Loleatta Holloway - The Anthology

At last! Here's some more groove for you all. Surely I don't need to explain about Loleatta and Salsoul! This is the first cd of a 2cd compilation of Loleatta's Salsoul classics (there was a series of these covering various Salsoul artists such as First Choice, the Salsoul Orchestra, Inner Life etc). The two CDs were subtitled 'Dance Loleatta' and 'Love Loleatta'...needless to say this is 'Dance Loleatta'! All the classics are present and correct..'Hit And Run', 'Love Sensation', 'Runaway', 'Dreamin'' and my favourites, the epically titled 'I May Not Be There When You Want Me (But I'm Right On Time)' and 'All About The Paper', which contains some great chat from Loleatta...she gonna buy y'all some peanuts and popcorn...she got the paper!

1. Two Sides To Every Story
2. Hit And Run
3. Ripped Off
4. The Greatest Performance Of My Life
5. Catch Me On The Rebound
6. I May Not Be There When You Want Me
7. All About The Paper
8. Runaway
9. Love Sensation
10. Mama Don't Papa Won't
11. Dance What 'Cha Wanna
12. Short End Of The Stick
13. Good Good Feeling
14. I'll Be Standing There
15. Seconds
16. Dreamin'

It's all about the PAPER!

Love Unlimited Orchestra - White Gold

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I've been redecorating the hallway and it's turned out to be a large task...Anyway, here's a little of Barry White's special orchestral smoochy soul in the form of 'White Gold', the second (or third if you count the 'Together Brothers' soundtrack) Love Unlimited Orchestra album. I don't think this quite scales the heights of their 'Rhapsody In White' debut, but it's still a good'un. It's worth it just for Barry's priceless intro to 'Spanish Lei'. Barry lets various collaborators get more of a look in on the credits here, including contributions by Ray Parker Jr, Gene Page and Tom Brock.

1. Barry's Love (Part 1)
2. Satin Soul
3. Always Thinking Of You
4. Power Of Love
5. Spanish Lei
6. You Make Me Feel Like This (When You Touch Me)
7. Only You Can Make Me Blue
8. Dreaming
9. Just Living It Up
10. Just Like A Baby
11. Barry's Love (Part 2)

Have you ever had a SPANISH LEI?

Dan Hartman - Instant Replay

10...9...8...7...6...5..4..3..2..1! Now here's some proper disco courtesy of Dan Hartman. The 'Instant Replay' title track single was massive and made Dan an instant disco star. The follow-up 'This Is It' (no relation to the Melba Moore song of the same title) is here to in an epic 14-minute mix with 'Countdown'. 'Double-O-Love' and 'Chocolate Box' see a more funk-rock direction and then it's time for a couple of slower numbers to close the album out. Hartman attempted to repeat the disco formula with follow-up album 'Relight My Fire' but the album, which is probably a superior disco album, disappointingly failed to gain the same commercial success.

1. Instant Replay
2. Countdown/This Is It
3. Double-O-Love
4. Chocolate Box
5. Love Is A Natural
6. Time And Space

Bonus track: Instant Replay (12" version)

Got to have your love AGAIN!

Pointer Sisters - Priority

I must have bought this album at some point for the sake of completeness and never really listened to it - there were no hit singles from it and tracks from it rarely turn up on compilations. But reading some reviews while writing about the sisters' other albums, I became intrigued by its good reviews - some even going as far as to say that it's a candidate for their best album. And now I've listened to it a few times I can see their point. Well, it's 1979 and the world has gone disco crazy - so what do the Pointer Sisters do? They make an album of rock covers. No wonder it wasn't a great success, not even making the US top 50 albums. But it is an excellent album - the songs suit the sisters perfectly: plenty use is made of Ruth's deep and bluesy voice and June makes a great Keef Richards on the cover of the Stones' 'Happy' (draw your own parallels)! Others to get the treatment are Bob Seger ('All Your Love'), The Band ('The Shape I'm In), Graham Parker ('Turned Up Too Late') and Springsteen again ('The Fever'). There's not a duff track in sight...and I'm saying that even though, like Chris Lowe, I don't LIKE rock music!

