Latin freestyle seems to go hand in hand with Friday, at least in my mind. If Friday is really the day to celebrate the weekend ahead then that means club songs, freestyle and old school house music are the very best way to kick it all off. Let me take you back to 1988 when Betty Dee and her girls stepped out from the shadow of Expose` and The Cover Girls and made their own mark in the dance world.
Sweet Sensation had the hair, the clothes, and all the moves. But they seemed like the chicks down the street. This was the girl group that you really could have gone to school with or partied with. And their music rivaled other dance floor anthems. Songs like "Take It While It's Hot" and "Hooked On You" were featured on Open House Party and Dance Party USA, making the ladies a pretty hot commodity leading up to their number one single, "If Wishes Came True".
Betty Dee, Jenae Colon, and Belle Ritter reunited a few years ago and on any given weekend you're likely to find Sweet Sensation hitting the stage somewhere on the east coast. "Sincerely Yours" remains one of their most popular hits. Check out the video below.
Bananarama is easily one of the most popular girl groups of the 80's. Songs like "Cruel Summer", "Venus" and "I Heard A Rumor" kept them near the top of Billboard's Hot 100 charts for a few years in the mid-80's. Their True Confessions album from 1986 is probably one of my all-time favorite pop efforts from that era, with "ATrick of the Night" arguably being one of Bananarama's best songs ever. The album version is basically a ballad but when it was released in December of 1986 as a single extra synthesizer and vocals were added in to give it a dance feel.
"A Trick of the Night" was also included on the Jumpin' Jack Flash movie soundtrack. While the song kind of stalled out on the charts it is still considered by many to be one of the ladies' best songs, especially in retrospect. Do you guys remember this one?
I have to admit, Culture Club always kind of gets a little lost in my pile of 80's classics and I'm never really sure why. I've always been a Boy George fan and some of this groups' songs really are timeless. Then there are those that carry a personal time-stamp, like "Miss Me Blind". This takes me back to a Friday night in 1984 when it was pouring and we had just left a pizza parlor connected to our local mall. We stepped outside into the rain and a few thunderbolts later and my parents and I were taking cover inside of The Jean King- a store that was exactly like its' name implied.
As the rain poured down on the roof above, I was surrounded by racks of Jordache, Calvin Klein and Gloria Vanderbilt jeans. It was denim heaven. I'm pretty sure if I walked into that store today I'd be amazed by how small it actually was but on this particular night, it was divine. In my mind any good store also has great music playing and "Miss Me Blind" was always my favorite Culture Club song so obviously, the fact that it was on here only makes the memory sweeter. Check out the video below!
The video to Boy Meets Girl's "Waiting For a Star to Fall" was on tv this morning and while it's not a song that I often think of, it's one that drags me back to a point in time. This was one of those songs that you couldn't escape during the summer of 1988. It was on in the car. On in the grocery store. On in the mall. And, that was a good thing because it just made your life a bit better whenever you heard it. Great melody, great lyrics written and performed by a then-happily married couple. It was all good and whenever I heard the song I wanted a little piece of that "all good-ness".
The story behind "Waiting For a Star to Fall" is interesting because Shannon Rubicam and George Merrill originally wrote it and submitted it to Whitney Houston's people. They passed on it but Belinda Carlisle's people grabbed it up and literally made her record it. She hated the song and fought hard to keep it off of her album.
At that point, Rubicam and Merrill decided to record it themselves and then added it to their second Boy Meets Girl album. The result? A smash hit and the group's ONLY hit so in the end, they must have been glad that no one else ended up using their song.
Check out the video below. The little blonde girl is actually Rubicam and Merrill's daughter!
