
