DJ

It’s very rare that I will forget about a song that I played during my radio and club DJ days. I was watching some early 1990s music videos while working and this song came up on the playlist. The artist’s name seemed vaguely familiar, like a suggestion of another time. I decided to watch the video and as soon as I heard the musicality surrounding the lyrics of “walking in and out, and in and out”, I immediately remembered the track. Memories of saying “Rock 107, Central New York’s Only Hit Music Station” several times an hour, and around announcing this track, flooded back into my memory. I also remembered the syncopated intro being very hard to beat mix into another record when I was spinning vinyl in the clubs. I used to try to follow Liza Minnelli’s version of “Love Pains” with this track.

From 1991, here’s Keedy with “Save Some Love”.

We’ve made it through Monday with flying colors, now it’s time to dance.

One of my favorite songs from the 1980s, here’s Nancy Martinez with “For Tonight” from 1986. I’ve posted this before. Dance with me again!

Very few pop music performances of the 21st century give me goosebumps. This is a delightful exception.

Here’s kd lang performing Joni Mitchell’s “Help Me” live in 2000. I hope you feel the goosebumps as well.

This could easily be my theme song. Here’s an acoustic version of “This Time” by DJ Antoine. Vocals by MANU-L.

Just lay your eyes on the night
Don’t you stay there, don’t you
Seems like the world is the same
Right just as before

Why don’t we step out of line
Let’s just have a good time
Forget about the yo do’s
And open the doors

This time
You should take me away
To a new place
Where we just might
Keep an eye on the sky
This time
We’ll be crossing the lines
Take you somewhere new
Let’s do it
This time
This time

We keep on hitting the road
No excuses, No rules
We steal the show from the moon
And don’t you say no
We stop at nothing at all
Take a chance now, right now
‘Cause now I’m losing control
I’m ready to go

This time
You should take me away
To a new place
Where we just might
Keep an eye on the sky
This time
We’ll be crossing the lines
Take you somewhere new
Let’s do it
This time
This time

Browsing around the Internet this morning, I’m finding a lot of (well deserved) talk about the passing of Prince. While his music wasn’t always my cup of tea, I did enjoy many of his mainstream hits and I think the man was an excellent musician. His contributions to the pop world will definitely be missed.

In the mid 1980s he wrote a song for Sheena Easton called “Sugar Walls”. Quite risqué in its nature, this song was part of Sheena’s new image at the time, showing the young lass as edgy and daring. I have always liked “Sugar Walls” and sure played the heck out of it when I was a club DJ back in the day. It always mixed beautifully into Sheila E’s “Glamorous Life” (another Prince creation).

I was watching the “Sugar Walls” video when another of Sheena’s videos came up as a suggestion. This track reached the U.S. Top 30 in 1985. I had never seen the video before but I remembered how much I enjoyed this particular song. Look closely in the video and you’ll see Sheena’s boyfriend being played by actor Billy Zane (from “Titanic”).

From 1985 and her album “Do You”, here’s Sheena Easton with “Do It For Love”.

I startled myself awake this morning when I started singing in my sleep. I sang out loud and that woke me up. This isn’t the first time that I have done this. For my performance I was standing in the middle of the hotel room, facing the window (which thankfully had closed curtains) and I just started singing my heart out. I can vividly remember the dream; I was singing to a karaoke CD in a T station in Boston. The track in question was “When Love Takes Over” by French DJ David Guetta and vocalist Kelly Rowland. I wrote a month ago that this track was one of my favorite songs. Apparently I still had it on the brain. In my dream, Kelly stopped by to tell me that I was doing a great job covering her vocals. Acting out my dreams in a hotel room is not completely outside of normalcy for me; I’ve been known to engage in nocturnal activity once in a while. Luckily I don’t jump out of windows or anything.

This song has been in my head since my dream, so I decided to look up live performances of it on YouTube. While I have always appreciated Kelly’s vocals on this track, I was a delighted to hear that she is just as good live as she is on Memorex. She reminds me very much of a young Donna Summer, and that’s not a compliment that I share without careful consideration. Donna Summer always gave a flawless live performance and my quick search of Kelly’s live performances of “When Love Takes Over” are flawless as well.

Enjoy this live performance from 2009.

Whenever I need a little inspiration I crank this song up. Originally written as an instrumental dance track by David Guetta in 2008, Kelly Rowland (from Destiny’s Child) convinced Guetta to let her write vocals to the track in 2009. The result, absolute magic.
 
 From 2009, here’s “When Love Takes Over” by David Guetta featuring Kelly Rowland.

I had this song cranked up in the Jeep after listening to their later single “Roam.” I used to bounce around with all the other folks on the dance floor at the 1270 in Boston in the mid 1980s.

Here’s The B-52’s with “Rock Lobster”!

When I was a club DJ, I would always spin a “flashback set” at 1 a.m. The set usually consisted of three or four songs beat mixed together. This track from 1986, “For Tonight” by Nancy Martinez was one of my favorites to mix in the set.

This song has been floating around in my head all day today, so I thought I’d share with the crowd.

From 1991, here’s Toad The Wet Sprocket, “All I Want”. When I was a baby DJ on WRCK Rock 107 we played this song. A LOT.