Those who came before me lived through their vocations
From the past until completion, they'll turn away no more And still I find it so hard to say what I need to say But I'm quite sure that you'll tell me just how I should feel today
Any idea what the most successful 12" single of all time is? That honor belongs to New Order's "Blue Monday", with its many reissues, remixes and dance club vibe. While it was first released in 1983 and became an underground dance hit, it was "Blue Monday's" reissue in 1988 that seemed to launch the song into orbit. Suddenly every DJ played it and we all loved it because it was different. The sound is totally unique and so rather than blending in with the house music that was taking over the late 80's, New Order's songs stood out in a good way.
"Blue Monday" has lived on since its 80's introduction because numerous artists have either sampled or covered the tune. I know that you've heard it often, but have you ever actually seen the video? Check it out below!
You gotta hold on" The late 80's music scene featured several pop girl groups. You had The Bangles, Expose, The Cover Girls, Sweet Sensation... all of them had radio and chart success but there was a formula to it. I don't think that anyone really anticipated the change that was coming when the calendar flipped and a new decade began. The 90's ushered in an era of New Jack Swing, slowjamz and R&B that was just amazing. Groups like TLC, SWV, and Xscape kept women front and center. En Vogue was a major player at the time. Dawn Robinson, Cindy Herron, Terry Ellis and Maxine Jones teamed up in 1989 and by 1990 they had a bonafide chart hit with "Hold On". It was completely different from everything else that was getting airplay and that's what grabbed my attention immediately. To me, this video and song kind of drew a line in the proverbial sand and from this point on women had to really step up their game in order to compete musically. Check out "Hold On" below. Do you think it was a game changer too?
Since Covid-19 has brought gigs to a screeching halt we are flashing back to some of the best of the best content here at DailyBOOM.
ICYMI
I think that most people believe that once you "make it" in the music industry you're sort of set for life if you handle your money properly. The actual truth is that the music business is at best, a harsh place to try and exist. You could be at the top of the charts and playing sold-out shows now and in six months you're back to waiting tables or washing dishes. The only solid guarantee is that every star eventually falls from the sky and then it takes talent, timing, and unshakable determination to get back up again. That's why I love to see a time-tested, old school band with a great catalog still selling out shows and Great White was doing exactly that before the world as we know it came to a screeching halt.
The band (Mark Kendall- lead guitar, Michael Lardie- rhythm guitar, multi-instrumentalist, Audie Desbrow- drums, Scott Snyder- bass, and Mitch Malloy- lead vocals) first found itself in heavy rotation on MTV back in the late-80's with songs like "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" and they never really looked back. Sure there have been some major bumps in the road. Among other things, people have come and gone (including lead singers), but Great White has not only survived, it also continues to thrive.
I had an opportunity to catch up with the Michael Lardie, the band's rhythm guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, who was in great spirits in spite of being pulled off the road due to the Covid-19 lockdown. Michael's kindness, intelligence, and positive energy flowed as we bounced through all sorts of topics. Check it out for yourself.
Photo: Ralph Arvesen
Michael Lardie on being under quarantine:
"We're closing in on six weeks inside now in California. When I'm normally at home I'm pretty low-key and usually working in my studio or something. I don't go out too much anyway unless it's to see a movie or grab dinner so it's not a really big change for me. Not having the option to do anything because of lockdown really mentally pushes you against a wall though. Every time I think of an errand to run it's followed by the thought, 'oh you can't do that or at least you shouldn't do that' so that's the primary change for me.
When being in the studio is your joy for the day, I think times like now can make you even more laser-focused. Like on a normal day I might want to work for a couple hours and maybe come up with an idea, now I'm finding myself demoing entire songs (laughing) so in that respect, it's a positive. Also, the guys and I are sending little voice notes of ideas back and forth too, just trying to stay focused on what it is that we do and part of that is writing new material. Right now I'm breathing, I'm healthy, I'm being smart and staying home. I'm finding the joy in being creative and at this point, I'll just go with it (laughing)."
