B-side "Fight for It" Format 7", 12" Label RCA | Released August 1984 Genre Dance | |
Length 5:25
4:01 (single edit) | ||
"Swept Away" is a rock-flavored dance song written by Daryl Hall with Sara Allen. It was produced by Hall with Arthur Baker, and recorded by superstar singer Diana Ross for her successful album of the same name. Ross released the song as a single on the RCA label in 1984.
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.
In the sensual music video, directed by Dominic Orlando in Manhattan 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. There's also an extended version of the video edited for the 12" dance club remix.
Baker had been a club DJ turned remixer who was just breaking into production, and the twelve-inch version became one of Ross' most successful, reaching number one on the Dance/Disco chart. The single also reached nineteen on the US pop singles chart and number three on the R&B singles chart.