ExpatMichael's opinion of anything relating to disco, Italo disco, funk and boogie music. Promotion for my Ebay and Discogs stores which concentrate on the sale of Disco, Funk, Italo Disco, Hi NRG, New Wave, morning music, sleaze and anything pressed on vinyl. There's a link to my Ebay store on the bottom of the page, right under the counter widget. Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave comments. Follow my twitter and join the Disco Vinyl Fan Page on Facebook.
Gayle Adams only had the two albums on Prelude and a handful of singles on other labels but I certainly think back upon her with a lot of favor. She was a disco artist that didn't really get to benefit from any crossover success either.
She also didn't benefit from the fact that her releases came out at the tail end of the disco era. I'd like to think that Stretchin' Out, Your Love is a Lifesaver, Love Fever and others would have been crossover to pop hits had they come out just a couple years earlier. They are certainly as good as Anita Ward or Chic.
Luckily her remixes were done by Francois K. cause he was the man.
Her cover of Baby I Need Your Loving didn't even get a twelve inch release in the U.S.
Her collaboration with Tyrone Brunson Love Triangle flopped.
STELLA CARNACINA – Sola HILDEGARD – Satanicamente HILDEGARD – Gay FLAVIA FORTUNATO - Se Tu Vuoi KIKI GAIDA - Isole Vergini LARA ORFEI - Se Mi Rompi Non Ci Sto PATRIZIA SARONNI - E Poi KATIA - Io Senza Di Te SIMONA DONALISIO – Teen Ager Dance DANIELA POGGI - Break Up (Hysteric Edit) GABRIELLA FAVA - Discoteca CECILIA RIZZOLI - Cosi’Non Va ROSANNA FRATELLO – Sola MARINA OCCHIENA – Videosogni PAMELA PRATI - Un Nodo All'Anima BEATRICE - Io Questo Disco Me Lo Comprerei ILARIA BERLATO - Succederà Qualcosa PAOLA CRISTALLO – Notte Di Luna LOS ANGELES – Videomania PATRIZIA PELLEGRINO - Musica Spaziale (Flemming Dalum Edit) PATRIZIA SARONNI - Perche Dovei
Carol Lynn Townes has released records as part of a group and as a solo artist. But she is really only well-known for one. Her remake of Alton, McClain & Destiny's 99 1/2 in 1982 which was included on the soundtrack for Breakin' and became a smash. Single-handedly practically giving an anthem to the sound of electro. 99 1/2 for you
Believe in the Beat was included in the soundtrack for Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo but it didn't prove to be as big a smash as 99 1/2.
Her discography included 2 albums and about ten singles.
Watch Breakin' here.
Breakin' 2 (the first of 9 parts).
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A Cosmic Baldelli favorite this record has remained a holy grail for years. Though there have been bootleg represses. Not only that but there is the original 1979 press on Sunshower and then the Leomini press which came out a little later that year and has a bit of more spacey sound to it. DOWNLOAD NEEDA HERE
This record is special no two ways about it. It's certainly disco on the super funky tip. I only wish I had had the opportunity to hear it on a dancefloor back in the day. It must have been something. NEEDA ZIP INCLUDING A RECENT EDIT
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Here is another re-post with a refreshed link. This time with the addition of the Hot Tracks remix.
Jose Guiterez and Luis Camacho first appeared on vinyl on the Sire New Faces compilation in 1993. My dear friend Risa Morley was the Aand R Director for the project. She had been working side by side with the illustrious Seymour Stein in her career at Sire.
So Madonna saw Paris is Burning and felt so inspired that she had to have voguers on her tour and do a song about voguing. The rest is history for Jose Guiterez and Luis Camacho. But where exactly do you go after you've been on tour with Madonna? You can of course get a record deal and then not have your record promoted well enough to become a hit. Some would say it was a bad record, and what can you do with that? But I beg to differ. It was a fun record and those boys had their pulse on the N.Y. ball scene and the downtown trendy scene at the same time. Their voguing at The Sound Factory among other places remains legendary. And left Madonna herself in awe.
Clearly had she offered more substantial backing vocals then the song would have been a guaranteed hit. Seems like what she offered was like throwing a bone. But I guess that was a big deal for her because she has never done backing vocals for anyone before or since. Junior Vasquez the most important DJ in N.Y. at the time produced and co-wrote the song along with the boys.
