Change Your Mind Sharpe & Numan

Gary Numan started out in 1977 as a punk rock artist in the group Mean Street but that didn't work out for him.  Apparently he was too arty and creative for them.

Luckily he kept plugging on and his next venture Tubeway Army was hugely successful.  In fact that had a hugely influential number 1 hit in the U.K. with Are Friends Electric?  Then Gary went solo and had a huge international hit with Cars.  It came to be a major symbol of the new wave scene and even hit the Top 10 in the states.

In the U.K. he continued to come up with hits but in the U.S. he remained a one hit wonder.  By 1985 he teamed up with Bill Sharpe, a jazz keyboardist and member of the U.K. band Shakatak, and they released a few Synth Pop classics including Change Your Mind which I offer you here.  It was a song that I loved very much at the time though it really didn't cross-over much.  In my towns college radio station WXCI it was on heavy rotation so I got to enjoy it often.  It peaked at #35 on the U.S.  Dance Charts.

SYNTH POP GEM CHANGE YOUR MIND

Gary Numan ended up being quite prolific.  There was even a live release in 2016 when he played the 02 Forum in London.  In 2002 the Sugababes sampled Are Friends Electric? and had a number 1 hit in the U.K. and he was brought to a whole new audience.

Speaking of current he's got a song on the Ghost in the Shell soundtrack too.

My Mine were more then just Hypnotic Tango

A FRESH ZIP OF MY MINE same as mixes mentioned below

Hypnotic Tango by My Mine is an 11 out 10 for me!  It's every magical aspect of italo disco to the third power.  This razormaid remix may even be better then the original, it's certainly longer.  This song stirs up my italo blood.  I'm really not well enough versed in music commentary to explain why.  For me it's just the feeling that I get each and every time I've ever heard it.  The castanets are fun too.  This song will never get old for me.  1983 was so important for me.  I had already enjoyed my first year at American University in D.C. and was finally free to go out to clubs every night.  Clubbing was all I ever wanted to do but in Western Connecticut there wasn't much of a reason to do so!  So in '83 I convinced my Italian parents that I had to get in touch with my ancestral roots but of course that was just an excuse to go out constantly to the Roman clubs.

Hypnotic Tango was everywhere!  On the radio and on the dancefloors and I was losing my teenage mind to it.   DISCO SYNDICATE EDIT THE INSTRUMENTAL

My Mine were three guys from Terni, near Rome and were formed in 1979.  They were originally new wave/punk but were clearly pushed in another direction.  Produced by the legendary Mauro Malavisi who had his hand in so many italo disco projects.  wonderful blog post about Mauro Malavisi and Jacques Fred Petrous.  Though Hypnotic Tango is the most well known song, Cupid Girl and Zorro are quite good and then there's also Juaresh.  MY MINE ZIP

Their first and only album was released in 1985.  In 2016 they recorded a new song called Like a Fool and went on tour in support of it.  They also added a new female vocalist.

Hell even Bananarama did a cover version, which I will have to admit I thought was brilliant even though it was a massive flop for them in 2005, peaking at #26 in their native U.K. Though those trademark harmonies were still so pretty and easy on the ear.  Their version is actually called Look on the Floor so they changed it up a little.

 LOOK ON THE FLOOR

They look a little gay, huh?  1983 was a very new wave kinda year.  Androgyny was all the rage.  Maybe they thought it looked punk!

Hypnotic tango
Tango
Tango!
Stuck in my seat can't move no way the other guys knows the game to play
I'm watchin' her
I'm watchin' me
I'm gettin' brave

Oh
Take him apart say listen to me.
Look on the floor and all is spinning round

Someone told me this was just a dance

And take a chance I ain't met before
Do you think I really have a chance?
Hypnotic tango
Tango
Tango!

Rough diamond he smiles
She looks at him

Ain't gonna be
No story in love

Take me to the dance
Floor by the hand

Give me this night
In a foreign land.
Look on the floor
And all is spinning round
. . .
Look on the floor
And all is spinning round
. . .

Hypnotic
Hypnotic

Hypnotic
Hypnotic -
Look on the floor
And all is spinning round
. . .
Look on the floor
And all is sinning round

B-side Cairo Nights, Fab 5 Freddy, Fab 5 Betty, Celluloid Electro Hotness

Debbie Harry protege' Fab 5 Freddy was active on the New York Hip Hop Scene in the same period that Blondie was blowing up.  In 1981 they in fact recorded a Christmas song together called Yuletide Throwdown which is majorly collectible and was released on green flexivinyl.  Furthermore he gets a shout-out on the rap in Rapture.  Which might be the only way people not on the underground scene would have ever heard of him.

Meanwhile Fab 5 Betty also known as Ann Boyle Is featured on the project B-side and in the seminal Electro/Punk combo platter called Time Zone along with Afrika Baaambata and Johnny Lydon of The Sex Pistols.  

So just like a lot of current rap music is meshing with EDM there was a lot of mixing of hip hop and electro and disco back in the day.  But back then it wasn't as blatantly commercial as it is now.  Good 

Times by Chic was of course the music behind the first huge rap song on the pop charts, Rapper's Delight in 1979.

It became the definitive roller disco song.

Produced by Material and featuring the vocals of Bernard Fowler and a cast of others B side was one of many collaborative releases on the seminal Celluloid label out of New York.

The sound still holds up today.  Check out the songs A lot to Give and Paris-Taxi they are probably my favorites.   TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK