Eaten Alive is the sixteenth studio album by American R&B singer Diana Ross, released on September 24, 1985, by RCA Records in the United States, with EMI Records distributing elsewhere. It was Ross' fifth of six albums released by the label during the decade. Primarily written and produced by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, with co-writing from his brothers Andy, Maurice, and Robin, the album also includes a contribution from Ross' friend Michael Jackson who co-wrote and performed (uncredited) on the title track.
Eaten Alive was deemed a commercial failure in the US, where it peaked at No. 45 on the US Billboard 200 and sold around 300,000 copies, spending 20 weeks on the chart. It fared better internationally, entering the top 10 in the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland, whilst reaching number 11 in Australia and the UK. It also made the top 20 in Germany, Italy, Austria and Japan.
Eaten Alive produced the singles "Eaten Alive", "Chain Reaction", and "Experience", the most successful of these being "Chain Reaction", which topped the charts in both the UK[1] and Australia. In his biography of Ross, J.Randy Taraborrelli attributed the album's poor performance in the US to the release of the title track as its first single, rather than one of the other two songs. He noted that "Eaten Alive" was "like nothing else on the record", and with its "incomprehensible" lyrics, "set an unfair tone for the album with record buyers".[2]
Background
Eaten Alive was primarily conceived by Bee Gees singer Barry Gibb, who had co-written and co-produced successful albums for Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, and Kenny Rogers earlier that decade. Most of the tracks were co-written by Gibb and at least one of his other siblings Andy, Maurice, and Robin, though some were written by all members of the Bee Gees.[3] According to Robin, "Chain Reaction" was written last to provide the album with an obvious single, and was intended to sound like a Motown song Ross might have recorded with The Supremes (although when first played to her, she rejected it for that reason).[4]
The album was remastered and re-released on September 29, 2014, by Funky Town Grooves, with bonus material on a second CD.[5] This reissue was licensed from RCA, which owns rights to the album in the U.S. and Canada and is available in these countries (plus, through imports from Solid Records, also in Japan, even when actually Warner Music Group owns rights here).[6]
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, critic Ron Wynn gave the album three stars out of five and wrote that "Diana Ross got a lot of mileage from this album, although it didn't duplicate the success she'd enjoyed with Swept Away. The title track was a Top Ten R&B hit, thanks in part to Michael Jackson's presence on background vocals, and another single also made the charts. Ross wasn't the powerhouse she was in the 1970s, but she was still doing well enough to keep making records."[3]
The Eaten Alive Demos as sung by Barry Gibb were made available as downloads on iTunes in October 2006. The album contained most of the songs except for the title track and "Chain Reaction".[7] In the spring of 2009, when iTunes changed into DRM-free downloads with higher bit-rates; all of the Barry Gibb demos were no longer available. In August 2011 all of the Barry Gibb demos reappeared on iTunes shortly after the opening of the download store on his official website where many of the same tracks were available. Another demo of the title track by Michael Jackson is known to have been recorded, but, to this date, has not yet surfaced.
