Tag Archives: dance music

Miquel Brown, So Many Men, So Little Time, 1983. As what some say was the first breakout hit of the post-disco Hi-NRG genre, So Many Men, So Little Time is considered to this day to be a gay dance classic. This, despite the fact that gay DJs nationwide ceased playing it upon the onset of the AIDS epidemic, as its …

808 State, Pacific State, 1989. Some point to this now-classic track as ushering in the era of “chillout house” and predicting the advent of Chicane, my favorite 90’s act. Pacific State reached #10 on the UK singles chart, a position 808 State would hit three more times with The Only Rhyme That Bites, In Yer Face, and the acid house …

Patrick Cowley, Megatron Man, 1982. I don’t even know how to begin a post about Patrick Cowley, the openly gay and still influential electronic music pioneer who so dominated the soundtrack of my early club life. Everything he released, from his collaborations with Sylvester (Do You Wanna Funk), Paul Parker (Right On Target), and Loverde (Die Hard Lover) to his …

Cabaret Voltaire, Sensoria, 1984. My roommate and I discovered this track because at the time we were buying just about any band that came out of Sheffield, England: Human League/Heaven 17, ABC, Pulp, etc – they just all seemed to be perfect to us. As I recall, there were two or three quite different versions of Sensoria – it took …

The Weather Girls, It’s Raining Men, 1982. On Tuesday, David Letterman’s band leader Paul Shaffer took an unusual turn as Dave’s guest to promote his new book, recounting an amusing chapter which highlights his co-writing of the gay disco anthem It’s Raining Men with the late (and brilliant) Paul Jabara, who died of AIDS in 1992. Jabara had won an …

Pat Benatar, Love Is A Battlefield, 1983. Written by Holly Knight and producer Mike Chapman (both of whom also co-wrote Tina Turner’s Better Be Good To Me), this was Benatar’s biggest and most enduring hit, reaching #5 on the pop chart, a height she later tied with the less memorable We Belong. The track earned Benatar a Grammy for Best …

(Tipped by JMG reader Sean Chapin)

Limahl, NeverEnding Story, 1984. The theme song to the movie of the same name, this one-off collaboration between openly gay former Kajagoogoo frontman Limahl and my all-time favorite producer Giorgio Moroder resulted in one of the most lovely dance tracks of its day. Moroder wrote the music and his frequent partner Keith Forsey wrote the lyrics. (Forsey won an Oscar …

Stevie Wonder, Do I Do, 1982. My favorite Stevie Wonder track (and that’s saying something), Do I Do was the summer song of that year, delivering ten minutes of beautiful, breezy jazz disco, ably assisted by the legendary Dizzy Gillespie. I have a vivid memory of dancing to this – in the sun, on an ocean pier, during t-dance in …

Hugh Masekela, Don’t Go Lose It, Baby, 1984. Yesterday’s post about Mory Kante reminded me of this huge hit from South Africa’s Hugh Masekela, who first charted in 1968 with his Grammy-winning #1 pop instrumental smash Grazing In The Grass, one of my favorite tracks from that era. Cowbells! The next year Friends Of Distinction covered Grazing and their almost-as-good …

Mory Kante, Yeke Yeke, 1988. With this global #1 hit, Guinean Mory Kante became the first African to score a million-selling single. The remix was a monster smash in gay clubs; my late pal Daniel literally broke his foot dancing to it at Miami’s Cheers, where DJ Danny Tenaglia often made it a cornerstone of his sets. In 1994 the …

Raze, Break 4 Love, 1988. A sexy classic of the early days of house music, Break 4 Love was a global smash, reaching #1 on the U.S. dance charts and topping out at #28 on the UK pop chart. Vocalist Keith Thompson had a falling out with producer Vaughan Mason (whom you might recall from his 1979 roller-disco hit Bounce, …

Edelweiss, Bring Me Edelweiss, 1988. Following the step-by-step instructions on how to create a pop smash as laid out in the KLF’s book, The Manual, three Austrian men teamed up with vocalist Maria Mathis to make Bring Me Edelweiss, a manic combination of fiddles, accordions, rapping, pop samples, ABBA and Indeep lyrics, and most notably, yodeling. Ruck. Sack. RUCKSACK. The …

Baltimora, Tarzan Boy, 1985. Baltimora was a six-man band from Italy fronted by Irish citizen Jimmy McShane, whom many wrongly believed was the entire act. McShane was not a musician or singer and was selected for band based on his flamboyant appearance and dancing abilities. In the video for Tarzan Boy, McShane is lip-syncing the vocals of Baltimora’s Maurizio Bassi. …

Erasure, A Little Respect, 1988. Although Erasure has had a whopping 35 Top 40 hits in the UK, including 15 that made the Top 10, this one was one of their only three singles to be pop smashes in the U.S., topping out at #14 a few months after their biggest stateside hit, Chains Of Love, peaked at #12. On …

J.J. Fad, Supersonic, 1988. This track made J.J. Fad the first female rap group to be nominated for a Grammy. Originally J.J. Fad stood for “Juana, Juanita, Fatima Ann Dania,” but after some member changes it was said to stand for “Just Jammin’ Fresh And Def.” Supersonic was a refreshing lighthearted tonic in the face of the nascent gangsta rap …

West India Company, Ave Maria (Om Ganesha), 1984. Bollywood playback singer Asha Bhosle teamed up with Erasure’s Vince Clarke and Blancmange’s Stephen Luscombe to create what I consider one of the all-time classics of 80’s club music. (On the 12″, Clarke is credited with “pyrotechnics.” Indeed.) This is easily one of the most obscure of these posts, but if you …

Pet Shop Boys, Domino Dancing, 1988. Last night at NYC’s Hammerstein Ballroom, Pet Shop Boys wove this, their lone foray into freestyle, into a fantastic medley capped by a surprisingly wonderful cover of Coldplay’s Viva La Vida. (Please PSB, put that out commercially.) Domino Dancing was produced by the then-red hot Miami freestyle king Lewis Martinee, who gave us Expose’ …

As I’ve mentioned here before, I’m not a fan, but I’m not NOT a fan. So I rather like this, particularly the bridge. Cameos from daughter Lourdes and boytoy Jesus Luz. UPDATE: Warner Music Group’s sales prevention team has pulled the video from YouTube.

Last night DC blogger Jimbo, Dr. Jeff and I made the 90-minute haul out to Coney Island to watch Donna Summer’s free concert at Seaside Park. And holy crap, what an enormous crowd. Easily the largest outdoor show I’ve ever been to. We couldn’t get within a half-mile of the stage and watched much of the show from a sidewalk …