Professor Eddy

C-Heads Magazine This week we will sail along the Dutch West Coast and play some AOR, yacht rock & polder pop from the Netherlands. A lot of Dutch bands and musicians were influenced by the late seventies/early eighties West Coast sound, like so many artists elsewhere. “Perfect sitting down dancing music”, according to Questlove in an upcoming HBO documentary about yacht rock. In 1974 successful Dutch band The Cats went to L.A to record Love In Your Eyes with the best West Coast musicians around in those days, like keyboard player/producer Michael Omartian (Christopher Cross). Be My Day from the album became a number one hit in the Netherlands and reached the 18th position on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. A year later they again went to L.A. and made an album with Jeff Porcaro, David Foster and Larry Carlton as first class musicians. Unfortunately, both West Coast albums did not bring them the international success that they wanted and they split soon afterwards, altho

Pexels Enjoy this new show on Sunshine Radio ! 😊  The idea behind this cloudcast was to make an eighties radio mix with authentic air checks and jingles that really sound like that particular decade. I got inspiration when I worked with Martijn Soetens as The Smooth Operators on a similar project recently. Dutch producers and songwriters Bernard Oattes and Rob van Schaik used to call themselves The Limit and composed several great dance/pop tracks, for instance Love Take Over by Five Star and She's So Divine by Jan Akkerman. As a duo they released a full-length album in 1985, which contained their hit single Say Yeah with background vocals from Gwen Guthrie and David Sanborn on saxophone. For legal reasons they became Oattes Van Schaik, just before they released their album. Due to the confusion after their name change and the different titles of their album ( The Limit and Love Attaxx ), the sales were poor and the so-called "Dutch Hall & Oates" disappeared from

Alexandre Weiss A selection of the best aor, yacht rock and eighties inspired music in 2024 so far. Enjoy! Loved Up by seventies influenced singer Joel Sarakula is from his new album that will be out next week. You can hear echoes on it of yacht rock icons like Ned Doheny, Boz Scaggs, Todd Rundgren and Michael Franks. “Joel Sarakula's new album Soft Focus is a mid-career album spanning his many influences and genres including Soft-Rock, Funk and Indie Pop, all brought under the umbrella of his gentle gaze and a 'soft' aesthetic.” (Bandcamp) This cloudcast will become a Mixcloud Exclusive on November 5, 2024. Next time there will be a new show on Sunshine Radio ! 😊 Tracklist: Aspen Creek (Feat. Ole Børud & Lars Säfsund) – Tomorrows Girl Joel Sarakula – Loved Up Igor Gerzina & Anya Alu – Georgy Porgy Fonteyn – Jody Citrus Sun – Mister Mellow Garrett Adair – Saturday Sea Span – Harbor Lights Later – Baby, Come Over Tonight Base Stereo Club & Disco Bahia

Pexels Enjoy the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart, dated on October 25, 1975 and ranked from 20 to 1! There are quite a few pure soul tracks in this Billboard chart . An exception is Fly Robin Fly by Silver Convention that by today's standards is called 'disco' instead of 'soul'. The song was initially called Run Rabbit Run , but when German producers Silvester Levay and Michael Kunze heard a song on the radio called Run Rabbit , they changed it into Fly Robin Fly . The song with its sparse vocals, funky bass, hammering piano and repeating violins went to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number 5 in the Netherlands in 1975. After being a hit single almost everywhere, Levay and Kunze chose singers Linda G. Thompson, Ramona Wulf and Penny McLean to be permanent members of Silver Convention. The next year they had another huge hit with Get Up And Boogie . Then success started to fade. Tracklist: Joe Simon – Music In My Bones Labelle – Messin’ With My

Pexels Enjoy the Cashbox R&B Top 20 from October 25 1975 as a Mixcloud Exclusive for subscribers ! Natalie Cole's career had a jump-start on Capitol Records in the mid-seventies. After years of failing sales and performances due to a heavy drug addiction, Cole re-emerged as a pop artist with the 1987 album Everlasting and her cover of Bruce Springsteen's Pink Cadillac . In the 1990s, she re-recorded standards by her father Nat King Cole, resulting in her biggest success, Unforgettable... With Love , which sold over seven million copies and also won Cole numerous Grammy Awards. Tracklist: Jeff Perry – Love Don’t Come No Stronger Staple Singers – Let’s Do It Again B.T. Express – Peace Pipe Aretha Franklin - Mr. DJ (5 For The D.J) Commodores – This Is Your Life Pete Wingfield – #18 With A Bullet Joe Simon – Music In My Bones Esther Phillips – What A Diff’rence A Day Makes Silver Convention – Fly Robin Fly Smokey Robinson – The Agony And The Ecstasy Impressions –

