When Diana Ross Ensnared Tame Impala: "Turn Up the Sunshine" Reached Across 4 Decades for "Minions"
42 years separated the two artists who recorded a song for a 2022 "Minions" sequel soundtrack. There's no telling just how much the two singers' fan bases Gru.
I’m apparently not a movie-goer, as I’m suddenly discovering that not only did something called Minions: The Rise of Gru debut in theaters more than a year ago, but longtime Motown star and disco diva, Diana Ross, recorded a song on the soundtrack!
And, in an initial meeting Ms. Ross might’ve thought would have to happen only on the African savanna, she recorded it with Tame Impala, whom Allmusic.com insists are “Australian indie rockers who channel crunchy ‘60s psych, trippy pop and modern electronics to deliver a much in-demand sound.”
Far be it from me to argue with a website, but, apparently, this “Tame Impala” is really a songwriter/singer/producer/multi-instrumentalist from Australia named Kevin Parker. In this way, he’s following the musical template of such artists as German singer/songwriter, Marius Lauber (as Roosevelt), Minnesotan multi-instrumentalist, Adam Young (aka Owl City), and likely others.
Just before his Diana Ross collab, Parker recorded his 4th Tame Impala album (released on Valentine’s Day 2020), The Slow Rush, and on this track, anyway, reaches back into the dance groove inhabited by Diana and her “Love Hangover” 1976 disco hit:
International Affair
For last summer’s Minions movie, Ms. Ross (now 79), and Parker, 37, teamed up on “Turn Up The Sunshine,” written by Parker, New Jersey native, Jack Antonoff (singer/guitarist with Bleachers and Fun), who produced the track, Sam Dew (Chicago singer/songwriter), and Swedish musician/producer, Patrik Berger.
The song was initially recorded as a part of the sessions for Ross’ 2021 album Thank You (for Decca/UMG, worldwide), but the song was then earmarked for inclusion on the soundtrack for Minions: The Rise of Gru (released July 1, 2022 through both Decca and the Verve Label Group), according to UK’s FarOutMagazine.co. “Just like the rest of the soundtrack, ‘Turn Up the Sunshine’ is meant to channel the classic pop hits of the 1970s and 1980s,” the magazine asserted.
Rolling Stone: “The record pulls from Ross’ early solo recordings with a jilting blend of funk, disco, and psychedelic pop [the kind preferred by Parker with his Tame Impala project] seamlessly blending the pair’s areas of expertise”:
Peaking at #19 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary (A/C, or MOR) chart during summer 2022, Antonoff and Parker both played guitar, bass, keyboards, and percussion on the song. Other musicians featured were:
Michael Riddleberger: drums and percussion
Evan Smith: flute, saxophone, backing vocals
Sam Dew: backing vocals
Bobby Hawk: violin
LL Cool J.A.: Ladies Love Cool Jack Antonoff
Antonoff (above) produced Taylor Swift’s Folklore (July 2020) and Evermore (December 2020) “surprise” albums, as well as records by Lorde, Lana Del Rey, and St. Vincent. He knows his strength is capturing female artists on tape, and the challenge of capturing the legendary Diana must have been an enticing one.
“Ms. Ross showed up for the first session with some of her grandkids,” according to SongFacts. “‘You can hear that in the record,’ Antonoff told Billboard. ‘In the beginning, that voice saying ‘turn up the sunshine,’ that’s one of her grandkids. We’re in the studio and she’s singing the song in the big booth, and she was surrounded by all these kids dancing and singing with her. It almost sounds fake because it was so beautiful.’”
In fact, Antonoff and Ross got along so well that he produced and played on “I Still Believe” on her Thank You double-album in ‘21. “I Still Believe” was written by Bronx native, Autumn Rowe, Charlie McLean (with his fist writing credit), singer/songwriter, Hannah Berney, and recording artist, Ruth-Anne (Rooty) Cunningham:
I Was a Teenage A&R Exec
Well, not exactly. I was actually 20 in early 1976, and a DJ at Houston’s “progressive rock” station, the CBS-owned KLOL-FM. Fellow Houstonian and good friend, Lisa Hartman, was readying the release of her debut album for Kirshner/CBS Records (produced by Rock’n’Roll Hall of Famer, Jeff Barry), about which we wrote here, in April:
At about that same time, Motown was releasing Diana Ross’s second self-titled album on February 10, 1976. I, of course, was aware of Lisa’s pending album release, and I also had the Ross album (neither would break through KLOL’s rock-forward format).
I came to really enjoy the Ross album, particularly the album’s second track (“I Thought It Took A Little Time (But Today I Fell in Love),” which was also the album’s second single released (on February 20, 1976)…actually, it was the album’s first single, as the album’s lead track, “Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To)” was a single released far ahead of the album, in late September 1975.
The album’s official lead single, “I Thought It Took A Little Time,” was on its way to becoming a hit when its chart life was cut short by “Love Hangover,” which was rushed to release by Motown (March 16, 1976) alongside a competing version by The 5th Dimension.
“I Thought It Took A Little Time” became a Top 5 Adult Contemporary single despite its shortened run on the Billboard Hot 100. Because I liked the song so much, I took it upon myself to “play” A&R guy for Lisa, and I sent her an audio cassette tape of about ten songs I thought she should consider recording for her Album #2 (which didn’t end up seeing release until 1979).
One of the songs I sent to Lisa was this one by Diana, as written by Pam Sawyer and Michael Masser, who also produced…beautifully, with stirring strings and background vocals, with a couple of effective modulations:
Same song, but here in a 2009 disco remix!
I never heard back from Lisa. So much for my nascent A&R career!
For more intergenerational music-making, see this FR&B article about Nile Rodgers (late-‘70s songwriter/producer for disco-hitmaking Chic) and his production work with Daft Punk, which also features links to FR&B articles about Rodgers producing records by present-day hitmakers, Roosevelt and SG Lewis:
Interesting Brad--as always, more here to unpack than I have hands to unpack with! I know next to nothing about the Minions and haven't seen the movie, but have been into Tame Impala for some time. They are (Parker is) part of a whole Aussie psychedelic/pop-rock scene including groups like Pond and Augie March. Just as geographic isolation allowed the emergence of marsupials in Australia, it also fostered a unique music ecosystem. Interesting to get a glimpse of Ross's multitude of collaborations over the years--I had no idea!
Of course you wrote a great piece...again 😊 I’m a huge Minion fan myself so I’ve already seen the movie and heard the music. BIG disco fan too!!!