DIANA ROSS: ‘Baby It’s Me’ LP (Motown STMA 8031) (BNDA debut 10/15/77)
Sensational album, with at least five strong disco cuts – take your pick!
KENNY EVERETT & MIKE VICKERS: ‘Captain Kremmen (Retribution)’ (DJM DJS 10810)
Capital’s star is right on target with freaky stereo and a catchy semi-slow synthesizer melody.
Florida’s TK group of labels is now distributed here by the ever expanding CBS, who will be issuing all future TK products. RCA, who evidently obtained the UK rights to TK for only six months, have a selling-off period for everything they’ve already issued. The news about this switch has come as a big surprise to many DJ’s, who consider it to be rather unfair on RCA. Some jocks are even rumoured to be planning a blacklist ban on all future TK products to teach the American company a lesson. This in turn would be unfair on both CBS and the TK artists but it’s certainly true that too many US companies seem to have a distorted view of this country as a market place. They could well be taught an effective lesson. In fact, RCA did a remarkable marketing job for TK, giving them a far bigger hit with T-Connection than was ever scored in the US. At the same time, CBS were unable to chart the Lovers’ ‘Discomania’ which, although not on TK worldwide, was on TK’s Marlin label in America . . . this, despite the Lovers’ huge disco acceptance here. RCA’s own disco promotion team seem relatively unruffled by the change but then their other labels are currently hot too!
Ariola Records and Hansa Productions, the Germany-based source of so many current disco hits, have opened their own London branch and debuted the new Ariola label last week at a lavish reception. In a lucky number ticket draw I won first prize of either a weekend in Germany or a stereo music centre! Gubbins chose the latter (maybe I can swap it for a colour telly?) which was presented to me by Ariola’s UK head, Robin Blanchflower, and ticket drawing Tina Charles. Anyway, we’re going to have to wait another month before Ariola release what’s likely to be their first hit, the Euro smash and disco import by Amanda Lear, ‘Blood And Honey’, which will be out as a 12in on November 4.
New Spins
VARIOUS: ‘Motown Gold Volume 2’ LP (Motown STML 12070)
Eighteen big hits, both old (Stevie, Marvin, Smokey, Diana, Isleys, Temps) and new (Thelma, Commodores).
WHISPERS: ‘Make It With You’ (Soul Train FC 0996) (BNDA debut 7/23/77)
This great Tavares-type 12-incher is now finally out here.
SANTA ESMERALDA: ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’ (Philips 6042325) (BNDA debut 9/3/77)
Flamenco-disco by a sorta Spanish Cerrone, edited from his upcoming LP, already a Euro smash and US biggie.
TINA CHARLES: ‘Love Bug’ / ‘Sweets For My Sweet’ (CBS 5680)
Back on form with a jauntily jiggling medley, 12-inched for first 10,000 copies.
MIKE THEODORE ORCHESTRA: ‘The Bull’ (from LP ‘Cosmic Wind’, Atlantic K 50411) (BNDA debut 9/3/77)
Terrific rhythm rattler, a great mixer, with many other strong disco tracks featuring CJ & Co. on vocals.
GIORGIO: ‘From Here To Eternity’ LP (Oasis OASLP 501) (BNDA debut 8/6/77)
More Donna than Donna, the whole first side segues continuously with flying electronic freakiness.
DONNA SUMMER: ‘I Remember Yesterday’ (GTO GT 107) (BNDA debut 5/28/77)
Happily skittering Dr. Buzzard soundalike, flipped by her much demanded old ‘Spring Affair’ leaper.
ROSE ROYCE: ‘Do Your Dance, Pts. 1 & 2’ (Whitfield K 17006) (BNDA debut 9/24/77)
‘Car Wash Part Two’ culled from their new album and cut in two for 45.
MECO: ‘Star Wars Theme / Cantina Band’ (RCA XB 1028) (BNDA debut 7/23/77)
Here it is, the sensational smash hit disco treatment of the big US sci-fi movie theme! Full of freaky effects and great stereo, it bridges into more music from the flick before ending on the catchy theme again.
EDDIE HENDERSON: ‘Say You Will’ (Capitol CL 15937)
Driving fast jazz-funk trumpet twirler, madly infectious and already a dancefloor filler!
ROSE ROYCE: ‘Do Your Dance’ / ‘It Makes You Feel Like Dancin’’ (from LP ‘Full Bloom’, Whitfield K 56394) (BNDA debut 9/24/77)
‘Car Wash’ handclaps dominate these slightly slinkier funkers, which may be a little too long at 9:15 and 8:43 for the slower tempo, despite interestingly original instrumental developments and great sound. Then there’s ‘You Can’t Please Everybody’ for ‘Put Your Money’ fans!
JOHN DAVIS & THE MONSTER ORCHESTRA: ‘The Magic Is You’ / ‘You’re The One’ (Polydor 2058923) (BNDA debut 6/25/77)
Exciting rhythm rattlers with smooth singing, biting brass and bouncy beat should be big.
Elvis Presley was the biggest influence on my formative years, and back in the fifties/early sixties could literally be called my god. When, as an innocent kid, I heard a 78rpm wind-up gramophone playing his ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ in 1956, I experienced the only true mystical revelation of my life. I didn’t know what it was and couldn’t make out the words, but I knew that this was for me.
From that point on, I suffered the teasing that all true fans know, and the chiding of my parents for growing sideburns (which I kept until the beard grew in ’70!).
Without Elvis, I may well have become interested in music anyway – but without Elvis would music have been the same? Certainly, it was to recapture the intensity of his earlier records that in the early sixties I turned towards R&B and soul music when his own material became less potent. Thus my life was moulded.
As a DJ, I naturally use many Presley platters whenever the occasion calls for some rock ‘n roll, and experience has taught me that (of his uptempo tunes) this is the Elvis Top Ten: ‘Return To Sender’, ‘Jailhouse Rock’, ‘Hound Dog’, ‘Blue Suede Shoes’, ‘Wear My Ring Around Your Neck’, ‘Mean Woman Blues’, ‘Shake Rattle And Roll’, ‘All Shook Up’, ‘I Got Stung’, ‘Baby Let’s Play House’ (the last being his best rockabilly bopper).
He wasn’t meant to die. Ever. But then he wasn’t meant to get old, grow fat and play Vegas, either.
New Spins
GIORGIO: ‘Utopia – Me Giorgio’ (Oasis 1)
Wow! Donna’s producer now hits us with his own synthesizer pounder – a fast instrumental in the Space bag – but wait for his terrific continuously seguing album, out in a fortnight . . . it’s dynaMITE!
CELI BEE & THE BUZZY BUNCH: ‘One Love’ (TK XC 9145) (BNDA debut 4/9/77)
Great long-awaited frothy fast rhythm rattler, particularly good after the trite singing stops in the second half. It’s a full-length 8:08 commercial 12-incher, in T-Connection style!
EMOTIONS: ‘Best Of My Love’ (CBS 5555) (BNDA debut 6/11/77)
Powerhouse squeaky chugger, truly huge on import and a US smash for months, belatedly rushed out here by DJ demand.
SPACE: ‘Magic Fly’ LP (Pye NSPL 28232) (BNDA debut 6/4/77)
Hottest album of the summer for disco synthesizer freaks: ‘Carry On, Turn Me On’ actually has some Donna-type chanting, while the pounding ‘Tango In Space’, hit title track and ‘Fasten Seat Belt’ are purely instrumental – and very exciting.
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