Michael on Great White's plans for new music:
"Well, because of the way that people absorb music now, one of the thoughts that we've had is to put out smaller doses of music more frequently. Maybe putting out two or three songs at a time and then, in the end, we'll compile it all and make it into a product that our diehard fans can pick up. We've been in the model of making full records for our entire career so it's a little strange for us to be thinking outside of the box, but that may be how we need to do it now. One of the things that makes Great White the band that it is, is that we don't record separately and send files to each other. For us to be making music, whether it's a two or three-song EP or whatever, our best experience is always when we're in the same room actually cutting the track with all of us playing. When you're building a house the vibe is different when you're building it together rather than piecemeal and recording is the same for us.
There are five people that make a sound different from everyone else on the planet. Individually we sound a certain way but once we're all together there's this sound that is so familiar and feels so good that it inspires us to keep performing. You want to keep making that sound with that particular group of people. The vibe is always far stronger when we're all in the same room. It's going to be interesting for us to actually do that again when we're able to schedule real-life things. We're looking forward to it because the best things happen for us musically when we're together as a band."
Michael on how the band has remained successful even with three different lead singers:
"When I was first coming up older people would always say to me songs, songs, songs. That is what is most important because a band's catalog will define its longevity. In that respect, I'm very proud of the material that we've come up with over the years and that material has allowed us to continue even with different singers. We've had three very different sounding singers and no matter who you put in there it has worked because of the strength of the material. Mitch (Malloy) has worked out great for us. Sonically he is a little more like Jack (Russell) than Terry Ilous was and I think people are getting it now. Every time you make a change there's an adjustment period but as people have heard Mitch sing the songs and watched his performances I think they've started to really embrace him. We've had really great attendance before everything shut down, I think five out of our last eight shows were sold out and that just makes us really grateful. Again, it's all because of the strength of the music and the catalog of songs that we've created."
Michael on the band's writing process:
"It's interesting because back in the day we would be sitting in a rehearsal room bouncing riffs off of each other and figuring out the arrangement- that's one way that we did it. As time went on and we started to have different rigs at home we've been able to come up with parts of songs and share them, so it's kind of done in the same way from remote now. We rely on each other to remind us of how we sound at our personal best and things often come to us in pieces. "Rock Me" for example, was a guitar riff that Mark had and when we sat down and started to mess around with it before you knew it we had this great song. One of the best things about the band is how we really look forward to each others' input to make that special sound that I was talking about earlier.
So many songs have come at the last minute too, like the day before you go to the studio or the first few days that we're there. "All Over Now" is the last thing that we wrote for Once Bitten and "Mista Bone" was the last thing that we wrote for Twice Shy. There's always inspiration in the end because you're in the vibe of pre-production and running through stuff and you're playing like a band every single day. When you're playing off each other that much just jamming can turn into something so now we try to leave that space open at the very end. Good stuff comes up when you're working together day after day."
Great White
Photo: Neil Zlozower
Michael on what keeps that desire to play live burning:
"The joy of playing music with other people and making our particular sound is one of the bullet point reasons that always comes back to me. Everything for us is fly dates now which can be challenging at times and it makes you a little sleep deficient. But the upside to that is that you may leave on Thursday and then play all weekend, come back on Sunday and it gives you three or four days to have some semblance of a normal life. So I get to do the thing that I still love the most and then enjoy that normalcy.
One of the other things that I think of while playing a song is that this group of people has never been together before. This exact show has never happened even though there are fans that have come and seen us on multiple occasions over the years, at that moment that group of people has never been 100% present together. We're still playing 100% live so no matter how you feel you've got the challenge of making it sound as great as you can every single time you go out. Those things make it fresh for us in the moment.
Getting people to smile back at you when you're up there doing this thing that you love is always amazing to me. When you get that energy back it's just amazing and when you see little kids out there on their dad's or grand dad's shoulders singing along to "Rock Me" it's really something. The multigenerational thing always gets me because it's incredible to think that our music is what these parents saw fit to pass down to their kids. One of the greatest compliments that we can get as songwriters and performers is to have our music go from generation to generation. When I think back to when we were young we just hoped that what we did would somehow make some small difference that could maybe even live on. Having it be passed on from one generation to the next is the highest compliment we can get.