Unsplash We all fade to grey, that is what this mixtape is all about! 😊 The tracks by Plastic Estate and Reeve Stimpson are brand new, but they recapture the 'new pop' sound of the eighties wonderfully. You have to watch Reeve Stimpson’s accompanying video on YouTube as well. The songs by Weekend and Chas Jankel are from the compilation Heaven Sent - The Rise Of New Pop 1979-1983 . The term ‘new pop’ was coined by NME journalist and co-founder of record label ZTT, Paul Morley. According to him it was any forward-thinking British music of the early 1980s that was anti-establishment in outlook and not ‘rockist’ (macho men with guitars) or clearly punky. I broadened his definition a little bit by adding some eighties (and new!) indie pop that sounds exactly like the music that Paul Morley originally had in mind. Peter Godwin started as one half of Metro in the 1970s (the other half was Duncan Browne, known for his classic The Wild Places ). The next decade he became a frontrunne

Helmuts Rudzitis Enjoy this new part of Smooth Sailing ! The opening track is a recent one by French band Later. The sound of Later is an eclectic mix of pop, soul, French touch, and rock, resulting in an intimate yet richly-produced musical experience, according to C-Heads Magazine. “This song is an invitation to prolong the warm summer evenings with your loved one, it’s all about desire and sensuality.” (C-Heads Magazine) Tracklist: Later – Baby, Come Over Tonight (2024) The Isley Brother s – Smooth Sailin’ Tonight (1987) The Doobie Brothers – You Belong To Me (1977) Chic – A Warm Summer Night (1979) Ahmad Jamal – Boat Ride (1979) Side Effect – Midnight Lover (1981) Tamiko Jones – Touch Me Baby (1975) Zwol – Southern Part Of France (1978) Sneaker – No More Lonely Days (1981) Bob James – Westchester Lady (1976) Fruitcake – My Feet Won’t Move (1980) Sunbear – I Heard The Voice Of Music Say (1977) Sun Sect – She's Hot (1984) Finis Henderson – Blame It On The Night (1983)

Ayo Ogunseinde A night at a club in New York City, like Studio 54, The Loft or Paradise Garage must have sounded something like this in the seventies and early eighties. Enjoy! The tragedy of The Jones Girls was that they made quality disco in an era when the popularity of the genre was fading. Shirley, Valerie and Brenda Jones never recaptured the moment they had at the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s. When record sales went down, lead singer Shirley Jones pursued a solo career and her wonderful ballad Do You Get Enough Love reached the number one position on the Billboard soul chart in 1986.  The track ASAP from The Jones Girls' 1981 album Get As Much Love As You Can is on this cloudcast. According to Bandcamp, the new album by Tuxedo will be out next month: "Bonding over a shared love of Parliament, Zapp and other signs in the greater funk Zodiac, Mayer Hawthorne (Aquarius) and Jake One (Taurus), collectively known as Tuxedo, return with their fourth studi

Unsplash Enjoy the most popular dance tracks in the epicentre of disco, New York, according to Billboard on the last day of September in 1978! In the series Disco: Soundtrack Of A Revolution Candi Staton told the BBC recently that the disco period was the best time of her life. Not only could she earn well, she could also sing about the topics she wanted to and not just about missing her man so much. After singing backup for artists like Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, and Solomon Burke and being a member of gospel band The Sweet Inspirations, Cissy Houston started a solo career in the late 1970s. Already in her forties, Whitney's mum made a couple of soulful, but not very successful disco LP’s with producer Michael Zager (best-known for Let’s All Chant ). After four disco albums she ended her singing career. Tracklist: Love Committee – Law & Order [A Tom Moulton Mix] Carol Douglas – Burnin’ John Davis & The Monster Orchestra – Ain’t That Enough For You Laura Taylor –

Unsplash Isn’t that what everybody wants? A smooth weekend? We deliver the soundtrack to it with our West Coast Weekend Special! Released in March 1977, Easy by The Commodores reached number one on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart and number four on the Billboard Hot 100. The song is a slow ballad about a man's emotions at the end of a relationship. Singer Lionel Richie states that he is not depressed about the break-up and claims that he feels "easy like Sunday morning". Jonathan Coulton did a good job to sound exactly like the original, which was his intention. Next up is a Mixcloud Exclusive for subscribers, followed by one for all listeners.  Enjoy your weekend! 😊 Tracklist: Yellowjackets Feat. Bobby Caldwell – Lonely Weekend (1985) Lil Albert – My Girl Friday (1976) Doobie Brothers – Another Park, Another Sunday (1974) John Mayer – Love On The Weekend (2017) Garrett Adair – Saturday (2024) Kacey Musgraves – Lonely Weekend (2018) Vance Joy – Saturday S

