late night love songs

if you're in the mood, or trying to attract someone's attention, you might text the name of your loved one to one of the numerous music channels and get a request played. but they need to be aware that you're doing so or they'll be watching one of a hundred other channels - which misses the point, and the element of surprise. this was one of the good things about local radio.

local radio djs were smooth. they played soothing sounds that you wouldn't normally hear on daytime radio. they didn't try to be cool - if it was popular, they played it.

people do still listen to the radio, and its a lot less tricky in these days of dab stations, which have removed the need to stand in front of the radio holding the aerial up at funny angles to get a decent reception.

twenty years ago, if you sent out a similar request on a late night radio show, you could be reasonably certain that either the intended recipient or at least one of their friends, would hear it. the song we chose for our dedication was most likely sophisticated beyond our years. even though we did have younger artists in the 80s, like five star, new edition, debbie gibson and countless others, most soul music was adult. we were listening to artists singing about relationships, emotions and situations we couldn't possibly understand.

so, as a result, instead of the obsession with youth that appears to start as early as age ten nowadays,we actually wanted to be older. thirty, to be precise. thirtysomethings were glamorous and the had the kind of lifestyle I looked up to. they went to clubs, restaurants, had exotic holidays, exciting friends and dramatic relationships. john hughes movies aside, most popular 80s tv shows and movies, bar those specifically produced for kids, focused on older characters, not those that still lived with their parents.

so ironically, I wanted to be the age I am now, twenty years ago, and now that I am, I'm made to feel like I should want to be younger. but i don't - the thought of being someone who didn't grow up in the 80s and experience real life terrifies me much more than getting older.

late night dedications - download here

alexander o'neal - if you were here tonight
his first solo single, and classic.

anita baker - caught up in the rapture
apparently inspired mary j blige to become a singer.

controllers - stay
typical 80s slow jam.

eugene wilde - gotta get you home
later sampled/covered by foxy brown and blackstreet.

force md's - tender love
later covered by cockney soul boy kenny thomas.

freddie jackson - rock me tonight
what happened to freddie?

gap band - yearning for your love
one of those songs you've heard before...but didn't realise.

george benson - in your eyes
from smooth jazz to weepy ballad.

gregory abbott - shake you down
very popular last dance at many an 80s club.

isley brothers - choosey lover
this was later covered by aaliyah.

janet jackson - let's wait a while
slightly different version from control the remixes - more tinkly.

kool and the gang - cherish
anyone from the uk remember anton singing this on popstars the rivals?

luther vandross - so amazing
vintage luther. tribute version by beyonce and stevie wonder.

melisa morgan - do me baby
prince cover, actually think i prefer this version.

midnight star - slow jam
one of the first 80s slow jams - covered later by usher and monica.

school disco

who can forget school discos...now, I'm not talking high school prom style antics with spiked punch and big meringue dresses battling for supremacy on the dancefloor. quite frankly, in the uk, school discos are best left alone past the age of 12. although I do remember a gcse leaving party that saw our entire year get lashed with the enthusiastic support of the teachers, who looked fairly trolleyed themselves.

at this particular event I drank almost an entire bottle of malibu and you can imagine the rest. however, this example is out of context. in fact, real school discos, the ones people remember fondly, took place much earlier, at junior school in the mid-late 80s (for us anyway). and i did get my coconut fix then too but it was a long lost fizzy pop called coco pina.

authentic junior school discos had several essential elements - boys, girls, the assembly hall, the tuck shop. it would be decided days, possibly weeks in advance, who you would dance with. you would be jealous of the people who lived near school, as they would be allowed to walk home without their parents arriving to embarrass them.

seeing people out of their school uniform was hilarious.


the boys adopted a miami vice look complete with hawaiian shirts for the brave, or rolled up sleeves on pastel coloured suits with contrasting t-shirt. mullets of course, were present, as were spiky hairdos and wham style big hair. i always remember a ginger classmate who had no luck with girls, turning up in a leather jacket, clearly in a bid to impress. 'oh yeah i always dress like this out of school...'

