Thelma Houston don't call her a one hit wonder

Thelma Houston is the quintissential always the bridesmaid never the bride.  Though she will be remembered for that one time she did have a #1 hit in 1977 which also earned her a grammy for Best Female R and B Vocal Performance which is nothing to shake a stick at.
google.com, pub-9672253206618216, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0

It was all a long time coming consdering her debut album SunShower came out in 1969.  She really didn't manage any hits until Don't Leave me This Way was released in December 1976 and slowly climbed to the top spot.  I guess if you're going to only have one number hit it might as well be as iconic as this one.  Not only is it one of the definitive classics of the disco era but it was covered many times including the huge hit by The Communards.  Peronally I prefer the lesser known song, the follow-up I'm Here Again, which only made it to #18 on the American Disco Charts

I'm sure many of my readers would know that Don't Leave me This Way was actually a cover of a Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes song (featuring the fabulous vocals of Mr. Teddy Pendergrass).  But since it got no pop traction it's nowhere near as well known.

In 1977 she recorded a album of duets with Jerry Butler called Thelma and Jerry which didn't do much but her 1979 disco hit Saturday Night, Sunday Morning was a true Paradise Garage classic and a delicious slab of disco fabulousness.  Though it did not achieve huge success on the disco charts if you were clubbing back then you certainly knew it.

In 1978 Love Masterpiece was on included on the Thank God it's Friday soundtrack and it was another high point for her in the clubs.  She's also had songs on five other soundtracks so even though she hasn't had a multitude of hits she's clearly respected.

1981 gave her a minor hit with the Question Mark and the Mysterians remake of 96 Tears which came just after the wonderful If you Feel it which got her up to number 6 on the disco charts and gave her a minor R and B hit.  This was during her brief stint at RCA from Tamla.

The 1983 album Qualifying Heat saw her embracing the Electro sound.  You Used to Hold me so Tight and I'd rahter spend the bad times with You, Than spend the good times with someone new gave her two Top 10 disco hits.  This move to working with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis was a brilliant step for her career if you ask me.  By then she had moved on to MCA records.

After that she continued trudging by with a few very minor hits until she had another huge dance release in 1991 with Throw you Down making it all the way up to #5 dance.  An album in which she collaborated with Richard Perry.   And then in 1995 a totally revamped and remixed version of Don't Leave me This Way made the record a club hit all over again.  Thanks to Junior Vasquez who pumped it at Sound Factory and did the remix himself.  Factory turned out to be one of the most important clubs of all time.  Oh the memories.....

In 1996 she collaborated with Joey Negro (David Lee) with the minor dance hit I Need Somebody Tonight.

In 2007 she hit again on the dance chart with Brand New Day which I have never even heard cause this old guy just ain't the clubber he used to be.

THELMA ZIP 1

Thelma continues to record and tour.  You've got to hand it to her for a woman born in 1948 she has some major stamina.

THELMA ZIP 2

On June 25, 2019 The New York Times Magazine listed Thelma Houston as one of the artist was material was reportedly destoyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

THELMA ZIP 3

I'm throwing in a morning music set by Roy Thode at The Saint from December 1980 New Years Eve because it came up in my itunes when I wrote Thelma Houston and I'd imagine cause she's on it.

MORNING MUSIC

Belgian Electro Deliciousness Starflight

Double A side 1984 Belgian import.  Original mix of Dance to the Beat and 2 edits and the flip Dancer.  Thanks to Xavier F. for providing his edit to the zip.


In 1987 they put out a Synth Pop remix covers album called Euro Cli-Max Mix.  Which I don't have but would really like to hear.

ELECTRO STARFLIGHT

Pretty Poison from variation new wave to variation freestyle an Eighties success story

I just added even more to this blog post.
Philadelphia based Pretty Poison broke with Catch Me I'm Falling.  But they actually had a string of single releases and ep.'s before that.  NIGHTIME  NIGHTIME DUB  CATCH ME

There's download stuff sprinkles all throughout this post.
a pretty zip
More Pretty

I love Jade Starling's vocals, their look was very big hair 80's. Here's her MySpace

I'm enclosing a zip which features several versions of Nightime including the totally electrifying dub and the Shep Pettibone Mix and their huge #8 hit from 1987 Catch Me.  And another zip which contains a funky version of Nightime entitled In the Heat of the Night.   The original 12" release made it up to #14 dance in 1984.  Catch Me took it up to #1 and then the re-release with new mixes of Nightime peaked at #13 in 1988.  I didn't really follow their other releases though When I Look into Your Eyes squeaked out a Top 10 dance spot in 1988 too. 

