* * * * <i> Great Balls of Fire</i> * * * <i> Good Vibrations</i> * * <i> Maybe Baby</i> * <i> Running on Empty : </i> : ROSS: NO HEAT

* “RED HOT RHYTHM AND BLUES.” Diana Ross. RCA. Why Ross titled her album “Red Hot Rhythm and Blues” is anybody’s guess. The songs and her treatment of them are neither hot nor R&B-oriented.; There are only two cuts--fairly faithful remakes of golden oldies “Selfish One” and “There Goes My Baby”--that fall into the R&B; category, and they’re both pretty tepid in Ross’ hands. She gives a delicate, breezy reading to Leonard Cohen’s “Summertime,” and while it’s not R&B;, it seems more her speed. Cuts that call for a tougher edge, like the seductive “Dirty Looks” and Simply Red’s funky “Shine,” just sound lame and contrived. Even the album’s one Luther Vandross-produced track, “It’s Hard for Me to Say,” never heats up. Ross doesn’t sound very fired-up, interested or inspired here, and that’s the kind of creative lethargy that should make this diva’s followers sing the blues.