the girls, well, anyone who thinks fashion obsessed 10 year olds are a new phenomenon clearly didnt attend school in the 80s. witness a spectacular array of outfits we screamed and nagged our way to. i think for my first junior school disco we all dressed as madonna - lace, fingerless gloves, leggings, backcombed hair. basically as close to the above picture as possible. then came the chino invasion and we posed in our little pastel coloured chino skirts and logo tops.

download your step by step guide to the 80s junior school disco

a-ha - take on me

hmm, not quite sure how to dance to this one. probably why the dj played it as everyone was arriving...and wishing they'd worn something else. i didn't see any peach chino skirts in tammy, where did she get that from?

rick astley - never gonna give you up

things are warming up a bit now but you'd have to really want to dance to this song whilst everyone else is in their collective gangs, checking that everyone they fancy has turned up and eating refreshers in case someone kisses them later.

madonna - la isla bonita

the £40-a-night dj, obviously used to better audience participation in the social clubs he usually plays in, banks on anything madonna to get the girls onto the dancefloor. it works.

billy joel - uptown girl

the song that used to require everyone standing in a line with their arms linked, walking from side to side kicking their legs out like drunk uncles at a wedding. don't be fooled by the proximity, this was as friendly as it would get.


mel and kim - respectable

stragglers - this dance is easy, you've no excuse. just strut up and down like a supermodel and leave the fancy bit to the pros. the first couple of the night get together (and do nothing) in the curtains, and another girl starts crying.

nu shooz - i can't wait

now the dj targets the boys, most of whom have been lingering waiting 'for something good to come on'. 80s discos rarely played proper breakdance music so this would suffice. a couple of hawaiian shirts would start walking towards each other and a circle would form. he's going to ruin those white trousers....

bros - i owe you nothing

before someone injures themselves, the dj puts on some girl friendly boy pop and the dancefloor fills up again. the shadow of someone throwing up outside after too many cola cubes can be clearly seen through the assembly hall curtains.

pepsi and shirlie - heartache

you were likely to have a dance made up already for this. you are outraged to find that groups of girls across the entire school have copied your moves. you have spent the last eight lunchtimes practising for nothing.

wham - i'm your man

several of the boys, high on too much cherryade, will do a bizarre chest-pounding, lionistic tour of the dancefloor and the decent looking ones will get groups of adoring girls dancing along with them, whilst the others will just get booted off the dancefloor.

tiffany - i think we're alone now

ok girls, this is your last chance to look cool. if you fail, you will end up crying into the curtains whilst someone else dances with your man.

whitney houston - saving all my love for you

this is it, the erection section. except, you don't quite know what that means yet. if you're dancing with someone, try not to look too smug. if you're not, grab a friend and waltz ironically, pretending not to care that someone else got your man. there's always next term...

don't call them new jill swing

when new jack swing started to falter, a new influx of girl groups, including swv, appeared circa 1992, along with mary j blige, and were hailed as 'new jill swing'. see what they did there?

this was in fact a misleading label as the music these girls were making wasn't a feminised new jack sound. it was in fact far grittier, and more likely to take its cues from naughty by nature than guy. another labelling hiccup occurred when, logically, since their names begin with a 't' 'l' and 'c', you guessed it, that was to be the group's name before the eventual tlc beat them to it within a matter of weeks.

most of these girl groups, in order to compete in the g-funk era, were forced to dress and act like men. gone were the lyrca minidresses and heels. in with the homegirl persona and lumberjack shirts. swv didn't go down this route. maybe because they were still in high school, and hadn't developed the right kind allure to carry it off. they were far from ugly, but its fair to say swv would never have been accused of possessing looks over talent.

coko, lelee and taj may have been young, but i had no idea at the time. they sang like women, in contrast to left eye's cute rapping for tlc. they dressed older than their years, unlike jade, who appeared to still be hanging out with the underage street crowd. they weren't too cool, which made them real. years later, their songs sound fresh.