1. Who Do You Love
2. All Your Love
3. Dreaming As One
4. Turned Up Too Late
5. Happy
6. Blind Faith
7. Don't Let A Thief Steal In Your Heart
8. (She's Got) The Fever
9. The State I'm In

Keep me HAPPY!

Pointer Sisters - Energy

I know, I've developed a new obsession! Bear with me though, I'll soon be moving away from the Pointers and Love Unlimited! I found a copy of 'Priority', the Pointers Sisters' 1979 album that's supposed to be something of a lost classic and I wanted to share it around as it's supposed to be quite an obscurity. Firstly though, here's their 1978 album and their first working with Richard Perry. It's mixture of rock numbers ('Lay It On The Line', 'Come And Get Your Love', 'Angry Eyes'), with just a touch of a disco influence (Alan Toussaint's 'Happiness') and some more downtempo material (the big hit cover of Bruce Springsteen's 'Fire' and of Sly and the Family Stone's 'Everybody Is A Star', complete with traded vocals in the style of the original). It's covers a-go-go, with Steely Dan ('Dirty Work') and Fleetwood Mac (the eerie 'Hypnotized' - my favourite track - or is it the great harmonizing on Stephen Stills' 'As I Come Of Age'?) numbers also putting in an appearance.

1. Lay It On The Line
2. Dirty Work
3. Hypnotized
4. As I Come Of Age
5. Come And Get Your Love
6. Happiness
7. Fire
8. Angry Eyes
9. Echoes Of Love
10. Everybody Is A Star

Bonus track: Happiness (12" version)

Keep that goodness...COMING!

Love Unlimited - From A Girl's Point Of View We Give You...

Another poor-quality cover picture. Sorry. Anyway, as requested, here's the first Love Unlimited album from 1972 and marking the breakthrough of Barry White as a musical force to be reckoned with! Oddly, my vinyl of this album is entitled 'Walking In The Rain With The One I Love' by Barry White presents Love Unlimited and appears to be a German pressing on MCA Coral. I don't know whether it's a poor pressing or a worn LP, but the quality could be better. I've done my best with it - see what you think. The album is something of a love concept album with lots of spoken musings on love by one of the ladies (Glodean?) and by Barry himself. 'Are You Sure' was written by Love Unlimited themselves and they also cover Marvin Gaye's 'If This World Was Mine' and the Gamble/Huff composition 'Together'. Of course, the song everyone remembers is 'Walking In The Rain With The One I Love', with its famous telephone conversation..."Oh YES. It was so beautiful."

1. I Should Have Known
2. Another Chance
3. Are You Sure/Fragile - Handle With Care
4. Is It Really True Boy - Is It Really Me
5. I'll Be Yours Forever More
6. If This World Were Mine
7. Together
8. Walking In The Rain With The One I Love

Did you get CAUGHT IN THE RAIN?

Pointer Sisters - Black And White

That's the best picture I could find! So, I've exchanged my Sylvester obsession for the Pointer Sisters and Love Unlimited. We'll get on to something else soon I promise. Here's the sisters' 1981 album. 'Slow Hand' was a massive hit and sets the tone for the album, which is more of a soul-style effort than their previous albums, and unusually for their albums, which usually share out vocal leads equally, the late June takes lead vocal on the majority of the tracks. I think my favourite track is the mellow 'What A Surprise'. I downloaded this album from somewhere (thanks, whoever) and cleaned it up and was pleasantly surprised to find that the version of 'What A Surprise' is slightly longer than the version on my UK issue vinyl. I've added the B-side of 'Slow Hand', the Ruth-lead 'Holdin' Out For Love', which was also recorded by Cher, as a bonus track. I've stuck it before the dread rock and roll pastiche 'Should I Do It' which I think is probably my least favourite track the sisters have ever recorded. Still, someone must like it as it was a middling hit on single release...