It still blows my mind when I'll be driving in my car and "House of Broken Love" comes on (laughing). We didn't think all that much when we were creating it but when I hear it I can still put myself in a time capsule and zap myself back to the very moment we were doing it. The very moment that I kept Mark in his seat for ten hours doing all of the soloing on that track and the fact that his fingers were bleeding by the time it was done. I can remember every aspect of that. It's amazing how you can hear a song and all of a sudden you're transported back to the beach in 1989, nothing is a better time machine than music."
Michael on other projects that have kept him busy:
"Last year I mixed a live performance of Sheryl Crow's from the Capitol Theatre in NY that was released in the fall. That kind of project would be perfect for me to have right now (laughing). It was an eight hour a day thing, 22 songs, and I had to mix it in surround so it was just awesome. I'm a fan of hers so it was like a gift, just a complete joy to do. Something like that would be perfect for right now and you never know something could come along.
In the meantime, I've been working on material of my own that someday I'll finish up and put out there. I've never really set a timeline for it I'll just know when it's the right time to share it with the world. It's also good because if I'm stuck on something for Great White I'll flip over to my own thing and find the joy in doing that, which frees my brain. Then when I look at the Great White stuff again I'll find a way around that wall that I felt like I kept hitting."
Mitch Malloy, Mark Kendall & Michael Lardie
Photo: Eric Sherman
Michael on what's next for Great White:
"So far most of May and early June dates are postponed but we're actually really lucky because we've only completely lost one show. It was part of a summer series and they weren't able to push it to another date because the whole season has already been booked but we're lucky because about thirty other shows have been rescheduled for later in the year. We're grateful because so far we're still holding on to shows and not only that but the other day we booked a new one for November. So somewhere out there at least one person is still scheduling new gigs (laughing).
We're hoping to get back out there in the late summer or early fall and be able to finish out our year safely. Having the ability to perform taken away has made me just a little more inspired, so if I was thinking even a tiny bit about maybe wrapping this all up in a few years, this time off has energized me. Now I think I'm just going to keep on doing this music thing until it doesn't make sense anymore. Knowing that we will have the opportunity to do this again after this lockdown ends is really something. When the first level of success happened when we were younger I appreciated it but now I have the intelligence and experience to really appreciate it so much more. Grateful doesn't really even begin to describe how I feel right now."
Check out Great White's Official Site for updated tour dates, news & more!
"I always love a little mystery But now the tensions killing me No place left for words to hide I never thought it could be quite so tough Lips once sealed are splitting up There ain't no secrets to outshine, father time."
I can remember walking into a Listening Booth store in the middle of my local mall and flipping through their one rack of 12" dance mixes of freestyle/house music and finding a copy of A'Me Lorain's "Whole Wide World". I bought that and a copy of Lisette Melendez's "Together Forever" and felt like I hit the music lottery. Back in 1990, in the middle of suburban Pennsylvania, club music was a novelty rather than a standard. I was 90 minutes from Philly, two hours from NYC and basically just far enough out for stores not to carry a whole lot of dance stuff.
I was still glued to Dance Party USA and my friends from the series so I knew what was popping in the clubs. I found a way to get my hands on Judy Torres and Coro even if I had to order it. But A'Me Lorain was an unexpected find and I played this record into the ground. She is still around, in case you were wondering. She dropped a dance track last spring that didn't do much chart-wise, in spite of getting a bit of club play. You can check it out here.