their accessibility saw them enjoy huge success until their split in 1998. coko then embarked on a solo career, to lukewarm success. taj married a dallas cowboys footballer and currently has a reality show amusingly titled 'i married a baller'. lelee recently revealed that the group received little financial reward for their work and that she's been struggling to stay afloat since the group split. sound familiar?

twelve swv essentials - download here

right here

their most famous track has many versions. the most ubiquitous is definitely the michael jackson sampling human nature mix, but this g-man mix is probably lesser known and proves there was more to the song than good sampling.

i'm so into you

again, there were several versions of this track - the original and allstars mix are widely available, but this teddy riley mix featuring wreckx-n-effect bumps along nicely. the first swv track i ever bought.

weak

the original ballad is nice, but this remix is perfect midtempo 90s jeep music. it had stuttering beats before timbaland invented them and twittery, electronic background vocals. should be on every chillout playlist.

anything

again, the original is ok but this remix, featured on above the rim, with the wu-tang clan, is something else. i defy you not to dance if you hear this in a club.

can't cope
an unreleased track which sounds early 90s to me so probably a leftover from 'it's about time'. nice production, this has become one of my favourites.

all night long
featured on the waiting to exhale soundtrack, this is one of swv's best slow jams.

use your heart
this version is a duet featuring rome. a young pharrell williams produced this, and several other tracks on swv's second album 'a new beginning'.

mystery
another unreleased track, very unusual arrangement and I'm wondering why this failed to get past whichever album session it was recorded in.

can we
from 1997's booty call soundtrack, this is one swv's most popular tracks.

tell me how you want it
another soundtrack contribution, this time from the money talks soundtrack.

rain
i'm not sure many people realise this is actually a cover of an 80s vesta williams track. this is one of those rare times when the cover is better.

where you are
a jackson five cover for the hav plenty soundtrack. i prefer this version to wacko's pre-teen squeaking.

00s brit soul - national identity

finally, after the copycat 80s and highs and lows of the 90s, british soul was ready to take on its own identity.

one of the first ways in which it achieved this was by redefining soul. house and garage were big business in the 90s, but the urban clubs and superclubs rarely mixed. typically, r&b was a smaller room adjacent to the the cheesier, townie clubs and didn't even get a look in at cream, renaissance and the ministry of sound.

the speed garage scene that took off in the late 90s eventually slowed to a two step beat, and created a completely new sound. r&b vocals were married to stuttering, club-friendly beats and for a few years, between 1999 and 2002, uk garage was the sound of young UK.

after the inevitable drop in demand, uk hiphop and r&b were faced with a decision. either they could continue to emulate their US counterparts or they could use elements of uk garage to make their output distinctly british.

now we have traditional soul, copycat r&b, grime and some artists that defy classification and confuse the hell out of the yanks. we're back in business...

twelve very different uk tracks from the 00s - download here

lemar - if there's any justice

the only good thing to come out of the dull fame academy, simon cowell surely wishes he'd been able to get to lemar first. lemar, like girls aloud, has truly transcended his reality show beginnings and is pretty much the best current british male r&b act.

misteeq - why
south london girl band who leveraged links with the so solid crew to create a successful career in the early 00s. swiftly shook off their uk garage roots by the time they reached their second album in 2002. the group split largely due to their label, polydor, sinking after investing way too much in tone deaf victoria beckham. that's got to hurt.

unklejam - love ya

relative newcomers who have been blessed/cursed with the 'sounds a bit like prince' tag. time will tell if there is more to them than this track, but the odds are in their favour with the hype reaching all corners of the globe right now. another myspace success.

sadie ama - so sure

shola's little sister had a valuable induction into the industry at an early age, and she's making some good choices production-wise, collaborating with the likes of kano and terror danjah amongst others. looks and sounds exactly the same - with shola expected to relaunch anytime soon, could be interesting.

conner reeves - oughtabelaw
irish soul boy who first came to prominence in the late 90s. this track from last year deserved way more attention. possibly one of the breed of artists that has suffered greatly from the download revolution as his image doesn't quite fit his music. i always think people navigate this poor fit by just grabbing the audio.

