Danny Pearson - Barry White Presents Mr Danny Pearson

Now here's another entry in the Barry canon. If you look this one up anywhere it claims some silly backstory where young Mr P was camping out outside Barry's offices and was given the opportunity to record this album. Not sure I quite buy that one. Anyway, this album came out in 1978 on White's new Unlimited Gold label. It's interesting to hear the Barry White/Gene Page groove machine with such a different vocalist. The opening track What's Your Sign Girl was the closest the album came to spawning a hit, and while it's a tired concept, it's a lot better than Roberta Kelly's dreadful Zodiacs. Elsewhere, several of Barry's past glories get a good revamping - the Love Unlimited hit Walkin' In The Rain... is joined by new versions of two other of their tracks, Say It Again and Is It Really True, and Barry's own Honey Please Can't You See also gets the revival treatment. Thanks to La Magie De La Funk for this one...

1. What's Your Sign Girl
2. Is It Really True Girl
3. Walkin' In The Rain With The One I Love
4. Let's Go Dancin' (Let's Go Disco Dancin')
5. Honey Please Can't You See
6. Say It Again
7. I'm So Glad I Got You Baby
8. There's No One For Me But You

What's your SIGN?

Diana Brown & Barrie K. Sharpe - The Masterplan

Here's a vinyl I'd been meaning to rip for ages. I bought this on a Hot Tracks vinyl in a record fair in Oxford way back when as I loved this song and also Deee-Lite's 'What Is Love' which was on the same 12". It was a minor hit (#39) in the UK in mid-1990. I don't know which of the mixes the Hot Tracks mix is based on (it describes itself as 'The Master Mix by Glen Cattanach') but I've never come across a similar mix anywhere else. I didn't realise until investigating it today that the track was written and produced by one-time Dead Or Alive cohorts Tim Lever & Mike Percy. What a coincidence!

The MASTERPLAN

Pointer Sisters - So Excited

Oh no, not again! Just for the sake of completeness, and then I promise NO MORE! (probably). I don't have much more to say about this than I've already written in the post about Baby Sister, so how about we just get on with it? Oh a couple of things: Heart Beat was cowritten by one Michael Bolotin before he anglicized up his surname and became the big-haired nightmare that was Michael Bolton, but don't let that put you off, it's a decent song. Unlike American Music, which continues the tradition of the previous Black And White album of having a virtually unlistenable final track...

1. I'm So Excited
2. See How The Love Goes
3. All Of You
4. Heart Beat
5. If You Wanna Get Back Your Lady
6. I Feel For You
7. Heart To Heart
8. American Music

bonus tracks:
9. Nothing But A Heartache (b-side, original 1982 issue of I'm So Excited)
10. I'm So Excited (12" version)
11. If You Wanna Get Back Your Lady (12" version)

Let's get EXCITED!

Pamela Fernandez - Kickin' In The Beat

Here's something completely different. Someone asked me for this on a forum and it was so good to hear it again I thought I'd share it with you... Well we're getting dangerously contemporary here - this track originally came out in 1992...

Kickin' In The Beat (extended dance mix)

Normal disco service will be resumed shortly!

June Pointer - Baby Sister

Now here's an album that had always intrigued me until I recently first got to hear it. It was issued in 1983 between the Pointer Sisters' So Excited album and their mega blockbuster Break Out. Another Richard Perry production, I was wondering if it was in the fabulous synth overload style of the latter or whether it was in the more traditional pop style of the former. It's probably more reminiscent of So Excited. The sisters' own cowrite New Love, True Love recalls something of the energy of previous numbers they'd penned such as I'm So Excited and We're Gonna Make It. There's a whole lot of the Prince sound going on on I Will Understand following on from Sisters' carbon copy cover of I Feel For You from So Excited. There's also an interesting parallel to draw with sister Bonnie's late-70s solo albums in the Motown influence. Norman Whitfield cowrote and coproduced the opening track Ready For Some Action, where you can hear a Papa Was A Rollin' Stone thing going on, and there are also covers of I'm Ready For Love (Holland-Dozier-Holland/Martha and the Vandellas) and Don't Mess With Bill (Smokey Robinson/The Marvellettes; presumably a jokey reference to June's oft-thanked husband William Whitmore).