Andrey Zvyagintsev Enjoy the 20 most popular soul, disco and funk tracks according to Billboard on the 23rd of September 1978! At number 20 on this Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart is A Taste Of Honey’s debut single, Boogie Oogie Oogie , produced by the fabulous Mizell Brothers. It went to number one on various international pop, disco and soul charts. The single and self-titled album were certified double platinum in the USA and went gold in the United Kingdom and Japan. I remember the song being played a lot on national radio at the time, but for some reason it did not become a big hit and it never got any higher than number 34 in the Netherlands. At number 19, climbing from 25, is Let's Start To Dance by Hamilton Bohannon. After playing in a band with Jimi Hendrix and a brief period as a schoolteacher, Hamilton Bohannon 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

Ron Lach “For this format of the connoisseurs’ collection, Katie has gathered 24 of the smartest, deepest cuts in the Yacht canon, along with classic tracks from the masters of mellow.” (Demon Music Group) Last week I already played a track from the great new compilation album Katie Puckrik Presents A Yacht Rock Odyssey and this week there will be two more. Hold On by Steve Winwood and Lotta Love by Nicolette Larson are on the 4CD box as well. Montana-born Nicolette Larson began her musical career in San Francisco in the early 1970s. Moving south to Los Angeles to become a successful singer, she met Linda Ronstadt, who recommended her to Neil Young, when he was looking for backing vocalists. Larson got the call to head to his ranch and recorded vocals for his album American Stars ’N’ Bars . She also sang on his next LP, Comes A Time , which featured Lotta Love . That would become Larson's own signature song as included on her 1978 debut album Nicolette . It hit #1 on the

Joel Severino Enjoy part 7 of the series Sunny Breeze From The West Coast !  Recently Eminem sampled Land Of Milk And Honey from legendary Dutch duo Mouth & MacNeal, the B-side of their 1971 American Top Ten hit How Do You Do? Probably producer Dr. Dre bought the single as a kid and remembered it when he was looking for a sample. In 1979, a few years after their nasty split, Maggie MacNeal made a solo album with successful American producer Michael Lloyd (Lou Rawls, The Osmonds), which sold very well. A year later she came 5th in the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest. The track by Maxus is from the new compilation album Katie Puckrik Presents A Yacht Rock Odyssey . “ A Yacht Rock Odyssey has been curated by broadcaster, writer and performer Katie Puckrik into four separate musical voyages of discovery that are the epitome of smooth — gently funky grooves polished to perfection by blue chip session musicians and producers.” (Demon Music Group) Tracklist: Maggie MacNeal

Unsplash Enjoy the spacey sounds from the Dr. Who era! 😊 The other day I got inspired when I saw the movie Fly Me To The Moon about the first manned space flight with Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum in the leading roles. Space disco is the fusion of disco music with futuristic themes, sounds and visuals. This kind of music became popular in the late 1970s. It was heavily influenced by sci-fi movies and series like Star Wars and Star Trek and the growing popularity of electronic instruments. The main idea behind this subgenre was a musical or lyrical exploration of the wonders of outer space, and many bands often included robotic shapes, laser illumination and computer screens sequences in their live performances. The artists themselves often dressed in a way inspired by glam rock and somewhat futuristic fashion. They looked like astronauts on stage. The lyrics sometimes had some sexual innuendo too. Italo disco used quite a few elements from seventies space disco the next dec

Ahmet Cotur Enjoy familiar songs in a comfortable Latin jacket. Warm sounds for warm days! 😊 One of the first bands that recreated classic songs in a Latin arrangement was Nouvelle Vague. Their name, "new wave" in French, referred to the new wave music that they covered and to the French New Wave cinema movement of the 1960s. They often reworked songs in a “bossa nova” style, which means "new wave" in Portuguese. Explaining how the project came about, band member Olivier Libaux later told the BBC: "Marc Collin and I were both musicians and producers in the French music industry when, in 2003, Marc called me with this very strange idea of covering Love Will Tear Us Apart in a bossa nova version. I thought this idea was absolutely crazy but very exciting. So we decided to get into the studio and try it out as soon as possible." Olivier Libaux passed away in 2021. Next up is a Mixcloud Exclusive for subscribers, followed by part 7 of Sunny Breeze From The