emmanuel and terri walker - flirtin'
always tipped to break through. hopefully it will happen for her before she is talked into a beverley knight-style commercial compromise. this track is from emmanuel's 2006 project that featured numerous british soul artists on his productions.

keisha white - open like so
came through around the same time as keyshia cole, and is far more talented, but received about 5% of the promotion. so, keyshia collaborates with p diddy and is set to release her second album whilst keisha's future is unknown. harsh. a good example of why leona lewis has been whisked off to the us.

nate james - universal
actually received some promotion around his debut in 2005, and it did ok. i'm going to be lazy and say he's a hybrid of stevie wonder and lenny kravitz and worthy of your attention. hopefully an association with next big thing, sway, will catapult him back into the limelight.

craig david - seven days with mos def
back in 2000, referring yourself in the third person was even more ridiculous than it is now. the ensuing bo selecta parody may outlive his music in the nation's consciousness if he doesn't pull his finger out soon. craig, unfazed, still refers to himself in the third person when appearing on mtv cribs showing us how all his cash has enabled him to construct a state of the art pulling den. no women in sight though, and you can't swing a jocasi bag round london without hitting someone he's tried it on with.

ms dynamite - fall in love again

made a good contract choice and got the promotion other uk artists would kill for. this resulted in numerous awards for her debut album which, although nice enough, sounds dated only five years later. this track, from her largely ignored second album, will hopefully age a bit better.

spl2rge - scuse me
like unklejam, appear to be on the verge of big things, promotion notwithstanding. i never hold my breath on these things anymore.

taio cruz - i just wanna know
mario soundalike who can't be accused of trying to create a british identity. which is fair enough. we don't want to end up like the irish, who have to be irish all the time.

jack your body

for the under 25s, new jack swing is a hazy childhood recollection. it's a young will smith running on the spot as the fresh prince of bel air, dwayne wayne after a few too many alize's at the campus club in a different world.

new jack swing was the natural progression from slick yet laidback jheri soul, thrown into the 90s by adopting faster beats for crowds getting used to the more hectic pace of the house and garage scene.

of all the retro revivals, its difficult to see the flat top, loud clashing hammer pants and two tone shirts making a comeback to the fashion world. although it would be a laugh to see desperately trendy 16 year olds looking so ridiculous in the pursuit of fashion. i would definitely invoke the 'if you remember it the first time round...' rule and leave the girls' lycra minidress and bubble perm well alone.

the music however, was the most futuristic that r&b had sounded until timbaland turned the entire genre on its head in the late 90s. it was criticised at the time, like jheri soul, for being over-produced, and strangely, sounds about right listened to now. anyone who's anyone tried their hand at the sound though, and there's nothing that date's a genre so effectively as joey lawrence, nkotb, debbie gibson and those damn turtles.

for the real deal, check for those reruns of house party, in living color and new jack city.

twelve hi top fade anthems - download here

al b sure - if i'm not your lover

fondly remembered, mostly for this track and the dreamy/bouncy late 80s track 'night and day'. about to launch a radio show called 'the secret garden', full of slow jams and celebrity insights. sounds unintentionally hilarious, i can't wait!

basic black - she's mine

almost one-hit wonders, this is the remix club version. also check out 'special kind of fool', a popular ballad.

bel biv devoe - do me

now the new edition veterans were all grown up, and claimed their rightful place alongside bobby brown as new jack swing pioneers, with this, their second single after the hugely successful debut, 'poison'.

father mc - lisa baby

popular track, in its remixed form, from the band known mostly for '69'. yes that masterpiece of subtlety. father dropped the 'mc', like hammer before him, and went on to duet with a young mary j blige.

guy - i wanna get with you

so many guy tracks, so little time. the band were established by the time this was released, having practucally invented new jack swing a few years earlier.

keisha jackson - mama told me

one of the few girls on the new jack scene, before swv, tlc and jade came along and were labelled as the new jill swing invasion. i actually wasn't sure that keisha was a girl, until recently....oops! in fact i'm pretty sure i used to confuse her with tevin campbell.