Here are the lyrics to Nightime:

Come, feel the steady rhythm of the nightlife

And hear excitement in the air.
Baby, when the night comes down, 
You know where I can be found, 
Dancing in a midnight fantasy.

Chorus:
In the Nightime
Blame it on the Nightime.
In the Nightime
Baby, that's the right time.

I feel a strange desire in the moonlight
Dreams of another dance in my eyes.
Baby, when the stars shine bright, 
Dance with me all through the night.
Be my lover til the light of day.

Chorus:
In the Nightime, 
Blame it on the Nightime.
In the Nightime yeah, 
Baby, that's the right time.
Right time for me.

Nightime is the right time
Nightlife is for me.
Dancing til the break of day, 
No place I'd rather be.

Nightime is the right time; 
Nightlife is for me.
Dancing til the break of day, 
No place I'd rather be.

In the Nightime, blame it on the Nightime.
In the Nightime, baby, that's the right time.
In the Nightime, blame it on the Nightime.
In the Nightime, yeah, baby, that's the right time.
Right time for me.

Nightime is the right time
Nightlife is for me
Nightime is the right time
Nightlife is for me
Nightime
Nightlife is for me.

All in all it's a sound I can really appreciate.  Not quite freestyle, not quite electro and not really house either.  It's a unique record and is clearly influenced by many sounds at the same time.  When it was originally released on Svengali in 1983 it went pretty much unnoticed and under the radar.  It took the more commercial sounding Catch Me to give Nightime it's second life.  Here I've enclosed their entire Laced e.p. from 1983.  It's sort of new wave and not quite as straightforward dance as their later releases.  If  you click on the title of this blog you will be directed to my ebay listing for this collectible e.p.  LACED EP

A1		Seal It With A Kis	3:57
A2		Let Freedom Ring	6:15
B1		Expiration	3:59
B2		Tempest Nightmare	5:15

Their first single from 1981 is very rare and very new wave.  It's called Gimme Gimme (your autograph).  It was on the label Poison Pops and was only released as a 7" single.

NO TEARS

I'm adding their goth single from 1982 No Tears and it's b side.

super early pretty poison

And finally their goth single Expiration from 1983.  A real Kennel club Philadelphia classic.

Time to Move Carmen

Just in case you thought you had my number, I'm going to throw something different out at you.

Time to Move by Carmen is a delicious piece of electro freestyle groove.  Think Debbie Deb crossed with Newcleus.  TIME TO MOVE

This number from 1985 is pretty obscure.  I'd imagine it got some plays at The Funhouse.  Certainly not anywhere I was going that year.

Carmen went on to have a number of other releases on other labels.  I don't really know those but this one tickled me just right. I'd like to hear the one she did with C-Bank in 1990.

Escape from New York

Certainly in a nod to the 1981 John Carpenter film a band named themselves Escape from New York and came out with the incredibly infectious single Save our Love in 1983.  A nice hybrid between electro and italo disco and a real influential record that year.

an escape zip

instrumental
Their next single a year later Fire in my Heart was equally brilliant.  More on the italo disco sleaze tip.  It was very rare and would fetch hundreds of dollars on eBay so in 2016 it was re-pressed.  Here I have an edit.

The band had previously been known as Airstrip-One.  They were decidedly more new wave then.

Newcleus

Brooklyn trio Newcleus were the definitive Electro act.  Though they only released two full albums.  They had a nice string of seminal electro/freestyle hits. Block party favorites they originally started in 1977 as Jam-On Productions.

I'm surprised that I haven't blogged about them before because I was so into them.  Their sound really touched my soul.  I'm kind of surprised that they weren't much huger chart successes then they were because it seemed to me that their music was so ever-present at the time.  The idea that they had to speed their vocals to resemble the Chipmunks in parts was definitely part of the magic.  Their biggest pop hit "Jam on It" took it up to #56 on the U.S. Top 100.  Though several of their songs made the R and B Top 40.

I also think that their sound has held up very well.  It certainly makes me want to shake my tail in 2017.

Their first release Jam on Revenge was in 1983 which I've mentioned before is the legendary year for me and my going to the disco youth.  Their sound certainly mixed in very well with the Italo Disco which I hold so close to my heart and for which most of my blog is dedicated.