Pexels Enjoy the songs that were hits, or at least should have been hits, in Europe and the US during the warm summer of 1979! The opening track by Bell & James is from the new compilation Thom Bell - Didn't I Blow Your Mind? The Sound Of Philadelphia Soul 1969 - 1983 , out on Ace Records. Both LeRoy Bell and Casey James had played in Special Blend before beginning to write songs together. At some point Bell's uncle Thom Bell got them signed to Gamble & Huff as songwriters for their Philadelphia International label. Through the years the duo composed for Elton John, MFSB, The O'Jays, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Freda Payne, Phyllis Hyman, The Three Degrees, and others. Eventually A&M Records took notice and signed them to a full album deal in 1978. Nobody Knows It is from their second album, Only Make Believe . Dance Awa y by Roxy Music was originally written by Bryan Ferry for his 1977 solo album In Your Mind , but did not make the final track listing. It

Wat is more fun than driving on a Sunday? Enjoy the ride! 😊 The singer of Dutch band Road was Nick MacKenzie (Nick van den Broeke). After leaving the group to pursue a solo career in the early 1970s, he scored a large number of hits in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, including One Is One , Juanita and Peaches On A Tree . He disappeared from view the next decade after his last hit single ( Hello Good Morning ) in 1980, but he suddenly came back into the news in 2015. He had been arrested for participating in a drug gang. He would later say that he had spent tons of money on women, gambling and drugs, because of his success at a very young age. Marty Balin who passed away a few years ago, is best known for his contributions to the pioneering San Francisco based, psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane in the 1960s. He also enjoyed quite a successful solo career, scoring a Billboard Top Ten hit with Hearts in 1981. The track by San Diego based Richard Bown can be found on the

Unsplash It’s time to put eighties subgenre sophisti-pop in the limelight again, just like Taylor Swift did when she mentioned The Blue Nile in her song Guilty As Sin recently. Enjoy! “Some of the sound’s hallmarks are jazzy chord changes, air-tight drums, splashy synth melodies, high-sheen production, and a decidedly non-rockist embrace of everything from slow-jam R&B to Brazilian music and ‘50s film scores.” (Jim Allen/Discogs) One of the tracks is from The Dream Academy. The self-titled debut album from the art-school trio led by lead singer/guitarist Nick Laird-Clowes was produced by him and David Gilmour (Pink Floyd). The band used lush string arrangements and multi-layered vocals to create a unique, sixties style sound. It worked to best effect on their hit Life In A Northern Town with its nostalgic lyrics and references to Frank Sinatra, The Beatles and The Walker Brothers ( Make It Easy On Yourself ). The song was written as an elegy to British folk singer Nick Drake, wh

Unsplash There is no doubt that the best musicians lived on the West Coast in the 1970s. Even Motown moved from Detroit to L.A. for a better creative climate. So no wonder that the West Coast sound was flourishing those days! The Keane Brothers were a duo of teen brothers from L.A. who released four albums and briefly hosted a television variety show on CBS. DJ Supermarkt wants You’re Running Away , produced by David Foster and Lamont Dozier, from their album Taking Off , on one of his future Too Slow To Disco compilations. The problem is that he has not been able to get it licensed yet. The rights are not clear, according to Universal, the owner of ABC Records. DJ Supermarkt will perform in my home town Groningen on the 13th of September, by the way. He will be one of the acts during the Rooftop Sessions at Forum Groningen. Although he kept on recording for more than 40 years, Dutch singer Albert West was most successful early in his career, around the mid-seventies. He had a string

Unsplash Enjoy these tracks that are meant for the days that you wish it was a little cooler… 😊 I chose to play a chillout mix of Spiller’s Groovejet by Breakbot & Irfane that came out two years ago. The initial instrumental version of the song was first played in a Miami based club, called Groove Jet, later Sophie Ellis-Baxtor was asked to add vocals on it. Cristiano Spiller told British newspaper The Guardian: “This was one of the fastest tracks I ever produced. It was 1999, the night before I was due to fly to Miami for the Winter Music Conference, where all aspiring DJs and producers went. I was trying to stay awake for my early-morning flight and put on an unreleased version of Carol Williams’ Love Is You. I ended up sampling it and, in a couple of hours, I had Groovejet more or less written.” Tracklist: Emma Hoet & Molitor – Sucré Salé (2024) Bonus Points – Life At Sea (2016) Kenneth Bager Feat. Findlay Brown – Stones And Steel (2019) Sweatson Klank – Kiss In The Sh