"Baby tell me does she love you like the way I love you Does she stimulate you, attract and captivate you Tell me does she miss you existing just to kiss you Like the way I do Tell me does she want you, infatuate and haunt you Does she know just how to shock and electrify and rock you Does she inject you, seduce you and affect you Like the way I do Like the way I do"
Years before Melissa Etheridge became an Indie rock darling of the 90's she made some serious moves as a rocker. When her self-titled first album was released back in 1988 it featured a song called "Like The Way I Do". It never charted well on Billboard's Hot 100 but it did really well on the modern rock charts. It also was in heavy rotation on rock stations across the U.S. In between Warrant and Kix you were quite likely to hear Etheridge's "Like The Way I Do" or "Similar Features" being played to break up the hairband predictability.
Check out the video for "Like The Way I Do" below!
No money man can win my love It's sweetness that I'm thinking of. We always hang in a Buffalo Stance We do the dive every time we dance I'll give you love baby not romance I'll make a move nothing left to chance So don't you get fresh with me
Neneh Cherry first hit on MTV at a time when other ladies like Queen Latifah and Monie Love were blowing up. Girl groups like JJ Fad and Salt N' Pepa had already proved that women were good for a lot more than just syrupy ballads and viewers really seemed to dig this new wave of ladies. Cherry was born in the states but raised in Sweden beside an incredibly musical family. That probably explains why her talent has spanned singing, rapping and even spoken word. She's an artist that has been far more motivated by creativity than the all mighty dollar since first appearing in 1988.
"Buffalo Stance" was the first single by Cherry to find itself in heavy rotation on MTV. It was written about the group of friends that she ran with back in the day and a former boyfriend, Che' is heavily referenced. In the end she dumped him because she thought that he was too materialistic. One interesting nugget is that the spoken word portion of this song is actually ripped from a love letter that Che' wrote to Cherry before their split!
Check out "Buffalo Stance" below. Do you remember it?
I have to admit, I had completely forgotten about Lisa Fisher's "How Can I Ease The Pain" until MTV Classic played it's stunning video the other day. Whatever I was doing at the time, I stopped to watch every second of it. This is easily one of the very best ballads of the '90s. When it was released back in 1991 Fisher kind of skyrocketed to success. She was the IT girl and was expected to follow "How Can I Ease The Pain" with years of equally gut-wrenching ballads. Her Grammy win for the track only reinforced that notion.
So where has Fisher been for the last 25 years? The answer is everywhere. She has toured, dueted, and provided backing vocals for Tina Turner, The Rolling Stones, Patti Labelle, Chaka Khan... you get the idea. She also does tour on her own and sounds even better live. Few songs from the '90s connect with heartbreak quite like "How Can I Ease The Pain".
"You take your road, I'll take mine The paths have both been beaten Searchin' for a change of pace Love needs to be sweetened I scream my heart out, just to make a dime And with that dime I bought your love But now I've changed my mind I'm not your fool Nobody's fool Nobody's fool I'm no fool"
Here's a nugget for all of you glam rock fans out there. Cinderella's debut album, Night Songs is more than 30 years old. THIRTY! Does that make you feel as old as it makes me feel? I'd say that Cinderella spent a few their early year's lost in a sea of fellow headbangers but when I looked back, they actually did chart pretty well. They were also innovative in that all of their first videos had a continuing storyline.
In their first video, "Shake Me" a Cinderella-type girl was transformed into a bad girl that hung with the band. Her wicked sisters (AKA the polka dot twins) were always nearby. "Nobody's Fool" picks up the story with Cinderella heading to practice with the guys but then leaving in order to make it home by midnight.
"Nobody's Fool" ended up being a really popular power ballad, with tons of radio play. MTV also had the video for it on an every four-hour loop for months. In an era where power ballads by glam rockers were everywhere, this song probably lands in my top five or six.
"Like children Rarely seen and never heard Emotion Bare your soul you'll never learn But don't ask why And you won't get lied to Speak to her softly It's something you get used to You think you know her But you never really lived a life without her"
The 80's might have been the start of the synth-pop boom but the genre of music continued to expand even into the 90's. I vaguely remember a group named Cause & Effect coming along and reminding me of all the reasons why I loved groups like New Order. Cause & Effect had a very similar sound but the vibe was a bit more progressive. "You Think You Know Her" heated up the dance floors in 1990 and while it only climbed to number 38 on Billboard's club charts I always thought that it had a really great sound. This is no doubt kind of a lost hit and I'm curious just how many of you will remember it.