I heard Queen's English a few times at The Sound Factory but I wouldn't say Junior pumped it so often that he made it a huge hit there. Not like he did with "X" his ode to the house of Xtravaganza. Larry Levan used to create hits at The Paradise Garage by forcing his taste on the crowd. Junior did that too to a certain extent. But to me it seemed more like he was forcing a particular sound on his crowd and if you didn't really care for it tough luck.
Granted one could say that the boys contributed greatly to the massive success of Vogue and she acknowledged that. Otherwise she would not have brought them to perform at the 1990 Video Music Awards or used them for her Rock the Vote advertisement or had them featured in the documentary Truth or Dare.
Jose also appeared in the controversial Justify My Love video. The first video that had to be sold in stores because it was not permitted to air on MTV. It proved to be one of the all time best selling single video's of all time. Jose was named father of the House of Xtravaganza in 2002. Both boys have since been inducted into the Ballroom Hall of Fame and have appeared in the 2006 ballroom documentary How do I Look? In the fall of 2012 Jose Xtravaganza partnered with filmmaker Jason Last, known for his work in the field of fashion, to create the short film VOGUE(ing).Both Jose and Luis have taken their talents to Japan on several occasions to represent their house and the art form.
Tenere' only had one italo disco release and it was a doozy. Moon Destination has several campy italo features, it starts with the sound of a drink being opened and poured, has some real snazzy woodwind instruments and of course that off pronunciation that I love so much from an Italo Disco record. I just love when it sounds like the singers first language is not English.
There's also a bit of talkbox vocals which remind me of vocoder but aren't. And other various sound effects thrown in, a real everything but the kitchen sink release. I love a good picture cover too.
It was the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of high school. My parents decided that I should spend some time with my cousins in Brooklyn. They were cool, typical guido types, and they loved their disco. 98.7 KISS WRKS was the #1 radio station in N.Y.C. that summer. So I said to my cousins "take me to Brooklyn, I'm going to KISS and they're going to give me records."
They thought I was crazy but sort of drove me into Manhattan on a dare. I got the address out of the phone book. Just barely a teen I went right into the building and up to the floor where the radio station was. I explained to the receptionist that I had a public access t.v. show in Connecticut about music called Music Corner. And that it was always handy for me to have promo records to write about and feature on the program. She smiled at me and went to talk to someone. I think it was the program director. He took me into another room and walked me up to a metal cabinet. He opened it and pointed to a huge pile and said "take those."
They were all new disco promo records and on the top of the pile was this l.p. by a new singer I'd never heard of called Pamala Stanley. My copy, like this one had the hole punch going through it. Later in the week when I got back to Danbury I put this l.p. on my stereo and instantly loved it. From the first notes of This is Hot to the hypnotic beat of Hey Mr. Magic. It eventually became a minor hit peaking at #16 on the Billboard Disco charts. I remember hearing it a few times on WBLS.
Someone put Pamala's This is Hot into a video of one of the dance scenes from Prom Night. It wasn't actually in the film but it works really well in the video. Fun movie if you enjoy slasher films, and has a great rare disco soundtrack.
A few years later Pamala reinvented herself as a HI NRG diva. By then I was down in Washington, D.C. a Freshman at The American University and a new disco memory was formed. Coming out of Hiding though it only made it to #4 on the Billboard Dance Charts was one of those songs you couldn't get away from. It was massive. I'd have to guess because the song was so embraced by the gay community. It was like an anthem about coming out and just being yourself.
She only had a few more minor HI NRG hits after that. But in any case Pamala Stanley remains a disco diva that holds memories for me.
This is another in my ongoing series of re-posting old blogs with freshened links. ENJOY and please click on my ads.
It was 1976 and two competing versions of this massive soulful disco number were released. One beats the other two hands down. But I'll let you decide.
For a little extra fun I am able to present you with a couple tasty edits of The Real Thing's version. These include the Lary Sanders edit and the ten year decade mix by Ben Liebrand. I might add that The Real Thing's version was a #1 pop hit in the U.K. and the decade remix made it to #5 ten years later.
Later on both artists clocked major hits with The Real Thing in 1979 scoring with Can you Feel the Force? and Revelation's soulful smash from 1982 Feel It.
If you click the title to this blog it'll bring you to my Ebay stores directly to the disco category. Stop by and have a look. I still have my twelve inch of the Revelation version in my ebay store.