1. I'm Ready For Love
2. I Will Understand
3. To You
4. New Love, True Love
5. I'm Ready For Love
6. You Can Do It
7. Always
8. My Blues Have Gone Away
9. Don't Mess With Bill

READY?

Barry White - I Love To Sing The Songs I Sing

One of my favourite tracks from Barry White's late-70s work is the title track to his 1979 album I Love To Sing The Songs I Sing. It's a poppy number with a simple lyric ("I love to sing the songs I sing/And I sing the songs I love to sing!") and cooing back-ups presumably courtesy of the ladies of Love Unlimited. I read somewhere that much like Donna Summer's Back In Love Again from her I Remember Yesterday set, this is Barry's homage to the 60s sound of Motown. My only criticism of the track was that at just short of three minutes, it's over way too soon! So just imagine my disco delight when I found that it had been issued on a promo 12" in an extended mix!

I Love To Sing The Songs I Sing (6:12)

Chaka Khan - Naughty

And here's Chaka's follow-up effort from 1980. Opener 'Clouds' sees Chaka pulling off another Ashford and Simpson disco stormer. Maybe it falls slightly short of the peaks scaled by 'I'm Every Woman', but hey...that's a hard act to follow. I first heard it as the EPIC Clivilles & Cole remix on 'Life Is A Dance'...what a track. Elsewhere Chaka does her own takes on 'Move Me No Mountain' as previously recorded by Love Unlimited and the Gregg Diamond Bionic Boogie groover (with one Luther Vandross on vocal duties) 'Hot Butterfly', here retitled 'Papillon'.

1. Clouds
2. Get Ready, Get Set
3. Move Me No Mountain
4. Nothing's Gonna Take You Away
5. So Naughty
6. Too Much Love
7. All Night's All Right
8. What You Did
9. Papillon (aka Hot Butterfly)
10. Our Love's In Danger

It's gonna RAIN

Chaka Khan - Chaka

We've been well overdue a bit of Chaka Khan, as promised ages ago. Here's Chaka's debut solo album from 1978 after five years of working with funk group Rufus. Everyone knows the Ashford and Simpson-penned disco stormer 'I'm Every Woman' and rightly so...it just doesn't get much better. Shame it's better known as Whitney Houston's vastly inferior cover version. The other dance hit here is 'Life Is A Dance' which pales in comparison somewhat but was given a new lease of life on the 1989 remix compilation that borrowed its title. 'Roll Me Through The Rushes' is a lovely ballad and I've got a soft spot for the impenetrable 'The Message In The Middle Of The Bottom'!

1. I'm Every Woman
2. Love Has Fallen On Me
3. Roll Me Through The Rushes
4. Sleep On It
5. Life Is A Dance
6. We Got The Love
7. Some Love
8. A Woman In A Man's World
9. The Message In The Middle Of The Bottom
10. I Was Made To Love Him

It's all in ME

Love Unlimited Orchestra - My Sweet Summer Suite

Oh let's have another one! What a peculiar cover. This is someone else's (thanks whoever!) rip that I've cleaned up. Not sure that the intro to the first track is quite right and I had to shave a bit off the end of 'Blues Concerto' because of a couple of skips. Hey ho. But you do get the long versions of 'My Sweet Summer Suite' and 'Strange Games And Things' as bonus tracks. The latter was only issued as a promo 12" originally and was something of a holy grail for afficionados of Barry's groove.

1. My Sweet Summer Suite (4:48)
2. Strange Games And Things (4:02)
3. Blues Concerto (3:17)
4. You I Adore (4:48)
5. Brazilian Love Song (5:56)
6. Are You Sure (3:54)
7. You're Givin' Me Something (3:20)
8. I'm Falling In Love With You (4:06)
bonus tracks:
9. My Sweet Summer Suite (12" version) (7:13)
10. Strange Games And Things (long version) (8:29)