mantronix and jade trini - don't go messin' with my heart

hiphop and electro were kurtis mantronik's comfort zones but even he got in on the action in 1991. this track, more obviously than keisha's somewhat masculine effort, gave a much needed injection of girlieness to the proceedings.

mariah carey - someday remix

mariah was new to the scene in 1990 and whilst she was gaining a reputation for her soaring vocals and that whistle register, she already had one eye on the club scene and drafted in shep pettibone, 80s remixer extraordinaire.

ready for the world - yo that's a lot of body

a brash yet bubbling bassline and jacking beats give way to vocals that creep and you can just imagine rotfw bogling next to you in the club...still, can't imagine a njs set without it.

rythm syndicate - p.a.s.s.i.o.n

had two hits then disappeared. used to get regular play on mtv and like so many others before and since, labelled as 'that group who sound a bit like prince'.

samuelle - so you like what you see

originally part of club nouveaux, samuelle released one solo new jack album in 1990.

today - him or me

had actually been recording as 'the gents' during the 80s, but a chance meeting with new jack supremo teddy riley proved fortuitous after years of flops.

the queen of hip hop soul?

how have i got this far without doing a post on mary?

mary j.blige isn't labelled the queen of hiphop soul lightly. when she arrived in 1992, the only artist that had even come close to what she did when she debuted were en vogue. they too mixed hiphop beats and soul vocals, but they did so without being street. en vogue merely used the beats - mary was the beats. she was hiphop, she just didn't choose to rap.

growing up in yonkers, she was surrounded by pioneering hiphop such as run dmc and grandmaster flash. but the sentiments of these artists didn't match the experiences of a teenage girl. mary sought solace in soul artists like anita baker who sang about realtionships and wanting someone you can't have. it was the synergy of these two cultures that would later give mary her edge.

when i first saw 'real love' on mtv in 1992, everything made sense. i liked hiphop and i liked soul but they didn't individually feel that relevant to me. i was too young to fully appreciate smooth soul productions and too far removed from the realities of hiphop lyrics. mary sang about things i could relate to as a 16 year old and added a touch of danger. it was a genre of music i had been waiting for, only i didn't know it.

many fans have stated that mary produces her best work only when she's suffering. true, her first two albums are my favourite but at the time i knew nothing about her personal demons. in fact her last studio album, 'the breakthrough' echoed those days, but she is now blissfully happy with producer kendu. i'm sure no one would really wish trainwreck kci hailey on her again...

ten lesser known mary tracks - download here

you remind me

even though this was her first single, fans who joined the mary train later in the 90s won't be so familiar. this remix captures the essence of 1992 and a summer day like nothing else.

reminisce

another hit from 'what's the 411', remixed to feature pete rock and cl smooth and grab portions of 'they reminisce over you'. see what they did there?

changes i've been going through

'what's the 411' album track that really drilled the message home - this was not soul music in the traditional sense.

you don't have to worry

411-era track from the 'who's the man?' soundtrack. this is the soundtrack version, not the remix version that was more widely available.

love no limit

so ubiquitous you would have thought it was a single. bad boy remix that still gets played out today.

be with you

duet with lauryn hill originally intended for the 'my life' album. lauryn sounds young. at the time she had just released her first fugees album with pras and wyclef.

if i don't love you this way

cover of jackson five classic from the 'my life' era. included on some international releases.

everyday it rains

from the 1995 'the show' soundtrack. sounds like it could have been from either of the the sessions for the first two albums.

get to know you better

'share my world' album track. should have been released.one of my favourites.

he think i don't know

from the 'no more drama' repackage.

more 80s soundtracks

can't get enough of 80s movies at the moment. nostalgia can be indulgent but sometimes you're just fed up with the real world, or, you just prefer the music and movies of another time.

now that i have worn out and/or broken most of my sex and the city dvds, i find myself watching an 80s movie to wind down.

i wonder if, in the future, there'll be a place you can go to where to all intents and purposes, it's the 80s, or the 70s or whatever era you feel like living in. yes, one of the last 80s films i watched was back to the future.

