CLAUDJA BARRY

Claudja Barry was one of the few artists who had a very successful transition from the disco era right up into the 80's.  Born in Jamaica her family moved to Canada wen she was 7 and she was raised in Toronto.  Her first release in 1975 Reggae Bump didn't make much of a stir.  But the next year and signing to Salsoul brought out the classics Sweet Dynamite and Love for the sake of Love.

These Tom Moulton mixes are about as classic disco as classic disco goes.

In this post I've chose to give her a retrospective.  Her most well known disco classic is from 1978, Boogie Woogie Dancin' Shoes.  Another production by Jurgen S. Korduletsch, dancin' shoes really had that Euro sound that had burst wide open a few years before with Donna Summer's I Feel Love. Korduletsch her one time producer and husband had his hands on most of her releases.

1982's Work Me Over bridged the next gap from Euro to out and out High Energy.  And what would you expect with the production being trusted to the legendary Bobby O?  She was also the vocalist on one of his album cuts Whisper to a Scream.

The clubs I was going to in Washington, D.C. pumped Work me Over in a big way, in 1982 and 1983.  I remember dancing to it fondly.  It left it's mark.  The B side a Hi Energy version of the 60's hit I Will Follow Him also got play but not nearly as much.

I CLAUDIA LP Down and Counting in 1986 marked the first time she made it to #1 on the dance charts.  It was also part of her short lived period on a major, Epic.  Unfortunately she had no more big hits with them.  But she did come back with a Top 10 in 1991 on Radikal Records No La Di Da.

She's had 9 full length albums spanning the years 1976 to 2015, just under 40 years of dance music delights.

A Ton of Claudja

What a beautiful woman.  You can add her in Facebook.  She's very friendly and will engage with you.

Claudja

Bobby O is the man! Pet Shop Boys, Divine, The Flirts, Waterfront Home, Oh Romeo and more

What can be said about Bobby Orlando, (Robert Phillip Orlando), the king of Hi NRG.  I've heard he was a homophobe who clearly made a lot of his money from the gay scene.  I've heard he was idolized by the Pet Shop Boys and are the reason why they decided to make that kind of music (and of course collaborated with him until they got a better offer).  I've heard many things but don't really know much factually.  make it on my own free enterprise

He certainly had a prolific career and some of his stuff is a lot better then others.  The sound is clearly repetitive.  But it was a winning sound and he just kept repeating it over and over in different ways.  The disco era was over but people still really wanted to dance, so why not?  Especially in Europe where the dance music never really stopped charting after the disco era.
Divine who is truly one of my idols worked with Bobby Orlando for a lot of his earlier releases.  Some of which even became pop hits in Europe.  A fate that eluded him in his American homeland. SOME DIVINE

The 1983 release Waterfront Home Take a Chance on Me was the perfect straddling of italo disco and hi nrg.  This is one of the acts that Bobby was actually in himself along with Tony Caso and Christina Criscione.  In this zip there is a marvelous edit done by my friend the illustrious DJ Paul Goodyear.
TAKE A CHANCE ON ME

 GREAT BIG BOBBY ZIP

I'm not even going to tell you what's in the zip.  I will say that it's got a great combination of things.  Some better known and some less.  But all in high quality mp3.  Bobby Orlando, the definitive sound of club music in the 80's.  White NRG club music.  WHO'S YOUR BOYFRIEND by ERIC

Bright Nothing World was a 2010 release.  Nice to see he is still embracing dance.  Question is, is anybody listening?

Aliases:

Babby, The, C. Shore, Cha Cha Garcia, John "Gumball" Gonzales,Klaus Voegel, Mein

In Groups:

1 Plus 1, Barbie The Kens, Beachfront, Beat Box Boys, The,Bobby "O" & His Banana Republic, Boyd Brothers, The, Bubba ; The Jack Attack, Charlene Davis, Claus V., College Boys, The,Condo, Darlene Down, Dressed To Kill, Fascination (3), Fem-Spies, The, Flirts, The, Focus 1, Free Enterprise, Gina Desire, Girls Have Fun, Girly, Gomez Presley, Gringo Lopez, Hippies With Haircuts,Hotline (2), House Of 'O', I-Spies, The, Ian Darby, Johnny Bankcheck, Joy Toy, Lifestyle, Lilly & the Pink, Lola (31), Malibu (2), Mandarine, MC Fritz  The P-Rockers, Miss Tammi Dee, Nancy Dean, New Breed, New York Models, The, Oh Romeo, One & Two Teenies, One-Two-Three, Patty Phillipe, Sandra Ford, Something Anything, Spooge Boy, Teen-Rock, Vision 1, Waterfront Home,Wow, Zwei Maenner

Bobby O A Man Like Me

A man like Bobby Orlando is the king of 80's dance music.  Bobby "O" that is, the alias he used.  Bobby worked with so many artists including Roni Griffith, Claudja Barry, The Flirts, Divine, The Pet Shop Boys, and others that were really just aliases for him and some vocalists he brought in for one-off's or even two-off's (is that a word) like Barbie & the Kens, Waterfront Home, O Romeo, Eric, Teen Rock and more.

I hate to make sweeping generalizations but in this case I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Bobby O is the most prolific dance artist that ever was.   I think I personally had about 50 singles of his.

Bobby O also became synonymous with one specific sound, High Energy, which was sort of ghettoized as gay music.  Many of his songs were embraced at The Saint and on Fire Island.  Ironically Bobby Orlando was a bit homophobic as legend goes.

Certainly his biggest mark was made with the original version of Pet Shop Boys West End Girls.  They apparently idolized Bobby O and specifically wanted to work with him.  But they quickly got too big for him and were signed away.  I think it may have been an ugly parting and Bobby got paid off kindly in the deal.

Bobby O never really had that pop crossover success that so many dance artists are able to have now. But his classic She Has a Way did crack the dance Top 10 in the states and remains one of the songs most associated with his legacy.

DOWNLOAD A MAN LIKE ME

The Saint propels the pretty disco sound

I'm opting for a real lightweight number to kick-off the end of summer. Can He Find Another One by Double Discovery. A record which has Boris Midney's magic stamped all over it. In fact he produced it, plays keyboard on it, conducted and produced it.

I sense a real Bobby O influence here. By 1982 when this was released Hi NRG was becoming very prominent in the clubs. It's got a real tea dance feeling. Makes me wanna sip a Cape Cod and sway to the beat. Calling this record cheerful would be an understatement. "De de de de diddi dee!"

Boris Midney seemed to specialize in this type of cheery, soaring vocal, orchestral type disco epic. Often just managing to land somewhere between cheese and brilliance. His most important projects included Beautiful Bend, Festival the U.S.A.-European Connection and the Pinocchio disco opus recorded as Masquerade. All of which were highly revered by legendary SAINT d.j.'s like Robbie Leslie and Michael Fierman.

The Saint's fantastic dome.

http://www.mediafire.com/?dnomn4yn2ze



It actually didn't open until 1980, so there! The media was calling disco dead but some of us truly knew otherwise.

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