1. Sweet Lover Man
2. Someday We'll Be Together
3. Take My Heart, Take My Soul
4. Slow Hand
5. We're Gonna Make It
6. What A Surprise
7. Got To Find Love
8. Fall In Love Again
9. Holdin' Out For Love
10. Should I Do It

What a SURPRISE

Sine - Happy Is The Only Way

Here's Patrick Adams' first foray into disco, something of a precursor for his subsequent and much more successful Musique project ('Keep on Jumpin', 'In The Bush'). The tracks on this album are mostly instrumental and feature plenty of Adams' crazy synth sounds...I know some people love them, but I find a little goes a long way! The title track and 'Just Let Me Do My Thing', which was a minor UK hit, feature vocals from a trio including Venus Dodson.

1. Happy Is The Only Way (7:30)
2. Chimi (6:06)
3. Just Let Me Do My Thing (6:45)
4. Keep It Coming (11:45)
5. Mosquito Walk (5:16)

You don't have to LIKE it!

Pointer Sisters - Special Things

Now we're moving away from disco somewhat here. Unusually for an act that was big in the 70s, the Pointer Sisters never really embraced disco, which probably stood them in good stead for their greatest successes in the 80s. Their 1980 album 'Special Things' does contain a couple of nods in the disco direction though, notably the album opener 'Could I Be Dreaming' which appears to owe quite a debt to 'Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)' by the Jacksons, while 'We've Got The Power', cowritten by Bob Esty ('It's Raining Men', 'Take Me Home'), is just about the only full-on disco number the sisters recorded. The hit here was the irritatingly chirpy 'He's So Shy', which is probably my least favourite track. 'The Love Too Good To Last' and 'Where Did The Time Go' are a couple of gorgeous Bacharach/Bayer Sager ballads.

1. Could I Be Dreamin'
2. He's So Shy
3. The Love Too Good To Last
4. Evil
5. Save This Night For Love
6. We've Got The Power
7. Where Did The Time Go
8. Special Things
9. Here Is Where Your Love Belongs

Give me the POWER!

Heatwave

It's nice to see quite a few people digging a bit of Heatwave on their blogs. Thanks to this, I've now heard most of their albums and it's all good stuff! So, I've got a few oddities from the old record collection together that you might not have come across! If anyone has a copy of 'Keep Tomorrow For Me', the theme from the movie 'Escape To Athena' I'd be very very pleased to hear from them!

Anyway here's what we have:

1. Slip Your Disc To This (3:45) (b-side to 'Too Hot To Handle')
2. Mind Blowing Decisions (Extended Remix 7:24) (b-side to 'Always And Forever')
3. Gangsters Of The Groove (Extended Remix 5:38) (from UK 12")
4. Someone Like You (3:45) (b-side to 'Gangsters Of The Groove')
5. Wack That Axe (3:40) (bonus track on UK 'Jitterbuggin' 12")
6. Goin' Crazy (5:42) (long version from UK 'Jitterbuggin' 12")

Slip your disc to THIS!

The Salsoul Orchestra plays the Bee Gees

Now here's a guilty pleasure of mine. I picked this LP up in a charity shop way back when when I noticed that along with the usual Salsoul stalwarts such as Loleatta Holloway, First Choice, Double Exposure and Ripple (some of whom we'll have to investigate soon) this album contained the Salsoul Orchestra's takes on the Bee Gees' classics 'Night Fever', 'Stayin' Alive' and 'You Should Be Dancing'. These tracks seem to have been exclusive to this release (although two of them have since turned up on the 2CD 'Anthology' set). The Orchestra also covered `How Deep Is Your Love' and `More Than A Woman' on its only release under the 'Salsoul Strings' moniker, together with its takes on other mellow tracks such as 'Just The Way You Are', 'Love Letters', 'Evergreen' and 'Feelings'. Lovely!

NOW UPDATED with the entire album!