ten more 80s soundtracks - download here

beverly hills cop (1984)

junior - do you really want my love

**bonus**vanity 6 - nasty girl

forget 'axel f' i think we can safely say its forever ruined by a crazy frog. junior was a uk soul singer whose only real hit was the growly 'mama used to say'. vanity 6's biggest hit was, for purple reasons, left off the soundtrack. the film? well if the only eddie murphy you know is the sorry fortysomething player who fathers children with desperate spice girls, you need to get this and coming to america and find out why he's even famous in the first place. get raw and delirious while you're at it as well, i hear they just came out on dvd.

ferris bueller's day off (1986)

yello - oh yeah

how does matthew broderick look the same now as in 1986? anyway, who can forget this scene - battered and defeated headmaster, ed rooney, resigned to catching a school bus. earlier he declared, 'i did not achieve this position in life by having some snot-nosed punk leave my cheese out in the wind'. like the breakfast club before it, ferris delighted in watching authoritative adults sink under the delusion that they were smarter than sassy 80s kids. i loved the character cameron in this movie. check out jennifer grey before dirty dancing and that nosejob as ferris's sister jeannie.

ghostbusters ii (1989)

bobby brown - on our own

copyact sequel, but an opportunity for young bobby to cement his growing popularity. this track hasn't engraved itself on the memory like ray parker jr's effort but it was huge in 89. he did provide another song for the soundtrack but...its awful. and i'm a huge bobby fan. don't try to track it down. think vanilla ice and those ninja turtles and be glad you left well enough alone. the film is exactly the same as the first ghostbusters - bill murray, big marshmallow baddies who threaten to eat new york. ok there might be slightly more to it than that...but not a hell of a lot.

krush groove (1985)

sheila e - a love bizarre

kurtis blow - if i ruled the world

if you're a fan of 80s hiphop, this soundtrack is worth seeking out, although it probably doesn't exist on cd. the story follows def jam's early days and features sheila e, ll cool j, beastie boys and new edition amongst others. it also stars a young blair underwood. as in the fit doctor miranda dates in the last series of sex and the city. the fit, rich doctor who can cook but also buys her pizza and a cookie that says 'i love you'. which sends her running back to broke barman steve. i'm sorry, i loved that show but COME ON that would never happen. he was too good for her - oh, ok i'll calm down now....

top gun (1986)

teena marie - lead me on

the rest of the soundtrack was eclipsed by 'take my breath away' but its actually a good representation of mid 80s power pop, especially 'danger zone', the likes of which just wouldn't work in the 00s for so many reasons. this was before living in an inner city was indeed like 'living in a danger zone' as per this song. this teena marie song is the most soul-oriented track. many a ten year old girl developed a crush on tom cruise thanks to this movie, and cocktail, that has carried into later life. until katie holmes and scientology, obviously, at which point he visibly lost it.

who's that girl (1987)

duncan faure - 24 hours

scritti politti - best thing ever

madonna filled this soundtrack with four of her own tracks, naturally, and most fans bought it for these and skipped the others. i copied from a friend as i wouldn't spend £5.49 on a tape with only four madonna songs. not when i could spend 70p on a blank tape and a bag of kola kubes to bribe said friend. we didn't share msuic quite so freely in those days. scritti politti were a great 80s blue eyed soul band with breathy vocals and this is a good example of their offerings. duncan faure? one hit wonder if this even counts. I used to think this was sung by the male lead in the film, griffin dunne.

body rock (1985)

maria vidal - body rock

fabulous example of mid 80s legwarmers-and-headband dance music, hot on the heels of fame and flashdance. i haven't seen the movie in years, but i'm not sure its really necessary, to guess what its about. this song was a favourite of sadistic p.e. teachers up and down the UK, looking to motivate lazy 16 year olds into aerobics, well into the 90s. why was all the music in those lessons at least 10 years old?? another favourite was the pointer sister's 'jump' for trampolining (arf...) and i also remember being forced to do aqua aerobics to elton john's 'i'm still standing'. funny cos i don't remember the p.e witches having a sense of humour...