Strange games an TINGS

Love Unlimited Orchestra - My Musical Bouquet

It's that time again! You know a while ago, when I was musing on how Barry White managed to produce so much great music during the mid/late 70s? Well, I didn't realise then quite how many Love Unlimited Orchestra albums there were. I really don't know HOW he found the time. Anyway, here's the Orchestra's 1978 effort 'My Musical Bouquet'. It's another absolute classic, I'd say on a par with 'Rhapsody In White'. Unlike the previous 'My Sweet Summer Suite' set, with its hit title track, this album didn't fare too well, coming out while Barry (and side projects) were switching labels. That's a real shame as it really is a great album. Each track contains a short ode from Barry on the usual subject of love although in this case related to his 'Musical Bouquet' [example: The violins are my roses/Red as your negligee/And through them flows my passion/In every kind of way (!)], making the album a kind of concept album. Unlike most of the Love Unlimited Orchestra albums, the vocals of Love Unlimited are much in evidence here, giving it quite a different sound to most of the previous albums, as does the chilled-out tempo of most of the tracks.

1. Don't You Know How Much I Love You (5:21)
2. Stay Please And Make Love To Me (6:50)
3. Hey Look At Me, I'm In Love (7:08)
4. Love You, Oh It's True I Do (3:53)
5. Whisper Softly (7:29)
6. Enter Love's Interlude (2:16)
7. Can't You See (6:57)

Visit Barry the FLORIST!

Grace Jones - Musclemix

Here's something a little different I've dug out of the record pile. Grace Jones' three Compass Point albums Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing and Living My Life were all very critically well received (I remember at least two of them being given the accolade of 'Record Of The Year' in the NME, back when that meant something!), but in the UK at least it wasn't until the release of the Trevor Horn-produced 'Slave To The Rhythm' and subsequent best of 'Island Life' that Grace hit her commercial peak. Several tracks from the latter were issued as singles in 1986, with a double A-sided 'Pull Up To The Bumper/La Vie En Rose' making #12 on the UK charts, Graces' biggest hit apart from the aforementioned 'Slave...' single. These reissued singles contained some interesting new mixes of the tracks. Here's some from the remix 12" single of 'Pull Up To The Bumper'. The Musclemix (subtitled 'A Megamix Cut-Up') is the creation of Les 'Mixdoctor' Adams of DMC and features 'Pull Up To The Bumper', 'Slave To The Rhythm', 'Warm Leatherette', 'Private Life', 'Walking In The Rain', 'Use Me' and 'Love Is The Drug'. The remix of 'Pull Up To The Bumper' is by Paul 'Groucho' Smykle.

1. Grace Jones Musclemix (9:00)
2. Pull Up To The Bumper (Remix) (6:26)

Pull up TO IT

Margie Joseph - Hear The Words, Feel The Feeling

Now here's a story. A few years ago there was a show on BBC Radio 2 about disco and they played some more obscure disco gems as well as the usual suspects. There was this one track that stood out that sounded a little like Aretha Franklin goes disco. I just had to find out what it was and after a LOT of research I finally nailed it as 'Prophecy' by Margie Joseph, an artist I'd never heard of before. Eventually I managed to track down a copy of the 1976 album 'Hear The Words, Feel The Feeling' containing the track on netsounds.com. I don't think I've ever gone to quite so much trouble to get my hands on a track before or since!

After some success in the early 70s on Stax, notably with a cover of the Supremes' 'Stop! In The Name Of Love', Margie moved to Atlantic and recorded three well-respected albums with Arif Mardin. Following that, she recorded this album, which was produced and to a great extent written by Motown legend Lamont Dozier. 'Prophecy' is definitely the stand-out track for disco lovers, but there's a lot of other great stuff here too. Enjoy! Margie's Atlantic albums are very soon going to be reissued on CD, so if you enjoy this, put in an order!

1. Hear The Words, Feel The Feeling
2. Didn't I Tell You
3. Why'd You Lie
4. Prophecy
5. All Cried Out
6. Something To Fall Back On
7. Don't Turn The Lights Off
8. Feeling My Way
9. I Get Carried Away

See the WRITING'S ON THE WALL!

The Return Of The Guru

Sorry about the long hiatus...it's been a busy old few weeks. Anyway, normal service should now be resumed...I've got something special which hopefully I'll get up tomorrow!

Keep grooving!