1. The Salsoul Orchestra - You Should Be Dancing (5:11)
2. Ripple - The Beat Goes On And On (4:15)
3. First Choice - Dr Love (5:21)
4. Loleatta Holloway - Hit And Run (6:23)
5. The Salsoul Orchestra - Night Fever (7:00)
6. Double Exposure - Ten Percent (7:29)
7. The Salsoul Orchestra - Stayin' Alive (3:56)
8. Charo & the Salsoul Orchestra - Dance A Little Bit Closer (4:23)

C'mon Vince, play those VIBES!

Love Unlimited - Under The Influence Of...

And here's the second Love Unlimited album from '73. Opening with the all-time disco classic 'Love's Theme' gives the rest of the album a lot to live up to, but it mostly succeeds. 'Love's Theme' segues rather clunkily into 'Under The Influence Of Love', as covered a few years back by our very own Kylie, with another fabulous Love Unlimited Orchestra everything-and-the-kitchen-sink orchestration. Barry's own version of `Oh Love, Well We Finally Made It' turned up on his 'Can't Get Enough' set the next year, and for good measure it turns up again at the end of the album in a more instrumental version. The Maestro himself pops up for one of his classic declarations of love on 'Say It Again'. The album version of 'It May Be Winter' has a nice extended intro compared with the single version and a lovely flute break. Altogether now: "Ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhh"!

1. Love's Theme - Under The Influence Of Love (8:21)
2. Lovin' You, That's All I'm After (4:27)
3. Oh Love, Well We Finally Made It (3:48)
4. Say It Again (3:15)
5. Someone Really Cares For You (5:34)
6. It May Be Winter Outside (But In My Heart It's Spring) (4:09)
7. Yes, We Finally Made It (3:37)

...And I know I just can't LIVE without it!

Love Unlimited - He's All I've Got

So, listening to `In Heat' again made me decide to go into the attic and pull out the other Love Unlimited albums...here's their fourth effort from 1977. It opens with the uptempo number and minor hit 'I Did It For Love', which pays something of an homage to the guitar sound in the Supremes' 'You Keep Me Hangin' On', and then continues in the usual Barry White-penned mix of heavily orchestrated mid- and downtempo numbers. Hmmm-mmm-mmm baby. The epic title track that closes the album is something of a classic *swoons*

1. I Did It For Love (4:54)
2. Never, Never Say Goodbye (5:30)
3. Whisper You Love Me (5:07)
4. He's Mine, No You Can't Have Him (3:29)
5. I Can't Let Him Down (3:20)
6. I Guess I'm Just Another Girl In Love (5:03)
7. He's All I've Got (7:17)

I did it for LOVE!

Bonnie Pointer - Bonnie Pointer

Well, we might as well do this one too while we're at it. So here's Bonnie's debut album for the Motown label...unlike the follow-up this one has Berry Gordy on coproduction duties and is something more of a showcase of Bonnie's talents than the Motown-goes-disco festival that is 'Bonnie Pointer 2'. The hit here was `Heaven Must Have Sent You' which is probably the only song Bonnie is remembered for these days, although `Free Me From My Freedom/Tie Me To A Tree (Handcuff Me) was also extracted as a single, much to the consternation of the 70s feminist movement!

1. When I'm Gone (2:35)
2. Free Me From My Freedom/Tie Me To A Tree (Handcuff Me) (3:52)
3. Heaven Must Have Sent You (7:05)
4. Ah Shoot (4:54)
5. More And More (6:02)
6. I Love To Sing To You (3:59)
7. I Wanna Make It (In Your World) (3:17)
8. My Everything (4:36)

Put me under LOCK AND KEY!

Bonnie Pointer - Bonnie Pointer 2

Between the Pointer Sisters' mid-70s successes with tracks like 'How Long', 'Yes We Can Can' and 'Fairytale' and their 80s rebirth as Richard Perry-produced pop sensations, sister Bonnie left the fold and signed to Motown as a solo artist, releasing two solo albums. The big hit from her first album was a discofied version of the Motown classic `Heaven Must Have Sent You'...somewhat cynically perhaps her second solo album accompanied the same cut with five other grooved-up readings of Motown classics. Hmmm. Fans of 'Free Me From My Freedom' from the first album will be pleased to know that the disco banjo makes a welcome reappearance on 'When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes'...