Empty spaces, what are we living for Abandoned places, I guess we know the score On and on, does anybody know what we are looking for Another hero, another mindless crime Behind the curtain, in the pantomime Hold the line, does anybody want to take it anymore The show must go on
"The Show Must Go On" is probably one of my most favorite songs by Queen. It was recorded in 1990 at the height of Freddie Mercury's battle with full blown AIDS and there was concern that he wouldn't be able tp actually hit the necessary high notes. While the rest of the band may have thought that he was too weak to actually perform it Mercury knew better and pulled off the tough vocals in spite of his fading health. The song itself is filled with innuendo about Mercury's health and how change was pretty imminent.
The press had speculated that the legendary front man was ill but no confirmation of Mercury's HIV-positive status was ever given until the day before his death in 1991. "The Show Must Go On" was also released in 1991 and the video that accompanies it features the band performing together at various gigs over the years. Check out the late, great Freddie Mercury and the rest of Queen below.
She was up a stair to nowhere A room forever I'll remember She stared as though I should have known her Tell me what's your pain or pleasure Every little thing you find here Is simply for the thrill you're after Loneliness or hearts of fire I am here to serve all masters
In 1984 the Jackson family made a comeback of sorts, thanks primarily to the insane success of Michael Jackson. His Thriller release was the biggest thing out there and so it only made sense for the rest of the family to try and ride Michael's coattails. Their Victory album sold copies based on the two singles that Michael sang on. "Torture" was one of those and while it was met with mixed reviews, I remember it getting lots of airplay in my area.
The video for "Torture" was all glitzed out and Paula Abdul actually choreographed all of the dance moves. What's ironic is that while it was Michael's voice that prompted this song to climb the charts, his busy schedule prevented him from being in the actual video. Instead, he was replaced by a masked dancer that people knew wasn't really him. While it's not the best video around, I actually loved this song way back then and the video features all the components to make a great throwback.
"I want a girl with extensions in her hair Bamboo earrings At least two pair A Fendi bag and a bad attitude That's all I need to get me in a good mood She can walk with a switch and talk with street slang I love it when a woman ain't scared to do her thing Standing at the bus stop sucking on a lollipop Once she gets pumping its hard to make the hottie stop She likes to dance to the rap jam She sweet as brown sugar with the candied yams Honey coated complexion Using Camay Let's hear it for the girl she's from around the way"
There are some songs that are just so catchy that even if they aren't typically your style of music, you can't help but love them. I think LL Cool J's "Around The Way Girl" really falls into that category. I can't remember ever hearing anyone complain when it comes on the radio and even if rap isn't your thing, I'll bet you know at least some of the lyrics. Don't you? Of course you do. This is one of the first songs that featured some heavy duty sampling (Mary Jane Girls, The Honey Drippers) and it's an example of how sampling another song can add to the value of another artist's work. I've always had a soft spot for LL and this remains one of my favorite songs by him. Nothing wrong with looking for a streetwise chick, right?
I'm going to be really honest and tell you that I don't remember New Edition's "Can You Stand The Rain" when it was first getting radio play in early 1989. I think that I was firmly committed to hair bands by then. The song is from the quintet's album Heart Break, their first venture without Bobby Brown. It introduced us to Johnny Gill who does a fantastic job sharing lead vocals with Ralph Tresvant on "Can You Stand The Rain".
So anyway, I heard this song several months back during BET's three part special on the band (which really IS worth seeing) and couldn't tell which era of New Edition it was from. That makes it pretty timeless in my eyes and it also has all of the components of a top-notch slow jam. Check out the video below and tell me, who is your favorite of the guys!
