DJ

I was a senior in high school when I first heard this track and I found it absolutely entrancing. I was driving a 1976 Pontiac Astre (a Vega wannabe) and had this song on a cassette that was given to me by a friend. For me, this is when I realized that modern music could truly be art. The ambience of this track is entrancing.

From 1985 here’s Art of Noise with “Moments In Love”.

I’ve shared this song before. It’s still one of my favorites from my club days and I find the video somewhat entrancing. Sometimes simple is better.

From 2009, here’s “Move for Me” by Kaskade and Deadmau5 featuring Haley.

Every once in a while a song will come up on “Yacht Rock” radio and I’m nine years old again, sitting in the back seat of my Dad’s 1978 Chevy Impala on a Sunday night, riding north on I-81 from Syracuse to our home along Lake Ontario. Some of my happiest childhood memories are from those rides; there aren’t any specific events that mark these occasions, it’s more of a feeling of safety and contentment and wonder.

Today Nicolette Larson’s “Lotta Love” came on and again my mind took me to the back seat of the baby blue Impala. It was the “Sport Coupe” model, as dad considered himself way too young to own a four door sedan. The hum of the V8 350 still rings in my ears as Nicolette’s voice played from the single speaker in the dash, from the AM radio always tuned to 62 WHEN.

From 1978 here’s Nicolette Larson with “Lotta Love”.

I still love both of these songs, and it doesn’t matter if it’s wrong or right.

Both songs were produced by the same person. From 1991, Corina “Temptation”. It went to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100.

And from 1991, Lisette Melendez and “Together Forever”. This was reached #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 the same year.

OK, two songs on Tuesday. This is one of my very favorite tracks from the 1980s. I was always mesmerized (and still am) of the production of this track. The lead singer is singing with herself through most of the track and it’s like listening to two different songs at once that fit perfectly together. This is pop music perfection in my book.

From 1987, here’s T’Pau with “Heart and Soul”.

Work consumed too much of my day today. So here’s Heart with “Who Will You Run To?”

By the way, I don’t enjoy the way they try to hide Ann Wilson in these videos. She has an awesome voice and deserves to be front and center.

When I worked in radio in the 1990s and 2000s, I’d occasionally re-edit popular tracks to mix them up a little bit. I usually did this using four-track reel-to-reels, mixing it down to a two track reel-to-reel, and then cutting the tape with a razor blade and taping it back together. It was very rudimentary and I could only do one or two mix downs before the whole thing started sounding muddy. Then, in the late 1990s, a program called “Cool Edit” came along and made this whole process digital, and subsequently much easier to accomplish. Cool Edit is now known as Adobe Audition.

The first track I edited in Cool Edit was Madonna’s hit single from 1984, “Borderline”. I took elements from the extended 12-inch single and rearranged them to “punch up” the track into a radio edit, since the 12-inch single was too long (and actually too boring for radio consumption) to play in regular radio rotation. Madonna also occasionally had the habit of never “shutting up” during her early singles, sometimes making it tricky to beat mix in and out of her tracks during an instrumental break, because there was no instrumental break. “Into The Groove” is an example of this. Ironically, I replaced some of the 12-inch single instrumentation with more lyrics in my re-edit.

So, here’s “Borderline (DJ SuperCub Cub Sliced Re-Edit)”. I didn’t embellish the track with modern beats or instrumentation, it’s simply a re-arrangement.

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I was enjoying music by Basia from the late 1980s and early 1990s again. From 1987, here she is with “A New Day For You”. I noticed on Wikipedia it didn’t reach the U.S. Top 40. I remember it being more popular than that.

Edit: it turns out this was the second video clip and recorded for American audiences. While it only reached #53 on the Hot 100, the track did reach #5 on the Adult Contemporary charts.

One of the very first songs I ever played as a club DJ was from Lisa Stansfield’s album “Affection”. This particular track wasn’t as well known as “All Around The World”, as it’s a bit more uptempo and dance floor friendly. The track was never officially released in the United States, but that never stopped me from playing tracks as a DJ.

From 1989 (but released in 1990 in the UK), here’s Lisa Stansfield “What Did I Do To You”?

Don’t be fooled by love songs and lonely hearts, don’t give into the Twilight World.
I miss real music.