But with a vocoder and Jonathan Fearing on the mix how could they go wrong anyway?

Their songs have also been used in a few video games including Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX, Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 2 and DJ Hero 2, the latter even featured a newly re-recorded version.

By the mid 80's they still had a few releases but their sound was sort of on the decline as that hot new genre "house music" was making for the greatest impact on the dance floors.  I will thank my friend DJ Chris Baron for turning me on to Cyborg Dance and Space is the Place.  He even did a genius edit of Cyborg Dance.  In 1985 I was in D.C. and heard an awful lot of Hi Nrg and early House so progressive Electro like this wasn't on my radar and my trips to New York City were few and far between because I was studying.

A FEW OF THE BEST NUCLEUS TRACKS
Cyborg Dance and Space is the Place
The debut single Jam on Revenge

I have to admit I also love this sound because it reminds me of Shaun of the Dead, a film I really love and featured Electro obsessed characters.

Bow Wow Wow's Annabella Lwin

In honor of John Robie's birthday today I'd like to feature one of his prime glories.  Annabella Lwin's War Boys from 1986 off her Fever album.

Annabella has a claim to fame only a few elite artists have.  She was discovered by the music svengali Malcolm McLaren.  Furthermore she was an immigrant from Burma transplanted to the U.K. and had her initial fame at the ripe young age of 13!  As the lead singer of Bow Wow Wow she made an amazing splash and was part of one of the most loved post punk bands in history.

FIGHTING JUST TO STAY AT THE TOP WAR WAR WAR WAR WAR BOYS

A lot of money was later spent on launching her solo career in 1986 but it didn't quite happen.  Though as a member of Bow Wow Wow from 1980 to 1983 she had a string of hits two of which made it to the U.K. Top 10.

War Boys had all the magic in it's corner.  It was produced and mixed by John Robie featured keyboards by Man Parrish and additional work by Paul A. Rodriguez one of the hottest names in mid 80's dance.  It's got that hot electro feel that was synonymous with many of the classic tracks of the era, such as releases by New Order.  But it flopped, but to me it certainly was not forgotten.  Believe it not or not after this 1986 album release she lost her record contract and didn't surface again until a new album Super Boom!! which came out in 2012.

Don't Stop the Rock Freestyle

Nothing like a group having the name of a genre.  And that was even before it started to have it's biggest run of hits.  In fact Miami Electro act Freestyle started charting in 1983!  

I think my favorite Freestyle single is Don't Stop the Rock from 1985.  It seemed to so perfectly sum up a big part of the scene.  At once so Fun House and yet so clearly a foreshadowing of the sound that would be the more commercial freestyle sound.  I'm just a big fan of the vocoder.  If it's in the song I'm probably gonna love it.  Anything that reminds me of a robot singing puts a smile on my face.

DONE STOP THE ROCK

"Pretty Tony" has his name on a quite a few records I love, he was actually a member of Freestyle.

Now pardon me as I go break dance in the living room.

Get Down Connie Case

A true classic, funk, electro, italo disco all rolled into one but it's actually a record out of Miami.  The magic of Get Down by Connie Case a 1982 release on Konduku Records still sounds as fabulous today as when it was a WBMX staple.

It got rare and collectible for a minute there but then ended up getting re-issued.  Looks like Connie only had one more release, the following  year she came out with a reggae track along with The Kouchie Klan called Sooner or Later.  It was written by reggae superstar Jimmy Cliff.

HEY BABY LETS GET ON DOWN

Egypt, Egypt was one of the classics of 80's Electro

Greg J. Broussard is the L.A. based artist known as Egyptian Lover.  He released 8 l.p.'s and numerous twelve inch singles.  But most likely the most well known classic was Egypt, Egypt.  It was a massive record at the Fun House among other clubs.

CHECK IT OUT HERE

Way of Life The Puppets

Oh 1983 I'm always going on and on about 1983.  Another fabulous dance track from 1983 was The Way of Life by The Puppets.  WAY OF LIFE  It has a delicious mixture of electro, new wave and even italo disco.  In D.C. it got heavy play on OK100 which was an urban station I was partial to at the time.

Though the band was from Long Island their twelve inch single came out on the seminal Canadian dance label Quality.  Shaun Brigton of the new wave band Nervus Rex formed The Puppets and Way of Life hit #3 on the Billboard dance charts.  Though a hit single in Canada the band broke up so they could be dumped into that one hit wonder category.