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Eaten Alive (song)

1985 single by Diana Ross

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ5331263 ↗
Source-derived summary

"Eaten Alive" is a 1985 song released by American entertainer Diana Ross on the RCA label in North America and Capitol label globally. The song was released as the first single on September 1, 1985, taken from her sixteenth studio album of the same name, which was ultimately a commercial failure in the US. However, it did reach top 10 and top 20 rankings in several European countries such as Norway and the Netherlands.

The song was written by Barry Gibb, Maurice Gibb, and Michael Jackson, the latter also co-producing with Barry and his team. Jackson and Barry Gibb can be heard singing in the background of the song with Jackson at times co-singing lead with Ross. The song was a disappointment in the United States, peaking at No. 77 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It became her first lead single to not hit the Top 40 since 1978, although it fared much better on the R&B singles chart - where it reached the Top 10 - helped by BET's heavy rotation of the music video. The song was also a successful hit on the dance chart, peaking at #3.

In the song's original copyright registration from March 11, 1985, it was credited to Barry Gibb and Maurice Gibb. It was not until Michael Jackson heard the song's demo that he suggested the chorus could be improved.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Eaten Alive (song)” as 1985 single by Diana Ross. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Eaten, Alive and song.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1985, 1978—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1985-09-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Eaten, Alive and song providing the first useful test.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Eaten Alive (song)”, the useful work is to connect “1985 single by Diana Ross” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5331263. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1985 and 1978.

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This entry incorporates text from “Eaten Alive (song)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.