It’s Pete Shelley’s Birthday And I Need To Dance!

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In 1981, Pete Shelley reached #14 on the US Dance chart with “Homosapien,” a keyboard-centric single that sounded much different than his work as the lead singer of punk band The Buzzcocks.

“Homosapien” did not get much airplay in Shelley’s native England, as the BBC took exception to the lyric “Homo superior in my interior.” Shelley said the song was not intended as a “gay song;” rather, it’s about homosapiens falling in love with other homosapiens. That may be so, but the opening line is “I’m the shy boy, you’re the coy boy / And you know we’re homosapien, too,” so there is more than a little homo in this sapien.

Shelley lives as the homosapien of his song, eschewing labels because “there doesn’t seem to be a word for ‘having relationships with people,’” regardless of gender, which is where Shelley sees himself.

It’s Friday and I need to dance! It’s also Pete Shelley’s birthday (he’s 60), so we’ll kick off our dance party with “Homosapien.”

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Brandeis ID

It’s Friday And I Need To Dance! – College Reunion Edition

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Brandeis ID
On the Facebook page for my thirty-year college reunion, which is coming up this June, someone brought up the music that reminds them of our college days. Many posts followed, naming songs that remind us of shared experiences at Brandeis University in the first half of the 1980s.

That post inspired today’s playlist. Friday is dance day at Tunes du Jour, and today I present 50 songs we danced to in the Usdan Ballroom at Brandeis University between the fall of 1981 and the spring of 1985. It was a great time for popular music. These songs have stood the test of time.

Have a great weekend!

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It’s Friday And I Need To Dance!

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“I go through stages of intense dislike for ‘Blue Monday,’ which I’m sure every group does when they get one song they’re synonymous with, but the way it keeps getting reinvented is wonderful. It seems to be one of those tracks that’s timeless, which is amazing. We were using technology which could have dated like other ’80s stuff, but somehow we managed to swerve it. Was that deliberate? No, everything we do is by accident. The fact that for two years no one spotted that the sleeves cost more to make than the records confirms this. I honestly thought ‘Thieves Like Us,’ the single after ‘Blue Monday,’ was far superior. ‘Blue Monday’’s not a song, it’s a feeling, but once people hear that drum riff they’re off. People used to go mad when we didn’t play it. We had a fight onstage with a DJ in Nottingham once because we wouldn’t play it – which was a very New Order thing to do. As you get older and mellower you appreciate what got you where you are. We play it now because people love it.” – Peter Hook of New Order, 2003, in Q magazine, which named “Blue Monday” one of the best songs ever

Peter Hook turns 59 today. Tunes du Jour kicks off our weekly dance party with “Blue Monday.”

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Winston + Bobby Brown

The Song Retains The Name

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Winston + Bobby Brown
Today is Bobby Brown’s 46th birthday. A former member of New Edition, Brown had his first solo hit in 1988 with “Don’t Be Cruel,” which reached #8 on the Hot 100. Though it shares its title with an Elvis Presley #1 hit from 1956, Brown’s “Don’t Be Cruel” is not a remake.

That brings us to today’s playlist, which I call The Song Retains the Name. It consists of different songs with the same title. I initially planned to include twenty such songs, but more kept springing to mind. Before I knew it, I passed 100 entries. There are plenty more, so I decided to open this up to my reader(s). If you have songs that share titles you’d like to add, feel free to do so.

(NOTES: I included The Jacksons’ “This Place Hotel” because when it was released in 1980 its title was “Heartbreak Hotel.” Thought he didn’t have to, Michael Jackson, the song’s writer, later changed its name to “This Place Hotel” to avoid confusion with the Elvis Presley song “Heartbreak Hotel.” Whitney Houston didn’t feel the need to make the same Hotel accommodation.

Also, though it is listed on Spotify as “The Best of My Love,” the Eagles track does not have a “The” on the 45 or the band’s On the Border album.)

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Ringo + Pointers

It’s Friday And I Need To Dance!

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Hey, reader(s), Tunes du Jour is now on Twitter! Engage me in a way that only a tweeter can! You can find me at @TunesDuJour.

Ringo + Pointers
Friday is dance day ‘round these parts. Today’s party playlist kicks off with birthday woman Anita Pointer, who leads her sisters in telling us how excited she is to turn 67 today.

Have a terrific weekend!

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Ringo + Limahl

It’s Limahl’s Birthday And I Need To Dance!