1. I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) (5:21)
2. Jimmy Mack (4:14)
3. Heaven Must Have Sent You (3:29)
4. When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes (4:17)
5. Deep Inside My Soul (4:28)
6. Come See About Me (4:31)
7. Nowhere To Run (Nowhere To Hide) (5:45)

Give me that MOTOWN DISCO

Love Unlimited - In Heat

Well, it's certainly time for a bit of Barry White. It so often is. Here is their third album from 1974, which is generally considered to be their greatest moment. All the more astonishing when you consider how prolific Barry was in the mid-70s. On top of his own career, there was Love Unlimited, the Love Unlimited Orchestra and more production work for other artists (maybe we'll go into that soon...) It's hard to count how many albums poured off the Barry White production line between '73 and '76. And mostly it was great stuff! A lovely collection of songs on here from Glodean (and her scary fingernails) and the girls. Listen out for 'Move Me No Mountain', covered by Chaka Khan in great style on her 1980 album 'Naughty'. Plus, the hit 'Love's Theme' taken from the previous album 'Under The Influence Of' (and the Love Unlimited Orchestra's 'Rhapsody In White' set) gets a reprise WITH VOCALS. Too much!

1. Move Me No Mountain
2. Share A Little Love In Your Heart
3. Oh I Should Say, It's A Beautiful Day
4. I Needed Love, You Were There
5. I Belong To You
6. I Love You So, Never Gonna Let You Go
7. Love's Theme

PLAY our Love's Theme once more...

Sylvester - Sylvester

And there's more! Here's Sylvester's debut album from 1977. Most reviewers seem to be of the opinion that this album pales in comparison to `Step II', but I'm not sure that I agree. The Ashford & Simpson-penned opening track `Over And Over' is a 24-carat disco gem and that "You can't be nobody's lover 'til you're somebody's friend" refrain really sticks in the brain. Well it does mine anyway! Elsewhere Sylvester has his own go at writing a disco showstopper with `Down, Down, Down'. The rest of the album has some lovely soul ballads and a couple of midtempo numbers and the Two Tons get to do their own inimitable thing on `I Been Down'.

1. Over And Over (7:06)
2. I Tried To Forget You (5:04)
3. Changes (3:11)
4. Tipsong (4:06)
5. Down, Down, Down (5:21)
6. Loving Grows Up Slow (4:09)
7. I Been Down (3:42)
8. Never Too Late (3:01)

Girl, I can't begin to EXPLAIN!

Sylvester - Stars

OK, so we're on something of a Sylvester binge here. It's a long story. So here is Sylvester's third solo album and in some ways something of a landmark as it marks his first collaborations with Patrick Cowley, who went on to write and produce much of Sylvester's more Hi-NRG orientated output in the 1980s as well as becoming a Hi-NRG star in his own right. Cowley wrote two of the tracks on the album - the hit title track and the extraordinary `I Need Somebody To Love Tonight', a hypnotic early piece of electronica. I've stuck a couple of bonus tracks on here - the long disco version of `Over And Over' from the `Sylvester' album and an instrumental version of `I Need Somebody To Love Tonight' that I found on the 12" of `I (Who Have Nothing)'.

1. Stars (8:41)
2. Body Strong (7:58)
3. I (Who Have Nothing) (11:21)
4. I Need Somebody To Love Tonight (6:42)

bonus tracks:
5. Over And Over (disco version) (9:23)
6. I Need Somebody To Love Tonight (instrumental) (4:58)

You are a STAR!