bright lights big city (1987)

prince - good love

from one shortarse to another, prince contributed this rare track to michael j fox's 1987 movie. as i remember, this is almost exactly the same as 'the secret of my success'. michael, previously playing teen roles in teenwolf and back to the future, made the apparent leap to twentysomething hotshot within the space of two years. like ralph macchio, he was a good ten years older than most of his characters. which must be like the ultimate affirmation of hanging on to your youth, I presume. good for them.

the true sound of miami

what's freestyle? even if you think you aren't familiar, chances are that if you have more than a passing interest in hiphop r&b soul or even house and garage, then you will have heard several of its exponents.

originating from miami in the mid 80s, freestyle can best be described as a straight mashup of electro, hiphop, r&b, house...anything goes. hence the name. it became hiphop for girls. yes, female rappers such as roxanne (both of them) salt-n-pepa and jj fad were doing their thing, but this was much sweeter and more accessible.

sometimes, it was so plaintive as to be almost offkey and out of tune but I think that adds to its charm, and is more honest than giving cassie, britney and mya recording contracts and manipulating their weedy warblings. freestyle sounded like it had been made on a casio keyboard, and it most probably had been. the studio version without the 'wake me up before you go go' demo button though. vocals that sounded like they had been recorded into a handheld tape deck gave the whole affair a more dangerous edge.

the look? quintessential late 80s styling with a latin edge. big backcombed curls, big earrings...and relaxed pastels for the heat. freestyle itself could perhaps be summarised with the above image - aspirational neon cocktail. totally 80s, totally miami.

when I visited florida a few years ago, I didn't expect to hear any freestyle. i thought that one of the things that had made me want to visit miami for so long would be long gone, a distant memory of twenty and thirtysomethings now fully immersed in the house or r&b scenes. but it was everywhere!



crunk had just exploded but from the local radio stations, you'd never guess. we cruised happily up and down the a1a, and in and out of walgreens and taco bell, to the sounds of freestyle for two weeks. i highly recommend florida to anyone needing some sunny late 80s nostalgia...

ten sounds of party 93.1 south florida - download here

lil suzy - take me
well, if i hadn't known this track before i went to florida, i certainly did by the time i arrived home. played about four times a day and considering we didn't spend that much time in the car listening to party 93.1, you can safely assume this was a dj favourite...






stevie b - spring love
uk peeps may only know stevie b for his dreary 1991 hit 'because i love you'. it seems the only reason he got away with releasing that dirge was that he had already established some credibility on the freestyle circuit. and promptly flushed it down the toilet.


nice and wild - diamond girl
no pic exists for this group, who had several freestyle club hits - this is my favourite. perfect example of electro meets hiphop meets 80s jheri curl soul.



expose - let me be the one

i do remember expose being hyped as the next big thing in smash hits in the late 80s. well, they didn't take off in the uk but appear to have done well natively and are fondly remembered. i think when en vogue arrived i was slightly confused then realised they were a completely different group.





cover girls - show me
like expose, touted as the next big thing but the uk didn't really get freestyle so they sank without trace until they shifted direction. i seem to remember they covered 'wishing on a star' so they must have had some success over here.






lisa lisa and cult jam - i wonder if i take you home
electro favourite that was hard to categorise at the time. lisa lisa and cult jam continued to have success, with 'all cried out' (later covered by allure and 112) and c&c music factory remixed 'let the beat hit em' (heard that on the radio last week - still sounds amazing). lisa went solo in 1994 with album 'LL77' to rapturous reviews but uh, it was all a bit alternative and grey for me...i much preferred the colourful nonsense of the 80s.






shannon - let the music play
perhaps the first freestyle hit, apart from freeez's 'iou', which i'm not sure counts as they were from london, not miami. plus, 'iou' was a wedding reception favourite even back in the day, which surely disqualifies them. anyway, this track along with madonna's poppier 'holiday, changed the face of dance music in 1984.




joyce sims - all and all

this song was doing nothing and going nowhere until kurtis mantronik picked it up and laid the vocals over his 'bassline' instrumental. suddenly it was everywhere and not everyone realises its a remix - a bootleg at that.





