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Showing posts from December, 2014

Last Disco Night Out Of The Year

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Shiny Disco Ball by Irene Miranda My way of saying farewell to 2014! Barry White, the ‘walrus of love’, is the master of slow disco. He was a disco pioneer by making ‘Love’s theme’ with Love Unlimited and many solo records in the mid-seventies. When disco reached its peak at the end of the seventies, White’s popularity was already declining. Many were copying his typical ‘slow disco’ sound at that time. He was rediscovered in the nineties when R&B and hiphop artists were sampling his work extensively. This is the perfect song to start the mix with. In a way it’s a sad soul song about a man with a broken heart. But it has some disco elements as well, because he wants ‘to dance the night away’ to forget about his girl. Let the music play and picture Barry White dancing… ;-) One of the best songs ever is 'The morning after' by Maureen McGovern. Songwriters Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn were asked to write the love theme for the movie 'The Poseidon Adventure' in on

AOR On The Radio Winter Edition

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Picture: New York Post Christmas is near, so I created some kind of festive bonus mix, although I did not select any traditional Christmas songs. It was made with the music from the excellent blog AOR Disco in mind. It is a new round of radio friendly songs in the AOR On The Radio series. I added a few old American radio jingles to enhance the feeling of listening to FM radio of the past. For this mix I chose a couple of international Dutch acts: Tiffany (not to be confused with the American 1980s teenage star), Anouk, Solution, Breeze and Maggie MacNeal. The latter was one half of the successful Dutch duo Mouth & MacNeal. Their biggest hit was ‘How do you do?’ that peaked at number 8 on the American Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. Two years later they became third in the Eurovision Song Contest that was won by Abba. After a quarrel the duo split and Maggie MacNeal went solo in 1975. The closing track by Australian singer/songwriter Doug Ashdown was released as 'Leave love e

Groovy, Sexy & Soulful Part 42 Funky Christmas Edition (For Shoko)

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Picture: The Guardian Enjoy the Christmas holiday edition of ‘ Groovy, sexy and soulful ’! A dedicated listener to my mixes, the lovely Shoko Kobayashi from Japan, asked me to create a Christmas mix and to be honest, I don't particularly like cheerful Christmas songs. So I wanted to have some sad songs on this cloudcast as well. Songs about wandering the streets alone at Christmas, just like the protagonists in the Charles Dickens stories. The track from Wham that we all know is one of those songs, although the lyrics are hopeful as well: George Michael has been deceived, but this year he will give his heart to someone special... Merry Christmas! Tracklist: Wham! – Last Christmas [Intro] (1984) The Whispers – Funky Christmas (1979) Ronn Matlcok – Back Street (1979) Franky & Jamo – Set Me On Fire (1978) Rocky Mizell & The Sugar Rock Band – Never Never Girl (1977) Tony Momrelle – Spotlight (2013) Mighty Ryeders – Evil Vibrations (1978) 10cc – Dreadlock

Eddy's 80s Grooves Part 12

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Picture: Jolene Faber Enjoy part 12 of Eddy's 80s Grooves ! 'I specialize in love' by Sharon Brown went to number 13 in the Dutch Singles Chart in the spring of 1982. It's one of the tracks on the latest LateNightTale s episode, called 'Automatic soul', compiled by Tom Findlay (Groove Armada). Ronika is also on the latest LateNightTales edition, singing the Dennis Edwards classic 'Don't look any further'. Perhaps one could say that she brings back the glamour of 1980s disco. The singer from Nottingham sounds a little bit like Madonna in her 'Borderline' days. She released one of the best albums of 2014 ('Selectadisc)' and is on tour with The Human League now. Check out her funny video that accompanies her great new single ' Marathon '! While working one night at Philadelphia International Records' recording base, producer T. Life overheard some tantalizing vocals coming from a washroom. There he discovered 16-yea

Disco Ball Days

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Picture by Murat Koc We're going back to the Disco Ball Days! ‘Fast Freddie The Roller Disco King’ by The Imperials (just like ‘Superfunk’ in my previous mix) is from a brand new compilation album, called 'Disco: A Fine Selection of Independent Disco, Modern Soul and Boogie 1978-82' that is released on Soul Jazz Records. It's a collection of rare and independent tracks from the heyday of disco (1978 to 1982), expertly compiled by Disco Patrick. Blurring the musical lines between disco, modern soul and boogie this double album features many exclusive and hard to find records from the era. Included here are in demand classics, such as The Fantastic Aleems featuring Leroy Burgess, John Gibbs and the US Steel Orchestra, rare P&P productions, Jessie G and 'The Easton Assassin' by The Sunburst Band (a 12” given out free at boxing matches!). The album goes with the massive new 360-page deluxe hardback book 'Disco – An Encyclopedic Guide To The Cover Art o