Professor Eddy

Burst Let’s end 2024 joyfully with a disco chart from December 1978! It is the Disco File Top 20 ranked from 20 to 1, according to one of the most popular American music magazines at the time, Record World . 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 record again with Van McCoy and a newly recruited Peaches, Linda Greene. Their first record flopped, but when Herb called his old friend Freddie Perren to help them out, the duo hit the big time. Their first single with Perren, Shake Your Groove Thing , went gold and their follow-up single, Reunited , earned triple platinum status and was nominated for a Grammy Award. Peaches & Herb stopped working together in 1983, after their success had declined. Robin Thicke has already been convicted of copyright infr...

Unsplash Let’s celebrate Christmas on Sunshine Radio !🌲😊 Princess Freesia recently released the single Do You Like It , but a few years back Rudolph came out: "It's a playful and slightly naughty take on the renowned, risqué and raunchy reindeer that is Rudolph, or as Freesia likes to call him, "RUDEolph"!" (Bandcamp) Probably one of the most tragic pop stars that has ever lived is now forgotten Scottish singer Lena Zavaroni. In 1974, at only ten years of age, she was the youngest person in history to have an LP in the top ten of the UK albums chart. Later she starred in her own television series, made numerous TV guest star appearances, and performed on stage. When she got older, she found it difficult to continue her singing career and she lost fun in life. She started to develop anorexia nervosa and became very depressed. Her success at a very young age seemed to hit her back like a boomerang. Following an operation to cure her depression, Zavaroni died a...

Pexels Enjoy this week's Billboard soul chart , ranked from 30 to 1 as a Mixcloud Exclusive ! It is funny to see that Lovely Day by Bill Withers, which is considered a soul classic nowadays, just slowly went to the top of the charts in 1977.  Bill Withers was a slow starter musically anyway. His debut album Just As I Am came out in 1971, when he reached already his mid-thirties. At that time he installed toilets in airplanes as a daytime job. After being in the music business for more than 10 years, Withers became fed up with executives telling him what to do. His last charting LP was Watching You, Watching M e, released in spring 1985. He then kind of retired, although his music became more and more influential. Bill Withers passed away in 2020. Next up is a special episode of Sunshine Radio for all listeners!🌲😊 Tracklist: Rose Royce – Do Your Dance Brothers Johnso n – Runnin’ For Your Love Heatwave – Boogie Nights Gladys Knight & The Pips – Sorry Doesn’t Always Make ...

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! Yacht rock flourished on the radio in the late 1970s, when the video era was just a small dot on the horizon, nothing to be scared of yet. As I wrote earlier, the next decade flashy MTV stars kicked all the yacht rock artists out of office. Only good looking guys who could handle electronics, like Daryl Hall and John Oates were able to compete with British new wave and would survive in the 1980s. Next up is Mixcloud Exclusive , followed by a special episode of Sunshine Radio for all listeners!🌲😊 Tracklist: The Doobie Brothers – It Keeps You Runnin' (1976) Ned Doheny – Guess Who's Looking For Love Again (1979) Randy Crawford – Half Steppin' (1977) Bill Champlin – Fly With Me (1978) Seals & Crofts – Summer Breeze (1972) England ...

Pexels To recreate the early 1980s radio feeling, I chose to play yacht rock tracks and pop hits, mixed with original radio jingles and air checks from the era. Around the mid-eighties ordinary looking guys like Christoper Cross were completely wiped away by glamours pop stars who seemed to be made for MTV, such as Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran and Adam Ant. “The video killed the radio star thing was absolutely true in my case”, Christopher Cross says in the recent HBO documentary about yacht rock. In 1976 American singer and entertainer Donna Lynton moved to the Netherlands, because of her Dutch boyfriend and later husband Charlie. A year later she began to release a few singles, of which Theme From Charlie's Angels became an instant hit. Her version of Marty Balin’s hit Hearts sounds quite reminiscent of Toto’s Africa . Nowadays known as a yacht rock phenomenon, the band Pages was disbanded after their third self-titled album in 1981, due to disappointing record sales. Main membe...

Benedict George Enjoy the soul chart from 20 to 1 on the last day of November 1974, according to one of the leading American music magazines at the time, Record World ! In 1974 disco started to shine through the soul charts. For instance, disco pioneers like George McCrae, Hues Corporation and Barry White were in the R&B top 20 on the last day of November in 1974. Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas was not exactly disco nor soul, but some kind of novelty pop song. It was a worldwide hit for the singer who had not been very successful up to then. The track was meant to be the b-side of Gamblin’ Man and because of that the musicians tried to make Kung Fu Fighting as funny as possible with lots of shouts and silly flute parts. The record company soon realized that they had gold in their hands and turned it into the a-side. The single, which was inspired by then popular martial arts films, was such an enormous success that it overshadowed the rest of Douglas' career.  When you lis...

Pexels Enjoy this soundtrack to late evening pleasure: listening to music on a comfortable sofa with a cocktail in hand, after a long day of seaside fun. To quote Gny: “Just take it easy and smile” Tracklist: Claude Fontaine ‎– Concha Do Mar (2024) Jon Lucien – Love Everlasting (1973) Fania All Stars ‎– Ella Fue (She Was The One) (1978) Cal Tjader ‎– Cuchy Frito Man (1966) Leroy Hutson – It’s Different (1975) Weldon Irvine – Morning Sunrise (1979) Michael Franks – Down In Brazil (1977) Robespierre – Summer Nights (2024) Young Gun Silver Fox – Moonshine (2023) Citrus Sun – Down For The Third Time (2024) Flamingosis – A Mile High (2018) George Benson – Midnight Love Affair (1980) Gny – Just Take It Easy And Smile (2018) Oilix Ft. Screen Jazzmaster – Los Angeles To San Diego (2021) Teddy Pendergrass – Close The Door (1976) Sons Of Champlin – For A While (1976) Incarnations – Let Love Find You (2010) Dusty Springfield – The Look of Love (1966) LTJ Xperience – And I Love Hi...

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, alth...

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 MacN...

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...