DJ

If you were to look in our kitchen windows right now (which would actually be kind of creepy), you’d see two middle-aged bears dancing to Taylor Dayne’s “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love” from 1993.

Completely live, here’s Leo Sayer with “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” from 1976. I remember listening to this song from the back seat of the ’71 Heavy Chevy.

And he did it without the ridiculous “in-ears” that folks on stage use these days. Yay for monitor speakers.

This song always makes me dance. Here’s Kylie Minogue with “Get Outta My Way” from 2010.

As a club and former radio dance-radio station DJ, as well as a man that is completely secure in my masculinity, I am not afraid to admit that I enjoy some Madonna music. I think it’s due to my age that I haven’t really enjoyed a lot of Madonna’s stuff since “Erotica” (with the exception of “Confessions on the Dance Floor”), but when I hear a track from the early Madonna days (before the turkey skin), I can usually be found at least tapping a toe or two.

Random fact: my father and I spent Christmas morning 1990 watching the videocassette single of “Justify My Love” together. I believe we were watching it for different reasons. Maybe not. Who knows actually, my father wasn’t the chatty type. He grinned a lot, though.

I have three favorite songs by Madonna, one of them not being “Vogue”, though it was my moves to “Vogue” that got me the paid gig dancing on a speaker in a bar in Boston where I got to keep at least some of my clothes on. As I type the latter half of this paragraph, I wonder if I have ever shared this story with anyone that I call family.

I digress.

My three favorite Madonna songs (god that makes me sound gay) in chronological order are:

1. Physical Attraction, from her first album called “Madonna”.  I used to have a promotional-only copy of the radio edit of this song but it’s long gone to milk crate heaven.  I don’t think there was ever an official video, but there’s a live version floating around on YouTube that’s kind of nifty.

2. Deeper and Deeper, from her album “Erotica”. I have always liked the song and I used to mix this into Robin S’s “Show Me Love” when I was a club DJ.  In fact, doing that very thing the other night prompted me to write this blog entry.  Another quick aside, for one second you can see Madonna’s former pal Sandra Bernhard in the video.

Sandra is not the one with curly hair.

3. Jump, from her album “Confessions On A Dance Floor”. Personally I enjoy the extended mix of this song (not remix, just a longer version) and I don’t think this track got the justice on the charts that it deserved. Maybe it’s because the video was boring.

Honestly, I’m more apt to listen to a country track or something on 70s on 7 or 80s on 8 before listening to Madonna these days, but once in a while it’s fun to spin these tunes up and tap my toe a bit.

Two beautiful people teamed up in 2010 to make a beautiful track. Here’s Armin Van Buuren with Sophie Ellis-Bextor with “Not Giving Up On Love”.

We can blame Erik for this nugget of music video goodness.

Here’s Ace of Base with “The Sign”. All four members of Ace of Base are not only beautiful, they’re Abba-beautiful.

I didn’t know this megamix existed until a few hours ago. I’ve never heard of “Girls Aloud” but I really like this medley they released back in 2009. The clap track goes through the entire megamix! Awesome!

I didn’t get a DJ gig I was vying for. It was a one-time gig at a special event. I must be getting old. Gotta admit I’m a little bummed about it. I’ll just go back to sitting on my porch, spinning tales of my radio days and making sure the kids stay off my lawn.

Earbug of the day. Jomanda, “Got A Love For You” from 1991.