Unsplash Enjoy the most popular disco songs in the summer of 1981, according to Billboard ! Tracklist: Thelma Houston – If You Feel It B.B. & Q. Band – On The Beat Kraftwerk – Pocket Calculator Vin Zee – Funky Bebop Change – Paradise Suzy Q – Get On Up And Dance Material Feat. Nona Hendryx – Busting Out Billy Ocean – Stay The Night Two Man Sound – Capital Tropical Voggue – Dancin’ The Night Away France Joli – Gonna Get Over You Karen Silver – Set Me Free Denroy Morgan – I’ll Do Anything For You Grace Jones – Pull Up To The Bumper Cheryl Lynn – Shake It Up Tonight Boys Town Gang – Remember Me / Ain't No Mountain High Enough Barbara Roy And Ecstasy, Passion And Pain ‎– If You Want Me Gino Soccio – Try It Out Evelyn King – I’m In Love Rick James – Give It To Me Baby

Unsplash Enjoy this little trip to the West Coast! 😊 Sadly Angela Bofill passed away recently. In 1978 her debut album Angie came out. With her strong, distinctive alto, she turned out to be an outstanding interpreter of jazzy soul ballads. Between 1978 and 1984, Bofill had consistent success on the American soul charts, with six albums making the Top 40, including two that entered the top ten. During this period, seven of her singles reached the Billboard R&B Top 40 as well. Bofill’s career went downhill after 1984. She was then dropped by her record company Arista in favour of Whitney Houston, who could conquer the pop market as well. In 2006 and 2007 Angela Bofill suffered two strokes. Because she had no health insurance, a benefit concert was organized to pay her hospital bills. Dutch singer Albert West was nicknamed the Cover King by the Dutch press, but he had quite a few hits that were originals. One of his cover songs was Just One Of Life's Little Tragedies , which re

Quality disco took over the Record World soul chart on this day in 1979! 😊 At the time Record World was one of the three main music industry trade magazines in the United States, along with Billboard and Cashbox. Lou Rawls surely will be remembered as one of the best singers of all time, but when I saw an Unsung documentary about him, I was a bit shocked. Although he was famous for his charity work, he could be quite violent to his family. It even got to the point that he beat up his wife for 3 and a half hours and she had to be taken to hospital. He was not a pleasant man to work with either and he always wanted to be in control. In that perspective the song title Let Me Be Good To You sounds a bit ironic. Peaches and Herb were known as the sweethearts of soul during the 1960s and had a string of hits, most notably Let’s Fall In Love in 1966. When the hits dried up, they decided to quit the music business. Herb Fame became a police officer, but after a few years he started to re

Pexels Enjoy this Sunshine Radio chart rundown from 20 to 1! Disco came knocking on the door of the Billboard Hot Soul Singles Chart of July 12th 1975 with Van McCoy’s The Hustle at number one. However, most of the songs were from veteran soul and funk acts, like Gladys Knight & The Pips, the Four Tops, Ben E. King and the Isley Brothers. The story of the Isley Brothers is quite remarkable. In 1959, when they first charted with Shout , they were contemporaries of rock ‘n’ roll legends like Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley. In the 1960s, the group recorded songs for a variety of labels, including Twist And Shout (later covered by The Beatles) and the Motown single This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You) , but they could not find a real style of their own yet. In 1969 they released the Grammy Award-winning hit It's Your Thing on their own label, T-Neck Records. The next decade the brothers were at the peak of their career, when they reinvented themselves a

Unsplash The Smooth Operators (Martijn Soetens and I) play yacht rock songs that you must have heard at least once in your life! We present some real yacht rock classics and yacht rock songs that we think should have been classics. Enjoy! 😊 Fire On The Water by Jesse Colin Young is a timeless blend of his signature folk-rock sound, supported by Michael McDonald’s iconic piano and voice. The song from his 1982 album The Perfect Stranger is a reflection on life’s challenges and the resilience of the human spirit. Young told about playing with Michael McDonald: “What can I say… Michael McDonald is a genius… What a pleasure it was to work with him.” Tracklist: Jesse Colin Young – Fire On The Water (1982) James Taylor – Woman’s Gotta Have It (1976) Pure Prairie League – I Can't Stop This Feelin' (1980) Robert Byrne – Pretend He's Me (1979) Ambrosia – Livin' On My Own (1980) Larry Carlton – Wavin' And Smilin' (1977) Nielsen/Pearson – If You Should Sail (1980