Professor Eddy

As I wrote earlier, sophisticated pop is a smooth, jazzy style of mainstream pop/rock that first appeared around the mid-eighties, although bands like Steely Dan did something similar earlier on. Artists, like Sade and The Style Council, merged jazz-soul characteristics with their music and made it extremely popular. It turns out to sound best on lazy days when the weather is extremely hot :-)

The track by Janis Siegel is from the new Too Slow To Disco compilation:
“There are one or two slightly over-schmaltzy moments but generally speaking these are late-night smoochers n' swayers of the highest order... soft focus, white wine and roses optional.” (Juno)

Enjoy this exclusive mix that I made for my loyal Boogie Bunker Radio listeners and Mixcloud subscribers!

Tracklist:

Jessie Ware – Remember Where You Are (2020)
Sinj Clarke – Unas Horas (2020)
Everything But The Girl ‎– Each & Every One (1984)
Folamour Feat. Liv East – I Miss Having Someone To Talk To (2020)
Sade – Never As Good A…

To celebrate my 600th cloudcast on Mixcloud and the beginning of summer, I made this sunny sophisti-pop mix. Enjoy!

Many popular sophisti-pop artists incorporated sweet pop-soul into their songs, which made them perfect material to play on pop as well on smooth jazz radio stations. Especially the typical eighties synthesizer sound made sophisti-pop a product of its time and by the beginning of the next decade, it had largely faded away, leaving us with quite a few really enjoyable tracks. Well-known names in this sub-genre are (apart from the ones that I selected) Black, Simply Red, Sade, The Style Council, Swing Out Sister, Prefab Sprout, and Everything but the Girl.

Tracklist:

Bodyline – Tender (2020)
Scritti Politti Feat. Miles Davis – Oh Patti (Don't Feel Sorry For Loverboy) (1988)
DeBarge ‎– I Like It (1982)
Jerry Corbetta – Caribbean Lady (1978)
Nohelani Cypriano – Island Boy (1979)
Matt Bianco ‎– More Than I Can Bear (1984)
Priscilla – Juste Un Kiss (2014)
Viktor Lazlo ‎– Sweet, S…

A soundtrack to a Californian road trip with a little bit of police trouble along the way… All songs are in the twilight zone somewhere between pop, rock and soul. Enjoy!

Canadian singer-songwriter R. Dean Taylor is one of the most underrated acts ever to record for Motown Records. Although he wrote lots of chart-topping singles, like Love Child for The Supremes, his own single Gotta See Jane received no promotion in the US, when it was released in 1967. It was picked up in Europe and it became a hit in the Netherlands and the UK. Only his song Indiana Wants Me was a top ten hit in both the US and UK, in 1970, but it did not reach the charts in the Netherlands. It came out on the Rare Earth label, formed by Motown in an attempt to establish itself in the rock music market. The police siren sounds at the start of the record were removed from some copies supplied to radio stations after complaints that drivers hearing the song on the radio had mistakenly pulled over, thinking that the …

Highly danceable grooves mostly from and a few inspired by the 1980s. Enjoy!

Recently percussionist, singer and composer Hamilton Bohannon passed away. After playing in a band with Jimi Hendrix and a brief period as a schoolteacher, he was recruited as drummer in Stevie Wonder's touring band in 1964. Three years later Bohannon started as the leader and arranger of Bohannon & The Motown Sound, who provided backing for many of the label's top acts on tour. When Motown Records moved to Los Angeles in 1972, Bohannon started a career of his own and became a cult disco legend. Especially his breaks on Let's Start To Dance are phenomenal. The track has been sampled and covered a dozen of times. In his hometown Newnan, Georgia, they named a street after him, the Hamilton Bohannon Drive.

Folamour about I Miss Having Someone To Talk To on Musictech:
“This song was inspired by how I felt during my last months in London. Back then, I was touring every day, playing close to 20 g…

Enjoy this seventies West Coast breeze for Mixcloud subscribers exclusively!

The second track was not made in the 1970s, but it sounds like it could have been. Beneath The Fireworks is from the EP, My Place To You by Indian folk funk band Easy Wanderlings:
“The over-arching theme is based on the people who selflessly give a part of themselves, their home, their body and soul to a loved one.” The San Francisco Christian Center was founded in 1954 and was one of the first churches to open its doors to disaffected hippies searching for a deeper spiritual substance in the dog days of the 1960s. This era saw the flowering of new, youth-driven forms of “Jesus music” that fused gospel messages with rock aesthetics, including the driving rhythms and charismatic delivery found in the work of modern soul stars like Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Al Green and Earth, Wind & Fire. Chief amongst these new-style gospel artists was the San Francisco-based Andraé Crouch, who was one of the inf…

Enjoy the seaside spirit! The track by Painel De Controle is from the excellent Latin disco album The Brazilian Boogie Connection: From Rio To Sao Paulo (1976-1983), out on Cultures of Soul.

Next up is a new part of Eddy's Eighties Grooves.

Tracklist:

Crystal Cola – Seaside Cocktail (2020)
Dianne Mower – The Secret Sign (1980)
Painel De Controle ‎– Relax (1979)
Astrud Gilberto – The Girl From Ipanema [Disco Version] (1977)
Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band – Sour And Sweet / Lemon In The Honey (1976)
Rose Royce – Still In Love (1982)
Roy Ayers – Aragon (1973)
Diesler – La Playas (2006)
Recloose Feat. Lisa Tomlins – Spinnin’ Out (2005)
Webster Lewis – Barbara Ann (1978)
Peven Everett ‎– Stuck (2006)
Chick Corea ‎– Central Park (1978)
Bernard Wright – Spinnin' (1981)
Skee-Lo ‎– I Wish (1995)

The tragic death of 31-year-old Minnie Riperton in 1979 silenced one of soul music's most unique and unforgettable voices. Her pop career began in 1961 when she joined a local group called the Gems, signing to the famed Chess label to release a handful of singles as well as lend backing vocals to acts including Fontella Bass, the Dells, and Etta James. In 1968, Riperton was installed as the lead vocalist of the psychedelic soul band Rotary Connection. In the beginning of the next decade she went solo and after a few years of struggling she became world famous when Loving You went to #1 on Billboard in 1975.

Enjoy this new Smooth Sailing trip, a prelude to warm summer days!

Tracklist:

Filó – Quero Pouco, Quero Muito (1983)
Tompi – Feel This Way (2019)
Barry Gibb – One Night (For Lovers) (1984)
Work Drugs – Down The Shore (2020)
Stylus – We All Need One Another (1976)
Sailor – Blame It On The Soft Spot (1974)
Ralph MacDonald – It Feels So Good (1978)
Marc Jordan – Beautiful People (1979)
Mi…