Diana Ross - Gettin’ Ready For Love - Top 40 Music on CD Forum

I may be able to help here. I am a big fan of the Baby It's Me this hails from and have about 12 vinyl copies, the original solo issue & 2fer Cd pairing it with Touch Me In The Morning, the download only expanded edition, one 8 track, and two cassette copies of it (club and retail). I even bought the pink vinyl reissue a few years back. All my versions though don't carry the handclap version nor was it included in the expanded download set in 2014. The handclap version on the promo came about last minute as Motown was trying to goose the track up the charts as it was struggling in the lower top 40 slowly drifting to its #27 peak. Those are reservice copies although I don't believe Motown labeled the actual promos that. When it didn't help the label quickly moved to another single in hopes of saving the album.

One of the reasons this whole era struggled was the label unwisely put the album out for a month before a single basically telling radio to pick whatever they wanted to play from it. Most stations and discos picked the Love Hangover-eque track "Your Love Is So Good For Me" instead of GRFL. Berry Gordy liked "Ready" more though so it was ultimately chosen to be first. All the split airplay ended up with both singles not connecting nationally. Once the label gave up on Ready they put out "Your Love" but the early airplay meant the stations that had played it early didn't re-add it so it stalled at #48. A more typical Ross mid tempo ballad came next, "You Got It," but it also stalled at #48 although it did go top ten at AC. None of this revived the album which had been off the chart since before the second single came out so plans to go with a 4th single, Top Of The World, were scrapped although promo 45's are out there.

Baby It's Me, despite its pedigree and quality, wound up nothing more than a big cut out title for a few years which is a shame as all the right elements were there but the promotion wasn't. Getting Ready For Love did get a new mix for that 2014 expanded set which is excellent and probably would've helped back in 77 but ultimately the song probably was the wrong lead single for the album at the dawn of the Saturday Night Fever domination of radio.

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Todd Ireland Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Music Fan Joined: 16 October 2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 23	Post Options Post Reply Quote Todd Ireland Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 14 April 2025 at 3:38am
	Thanks for confirming, Bill. So, it looks like the version of "Gettin' Ready for Love" with the handclaps in the intro only appears on some DJ 45 pressings. The commercial 45 (not including the reissue pressings), LP, and some DJ copies all seem to have the non-handclap version. Actually, Paul C, if you still have your 45 and LP handy, can you confirm whether your copy of each are also without the handclaps?

Glenpwood Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Music Fan Joined: 03 April 2012 Status: Offline Points: 2	Post Options Post Reply Quote Glenpwood Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 6 hours 35 minutes ago at 8:43am
	I may be able to help here. I am a big fan of the Baby It's Me this hails from and have about 12 vinyl copies, the original solo issue & 2fer Cd pairing it with Touch Me In The Morning, the download only expanded edition, one 8 track, and two cassette copies of it (club and retail). I even bought the pink vinyl reissue a few years back. All my versions though don't carry the handclap version nor was it included in the expanded download set in 2014. The handclap version on the promo came about last minute as Motown was trying to goose the track up the charts as it was struggling in the lower top 40 slowly drifting to its #27 peak. Those are reservice copies although I don't believe Motown labeled the actual promos that. When it didn't help the label quickly moved to another single in hopes of saving the album. One of the reasons this whole era struggled was the label unwisely put the album out for a month before a single basically telling radio to pick whatever they wanted to play from it. Most stations and discos picked the Love Hangover-eque track "Your Love Is So Good For Me" instead of GRFL. Berry Gordy liked "Ready" more though so it was ultimately chosen to be first. All the split airplay ended up with both singles not connecting nationally. Once the label gave up on Ready they put out "Your Love" but the early airplay meant the stations that had played it early didn't re-add it so it stalled at #48. A more typical Ross mid tempo ballad came next, "You Got It," but it also stalled at #48 although it did go top ten at AC. None of this revived the album which had been off the chart since before the second single came out so plans to go with a 4th single, Top Of The World, were scrapped although promo 45's are out there. Baby It's Me, despite its pedigree and quality, wound up nothing more than a big cut out title for a few years which is a shame as all the right elements were there but the promotion wasn't. Getting Ready For Love did get a new mix for that 2014 expanded set which is excellent and probably would've helped back in 77 but ultimately the song probably was the wrong lead single for the album at the dawn of the Saturday Night Fever domination of radio.