Chaka Khan - Love Of A Lifetime

Anyone who frequents Moopy might have noticed that I've recently been having a slight Scritti Politti obsession. `Cupid & Psyche '85' was one of those albums I've always meant to get hold of and now I finally have I wish I had a long time ago. Anyway, one track I have been familiar with for a very long time is that track that Green & co. wrote for Chaka Khan's 1986 album `Destiny', `Love Of A Lifetime'. It's just about the epitome of all things 80s, madly overproduced with synths-a-go-go, but Chaka gives it her all and the whole thing is just irresistable. Released as the first single from the `Destiny' album, following the extremely successful `I Feel For You' project, it incomprehensibly sank without trace. Anyway, here's the Extended Dance Mix for your disco delight. And if anyone has the single remixes of the second single from the album, the totally hatstand `Earth To Mickey', please let me know! Alas, it was the only other decent track on the album, the others involving the input of 80s nightmares such as the omnipresent Phil Collins and the hideous Mr Mister. Ewwww.

Keep up the GOOD LOVE with CHAKA!

Sylvester - Step II

I've had this album for years, since my days of trawling the charity shops of Bletchley, which is a whole tale in itself. But I've only just realised how fabulous Sylvester was. So `You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)' is one of the most joyous and memorable disco hits ever, but there's a lot more to Sylvester than disco. Together with his backing singers Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes (later to record in their own right as the Two Tons Of Fun and The Weather Girls), Sylvester also recorded many soul and gospel influenced tracks. It's often mentioned that `Mighty Real' started life as a gospel song, but it's less known that you can find this version of the song as the `Epilogue' on this album. The album was issued on CD doubled up with the `Sylvester' album at one point, but now seems to be impossible to get hold of. So I've had to rip most of these tracks from my old 50p vinyl. Hope I've managed to clean them up OK. I love the chit-chat between Sylvester and the girls on `Dance' and `Was It Something That I Said'. Great stuff. "It's a FABULOUS club. Look at all the FABULOUS people"! Quite.

1. You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) (6:31)
2. Dance (Disco Heat) (5:47)
3. You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) - Epilogue (3:22)
4. Grateful (3:30)
5. I Took My Strength From You (6:46)
6. Was It Something That I Said (4:12)
7. Just You And Me Forever (4:35)

C'mon GET UP EVERYBODY

Festival - Disco Evita

One of many projects by Russian-born disco royalty Boris Midney (see also Beautiful Bend, USA-European Connection and others), this was the result of Robert Stigwood's idea for Boris to `disco-fy' the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. I must say I grew up on the original 70s soundtrack (which probably explains a lot) so it's quite bizarre to hear a disco spin on these songs. Fabulous disco orchestrations though. The two sides of the album were continuous mixes:

1. Buenos Aires (9:19)/I'd Be Surprisingly Good For You (4:00)/Don't Cry For Me Argentina (4:57)
2. High Flying Adored (4:34)/Rainbow High (6:02)/She Is A Diamond (2:19)/Eva's Theme (Lady Woman) (5:47)
3. Bonus track: Don't Cry For Me Argentina (Single Version) (3:49)

Eva's Theme (Lady Woman) is Midney's own composition.

So CHRISTIAN DIOR me

Liquid Gold - Liquid Gold

Well, let's start as we mean to go on with a bit of Disco Magic. Brit disco group Liquid Gold seem to be a little overlooked in the annals of disco history, probably because they broke through a little late in the disco day. But you can't argue with `Dance Yourself Dizzy', an utter disco classic with the ultimate in whirling disco strings. `Substitute' was another big UK hit and the other album tracks aren't too shabby. I don't think they ever made another album, although they did release further singles and an alternative version of the album with some different tracks was released in the US through Casablanca subsiduary Parachute Records.

Here's a picture of the Gold in their prime



I wonder why they weren't taken seriously.

Anyway, grab a bit of Liquid Gold HERE

Oh and let's have a tracklist.

1. Could Be Tonight 6:13
2. Substitute 6:29
3. Mr Groovy 5:40
4. Dance Yourself Dizzy 8:21
5. My Baby's Baby 6:05
6. Anyway You Do It 2:55

Coming soon!

The Guru will be furnishing you with various grooves of all persuasions for your delectation!

Stay tuned!