"Swept Away" is a song by American
R&B singer
Diana Ross for her album
of the same name. Ross released the song as the album's second single on August 14, 1984 by the
RCA
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
. It was written by
Daryl Hall
Daryl Franklin Hohl (born October 11, 1946), known professionally as Daryl Hall, is an American rock music, rock, rhythm and blues, R&B and soul music, soul singer and musician, best known as the co-founder and principal lead vocalist of Daryl ...
, Sara Allen and produced by Hall and
Arthur Baker. Ross wrote the
spoken lyrics at the beginning of the song and Hall also provided background vocals on it.
The song talked about how the narrator thought she was in love with a special person only to find out that she had just been "swept away" after catching her lover cheating on her sending her into a rage and panic.
Baker had been a club
DJ turned
remixer
A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...
who was just breaking into production, and the twelve-inch version became one of Ross' most successful, reaching number one on the Billboard Dance/Disco chart and #3 on the Cash Box 12" singles sales chart. The single also reached nineteen on the US
pop singles chart
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming in ...
and number three on the
R&B singles chart
The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...
.
Music video
In the sensual music video, directed by Dominic Orlando in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
and on location in
Long Island, Diana is seduced by a Frenchman and falls in love with him only to find out, after arriving unannounced in a bar, that he's cheating on her with another French girl in a stylized
Apache Dance. She then confronts the man - hitting him repeatedly - who ends up being knocked unconscious by the singer. Later in the video, the Frenchman tries to fight his way back into her life only to have Ross push him from a lighthouse tower into the water. It was one of her most popular videos, and her first to air on
MTV.
The music video was blown up to 35mm for projection during Diana Ross' live performances at
Caesars Palace in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
. There's also an extended version of the video edited for the 12" dance club remix.
Charts
Personnel
*Lead vocals by Diana Ross
*Background vocals by Daryl Hall and Diana Ross
*Guitar solo by Jeff Beck
*Produced by Daryl Hall and Arthur Baker
See also
*
List of number-one dance singles of 1984 (U.S.)
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1984 singles
Diana Ross songs
Songs written by Daryl Hall
Dance-pop songs
RCA Records singles
Songs written by Sara Allen
Song recordings produced by Arthur Baker (musician)
1984 songs
Songs about heartache