DJ

Earl and I were driving across Samuel De Champlain bridge on Autoroute 10 when this song came on the radio. We were driving to Montréal just for the heck of it. I was working at a Top 40 dance leaning radio station at the time and I was always looking for something new and different to play on the air. This was to differentiate us from the other Top 40 station in the market, which leaned more mainstream.

I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it. I think the vibe of driving into Montréal at the time contributed to mon amour; the sample of “I’ll Be Around” by The Spinners also contributed to the vibe.

From 1999, here’s Michael Moog with “That Sound”.

This is the type of music that has been grabbing my ear lately. You can probably sense a little bit of this vibe in the music I choose for my YouTube channel.

After finding my center amongst Mother Nature yesterday while hiking, this song came on Sirius/XM’s Chill station on my way down the mountain. It was a wonderful addendum to my vibe and kept the mood moving forward to me.

I have always preferred music where the vocals are just another instrument.

Here’s “Sights (Tourist Version)” by London Grammar.

We are half way through the work week. It’s time for a dance break.

From 1990, here’s Lisa Stansfield with “What Did I Do To You”. This has always been one of my favorite songs from her album “Affection”.

This song was going through my head the other day and I had to look it up on YouTube. Originally recorded by Chris Braide, then D-Side (in Ireland), Clay Aiken took this track to the charts shortly after he came in second on “American Idol” (which never made sense to me).

The energy of this video seems authentic; rumor has it people just showed up when they started recording the video. I noticed people with cameras and not with smartphones.

I miss the days before the attack of smartphones.

Fun fact: Clay’s version is the only version with the “Reach out… ” bridge, which adds quite a bit of energy to the latter half of the track.

One of my favorite songs from the 1980s, I didn’t really get into this song until after I had graduated high school in 1986. I’ve always enjoyed the emotional undercurrent and simplicity of this track, and Chaka Khan’s vocals are amazing. I miss real vocals in pop music.

Jaki Graham released a cover version in 1995 that I would spin as a club DJ, and it’d make the crowd scream, but it didn’t have the same vibe as the original. At the time I was spinning the “Love to Infinity Classic Paradise Mix”, which brought it up to 120 or so beats per minute. Jaki’s original cover is closer to the original in tempo.

From 1983, here’s Rufus and Chaka Khan with “Ain’t Nobody”.

Last autumn, Agnetha Fältskog, the first “A” and one of the members of ABBA released a new album called “A+”. The album is a remix of the tracks from her 2013 album “A”.

“A+” continues a new track called “Where Do We Go From Here?”. This song didn’t cross my radar until just recently and it’s a delightful, catchy little pop tune with a cute, animated video. The track reached #25 on the UK Singles Downloads and #27 on the UK Singles Sales chart. It also reached #8 on Svensktoppen, a chart in Sweden. I don’t believe “A+” nor the single have been released in the North American markets.

Here’s Agnetha Fältskog with “Where Do We Go From Here”?

One of my very earliest memories is riding in the car with Mom and Dad and hearing this song on 62 WHEN-AM in Syracuse. I want to say it was before my sister was born. It was definitely before my Dad bought the ’71 Chevelle Heavy Chevy, maybe in Dad’s old Volkswagen?

From 1970, here’s The Grass Roots with “Temptation Eyes”.

Someone in the house was playing Robin S’ “Show Me Love’, a big dance tune from the early 1990s. I started remembering the original version I played when I was dabbling as a DJ around 1990 or so. Back then the now famous track was by “Robin Stone” instead of Robin S., and it had a bit more of an ‘80s sound to it. There’s a sample from Jocelyn Brown’s “Somebody Else’s Guy” in this version and I feel like the more airy sound to the track is reminiscent of the vibe of the day.

I scouted around on YouTube and found a copy of this early version. I don’t believe this version ever charted outside of club charts.

From 1990, here’s Robin Stone with “Show Me Love”.

Back in my music school days we had one recording studio. There was a smattering of synthesizers and one computer in the old orchestral practice hall. The room was often in disarray. I recorded back up vocals for a fellow student in that room and it was a fun experience. I never got to play around with the synths or the computer. A few years later, when invited by a CompuServe friend to tour his studio outside of Cleveland (and record a couple more backing vocals for a track), there was more technology and it was awesome, but I never got to play around with the synths or the computer.

A few years ago I discovered the music of Anders Enger Jensen, a Norwegian producer who uses (now) retro synths and computers to create some brilliant electronic music with an 80s vibe. In this video, he takes the video “user’s manual” of the MCA Discovision system and turns it into a brilliant music track.

I much prefer this over anything coming out of commercial studios these days. This is the type of music artistry I’ve come to admire over the years. I’d probably be doing something similar (though not nearly as well) if I had stuck to my music studies back in the mid ’80s.