Mr. Mellow Presents Mellow Disco

Arnie & Donna having fun

For this mix I used the fictitious character of Mr. Mellow again. He likes to combine all kinds of mellow music and in this one he tries to wipe away the boundaries of mellow soul and mellow (yacht) rock. The outcome is a kind of mellow disco. It's Mr. Mellow's view that the (mellow) FM radio sound started around the mid-seventies and ended in the early eighties. Around 1982 daytime soft rock radio for a large audience disappeared and radio for target audiences began to take over. The influence of MTV became bigger and this kind of music wasn't made for television. The artists looked like civil servants instead of good looking playboys, like Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet. Adult oriented rock (AOR) radio eventually became ‘classic rock’ by the end of the decade, playing 'big hair' bands like Bon Jovi and Van Halen. But this mix isn’t about ‘classic rock’ at all. It’s more a ‘slick and groovy FM rock sound’. It’s the sound that Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones and Toto made perfect on ‘Thriller’. Perhaps ‘Thriller’ was also a reason why this ‘slick and groovy FM rock sound’ vanished. The album was the highest level possible (together with ‘Toto IV’ that came out in 1982 as well) and it could only go downhill after that.

In the 1970s Frankie Valli became a part-time member of the Four Seasons and he had a day off when 'Silver star' was recorded. It was quite successful in the slipstream of 'December 1963' ('Oh what a night'), although none of these Four Seasons were the original ones. Both songs were from their proto-disco album 'Who loves you', inspired by the R&B style of the Bee Gees at the time. On the album Valli did the lead vocals on the ballads 'Storybook lovers' and 'Harmony perfect harmony', but those songs sounded like throwbacks. 'Silver star', sung by drummer Gerry Polci, reached #14 on the Dutch charts and #38 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976. The lyrics of the song are about a dreamer who is only adventurous in his head, just like the protagonist in the movie 'The secret life of Walter Mitty​'. Great track!

Enjoy! Jingles by Geoff Barton.

Tracklist:

Maynard Ferguson – Mr. Mellow Intro
Barrabas ‎– Mellow Blow [Eddy’s ‘Love To Love You’ Edit] (1975)
Hot – Angel In Your Arms (1977)
Falqo – Sleepy Crusader (2015)
Patti LaBelle And Michael McDonald ‎– On My Own (1986)
Ahmed Fakrun ‎– Nisyan (1977)
Sneaker – Did You Order One? (1982)
Jim Croce ‎– Operator (That's Not The Way It Feels) (1972)
The Four Seasons ‎– Silver Star (1975)
Idris Muhammad – Could Heaven Ever Be Like This [Eddy's Edit] (1977)
Boz Scaggs ‎– What Can I Say [Northern Rascal 3AM Edit] (1976)
Sugarloaf / Jerry Corbetta ‎– Don't Call Us, We'll Call You (1974)
Rosie – There’s A Song In It Somewhere (1977)
Dionne Warwick ‎– All The Love In The World (1982)
Heat – Don’t You Walk Away (1980)
Marilyn Scott – Let’s Not Talk About Love (1979)
Greg Guidry – Going Down (2000)
Pratt & McClain – Whachersign (1976)
Michael Gonzalez – Love Is Forever (1980)
Pointer Sisters – Slow Hand (1981)
Al Johnson & Jean Carn – I’m Back For More (1980)

Mr. Mellow Presents Mellow Disco by Professor Eddy on Mixcloud