Changin' Ms. Sharon Ridley the ultimate morning music song

  Refreshed links from a 2009 blog post.  Enjoy!







In 1978 Ms. Sharon Ridley's Full Moon l.p. was released. Just the fact that Sharon required the Ms. in her name proves that extra attention was deserved. She's been getting it from vinyl collector's and Garage heads ever since.


Clearly there was no official 12" release but the song found it's way onto many important dj playlists especially those who embraced the sleaze, morning music genre such as Larry Levan, Lary Sanders and Robbie Leslie just to name a few.

The dates for the actual 12" presses are unclear. But in 1979 the Canadian label Singles, Ep's and eX-Hits release a 12" backed with the sublime Jean Carne song Was That All it Was. Kinda of a sleaze double whammy.


Then there are these test pressing promo's which don't have any writing on them and a black cover sleeve. Sort of like the one that John Davis Bourgie' Bourgie' white labels had but without writing on the black sleeve.


So some dj's hand wrote the title on the label. My copy was clean and fetched a respectable $181.00 on Ebay. Though there is a vendor who has it slapped up in his store for something like six months now at over $500.00 with clearly no bites. Probably works well for him though cause when you have a hot record in your store it brings in clicks and those people may peruse your wares.

Anyway for some unknown reason CHANGES is inscribed on the outgroove. Some clown on discogs actually went to the effort of making a post for the song calling it incorrectly Changes. Have you ever tried to post on that site? If they could be any more picky you could tear your hair out. But then they post stuff with errors and those stay up.

So then Tabu realizing they had a hot one on their hands that should have been pressed on a 12" in the first place pressed one to their Mixed Masters re-issue series on CBS.


Then in 1984 Hot Tracks had the great taste to do their own take on this sleaze classic.
HOT TRACKS MIX

So now we've got several different pressings and several different lengths. Course you want them all and that's why I've put them in a zip here.


BIG SHARON ZIP


Finally in 1987 Columbia Records put out the Compilation, Let's Dance! and had the good taste to include Changin' this one a mix by F. Byron Clark running 6:18, probably the shortest version yet.


A Mel Cheron favorite which Larry Levan often played just to please his buddy. In fact Larry was known to simply slip it into a set and dramatically change the tone. But The Paradise Garage was Larry's home and he didn't have to play by the rules

More recently it was brought to the attention of Linda Clifford. Logically Linda flipped over it and it became a release on the newly incarnated West End label in 2001. Given all sorts of mixes by Blaze and even the remix king Tom Moulton it didn't really create that much of a stir. But then again you can't improve perfection. Here below are the Pound Boys (more traditional house) and Tom Moulton's (lavish, dramatic) mixes of Linda Clifford.


LINDA CLIFFORD VERSION

LOVE IS THE MESSAGE MFSB and VOGUING BALLS FOREVER

Nothing can really be said about this record without sounding banal. For voguers, ball children, Garageheads, Loftheads, Body and Soul fans and many d.j.'s and club punters along the way it's been an inspiration and the stimulus of much joy.
LOVE IS THE MESSAGE in .WAV
Originally a 45 rpm release in 1973 it seemed to simmer and boil throughout the years until exploding in the late 70's as an out and out disco classic. It's been re-pressed many times including in 1979 when MFSB shared the billing with The Three Degrees.

The Danny Krivit remix is the definitive one to have. Danny himself was right in the thick of it all too. He like David Mancuso came to prominence in the 70's and has continued to be active ever since. Often his projects are billed under aliases like Mr. K.

His version was included on the compilation to accompany the classic dance scene book Last Night a DJ Saved My Life which I blogged about a couple years ago here on Disco Vinyl.

If you click on the title of this blog it will bring you directly into my Ebay store where you can check out the huge amount of Paradise Garage classics I have for sale.

THE PARADISE GARAGE HOUSE BAND, KONK

YOUR LIFE in .WAV
You could almost call Konk The Paradise Garage house band. They played there many times including the closing night.

They had that perfect mesh of new wave, disco, jazz and latin. So they had the power of appealing to many yet keeping their sound real street and underground.

KONK WEBSITE


Their biggest hit Your Life was picked up by Sleeping Bag. It was massive in New York. Here I choose to spotlight an earlier 12" Konk Party which was released on Celluloid in 1983.

GET SOME KONK

Just recently the band played for the first time in more then 20 years.  It was an event to commemorate the life of DJ Mark Kamins.  He was an early champion of their work, as they often played at Danceteria as well as The Paradise Garage.

Disco With a Message Philadelphia International All Stars

MFSB created the ultimate voguers and house children classic with Love is the Message. The Danny Krivit edit becoming a classic at The Paradise Garage and all the voguing balls ever since. But in my opinion they reached the pinnacle of their brilliance with their collaboration with the Philadelphia International All Stars.
LET'S CLEAN UP THE GHETTO

The 1977 promo only 12" of Let's Clean Up the Ghetto is soulful disco perfection. Dexter Wansel's arrangement, the lyrics by Gamble and Huff and the vocal stylings of particularly Lou Rawls and Teddy Pendergrass make this one of the deepest and most memorable disco records ever.

Kenny Gamble was married at the time to Dee Dee Sharp so she was one of the few female vocals on it. The O'Jays, Billy Paul and Archie Drell were on board too. All the proceeds went to a charity project but this beauty didn't get anywhere near the attention of later more schlocky super-group projects like Band Aid and U.S.A. for Africa. In fact it only charted for a month on the U.S. disco charts.