debbie deb - when i hear music
one of the biggest freestyle hits. i had to include a more recent photo of debbie as she looks awful in her 80s shots. circulation defying skintight bleached jeans, sausage in a condom style boob tube, blonde hairdo that looks like it would come off in one piece...ick...sometimes i'm glad i wasn't really old enough to pick all of my own clothes in the 80s.







seduction - two to make it right
much like expose and the cover girls, assembled to cash in on their success. probably wore the least clothes out of the three and had the least hits as well...

our reggae music

reggae and jamaica are inextricably linked. but in the mid 70s, south london took reggae, added a dash of brixton and sent it back across the airwaves. disenfranchised black britons found an identity and an alternative to the us-led soul scene.

in contrast to the political protest of 70s island reggae, lovers rock dealt with the same issues as 70s soul, but to a different beat. not since this movement has british culture influenced the entire reggae scene to such an extent.

the south london soundsystems provided a haven and identity for inner city teenagers and clubgoers of all races. as such, many of the artists were very young, especially the girls, who provided a realistic and honest outlet for the romantic and sometimes plaintive lyrics.

i was just a baby when this music was popular and it was one of the last truly underground urban scenes - i can't imagine many outside of london were aware of it even at the time. i had no exposure to it whatsoever but when i first heard them, most of the tracks were instantly familiar and perfectly encapsulate the mood of the nation in the late 70s and early 80s.

now in their 40s and 50s, the lovers rock massive recently welcomed many of the genre's stars back into the limelight as part of the soul britannia concerts held at the london barbican centre. though the distinction between reggae and lovers rock became blurred with the advent of dancehall in the mid 80s and later ragga, its legacy survives today.

ten lovers rock classics - download here

the cool notes - i've got to let him know

not all of this group's listeners would be aware that they started their careers as part of the lovers rock movement. in the 80s they were true jheri soul artistes, albeit with a british edge, and had sizeable mainstream success. their most popular lovers tune was the era-defining 'my tune', so I've included a lesser known 1977 cut.

bob andy - honey

established reggae artist bob was one of many jamaican acts swayed by the new british sound, and this 1983 track cemented his new and successful direction. prior to this he served as part of bob marley's band, and since he has become a respected stalwart of the reggae scene, taking up the mantle at bob marley's tuff going empire.

15 16 17 - if you love me smile

one of several lovers rock girl bands, and named after their respective ages when they formed. they didn't change their band name as they got older - in fact they weren't around for very long. they covered soul classics to great effect but also sang sweetly on their own compositions.

john mclean - if i gave my heart to you

a true child of the lovers rock era, john grew up in 70s south west london and started singing with the black starliner sound system at the age of 16. it was another decade before he gained meaningful success with this song, which topped the reggae charts in 1987.

portia morgan - let me be your angel

in the early 80s, the influence of ska has become more prominent. the contrast of hopeful lyrics against a typically melancholy backing track sums up the restlessness and fear of urban britain in 1981.

junior brown - long time me call

more upbeat example of the genre from the mid 80s on the ubiquitous fashion label. not much info can be found by googling this artist...could possibly have recorded under another name?

brown sugar - hello stranger

like 15 16 17, brown sugar were schoolgirls at the peak of their success. if you thought caron wheeler was fresh faced when she hooked up with soul ii soul in 1989, you might be surprised to learn that a 14 year old caron and friends carol simms and pauline cattlin were making music back in 1977.

musical youth - heartbreaker

best known for their no1 hit 'pass the dutchie' which escaped the moral majority despite being very obviously about smoking weed. the shamen got away with a similar act ten years later with ode to ecstasy 'ebeneezer goode', no1 during national drugs week, no less. its easy to forget that musical youth weren't just a novelty act, they also made proper lover rock - like this.

louisa marks - caught you in a lie

by now you know the score...15 year old louisa marks was arguably the first lady (ok, girl) of lovers rock in 1975. she was the first british artist to score a reggae hit.

winston reedy - dim the lights

early 80s example of the genre from popular reggae artists winston, who had several successful albums. still doing his thing.