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Ringo + Limahl
Young Chris Hamill was not popular at school. Expelled for disrupting class, the teen boy transferred to a new school, where the kids pointed out his effeminacy. Always the last one picked in sports, Hamill’s confidence level dropped. Discovering he was gay didn’t help. Unhappy at school, he became a loner, escaping into his music.

After leaving school Hamill pursued acting. He landed a few roles, but music was where his passion truly lied. Hamill reinvented himself. He rearranged the letters of his last name and became Limahl, the cutieface pop singer. He was recruited by a band named Art Nouveau. With Limahl on board, the group changed their name to KajaGooGoo.

While working as a waiter at London’s Embassy Club, Limahl met Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran. He gave Rhodes the group’s demo tape. Rhodes took it to his record label, EMI, who signed them.

In January 1983, EMI released the group’s Rhodes-produced debut single, “Too Shy.” It went to #1 in the UK and reached #5 in the US. At this time, Limahl kept his sexual orientation secret. “I wasn’t embarrassed about being gay, but my role as Limahl, my pop star role, had to be more enigmatic. I didn’t want to start talking about gay sex and gays in 1983 when most of our following was teenage girls.”

While “Too Shy” was on the US charts, the band completed a successful tour playing to 40,000 people in Finland. The following day, Limahl was fired from the group by its other members. About Limahl, KajaGooGoo guitarist Steve Askew said “His lifestyle is so different from ours. We’re very normal people whereas Limahl likes the bright lights.” Limahl, shocked by his dismissal, felt he was let go for being too cute and turning the group into a pop band solely for teens.

Following his sacking from KajaGooGoo, Limahl had a solo hit in 1985 with the theme from the film The NeverEnding Story. That song will kick off the dance playlist for today, Limahl’s 56th birthday.

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Winston + Queen 2014-09-05 11.07

It’s Freddie Mercury’s Birthday And I Need To Dance!

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The band Queen released their eighth studio album, The Game, in 1980. The album’s first single, “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” released eight months prior to the LP, went to #1 on the US pop charts. “Play the Game,” released as a single just a month before the album dropped, failed to make the US top 40.

Backstage after a Queen concert in Los Angeles, a fan of the group, Michael Jackson, suggested to Freddie Mercury that “Another One Bites the Dust” should be the next single. The band were initially reluctant to do so, but the track was getting airplay on black radio stations and demand was increasing, so their label, Elektra, put it out.

Inspired by the bass line of Chic’s “Good Times,” “Another One Bites the Dust” went to #1 on the US pop charts. It also hit #2 on the Soul chart and on the Dance chart, the group’s highest-placing songs on those formats.

A few years later Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson recorded a few tracks together, including one written by Jackson and Randy Hansen entitled “State of Shock.” The pair never completed the track; explanations given or conjectured being they both got too busy with other commitments and couldn’t find time to reunite, Jackson objected to Mercury’s cocaine use, Mercury objected to Jackson bringing a llama into the recording studio, Queen’s record label fearing Mercury associating with Jackson would lead consumers to think he was gay (ahem). Whatever the reason, “State of Shock” was eventually released with Mick Jagger trading vocals with Jackson. It hit #3 in 1984.

Winston + Queen 2014-09-05 11.07
Today is Freddie Mercury’s birthday, so we’ll kick off our weekly dance party with “Another One Bites the Dust.”

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doggies + Smokey 004

When Smokey Sings Or Writes

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doggies + Smokey 004

In 2011, I attended the Society of Singers’ tribute to Smokey Robinson. The award was well-deserved, as anyone who has heard him sing knows that Smokey Robinson possesses a sweet, soulful voice, one that he has used to beautiful effect on records going back more than fifty years. The British band ABC paid tribute to him on their top ten single “When Smokey Sings.” In their hit “Genius of Love,” Tom Tom Club sing “No one can sing quite like Smokey, Smokey Robinson.”

doggies + Smokey 005

In addition to his singing talent, Smokey is a writer on many classics in the great American songbook. Chances are you know “The Tracks of My Tears,” “My Girl” (click here for more about that song), “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me” (originally recorded by Smokey’s group The Miracles as the b-side of a 45), “The Tears of a Clown,” “My Guy,” “Shop Around,” “Ooo Baby Baby,” “I Second That Emotion,” “Cruisin’,” and “The Way You Do the Things You Do.”

doggies + Smokey 006Here’s my cocktail napkin from the Society of Singers event. I need to wash that placemat.

I met Smokey one time in the late 1980s. I was working at CBS Records in midtown Manhattan. Our offices were in the Black Rock building, which was also home to WCBS radio. Smokey had just done an interview at the radio station when I bumped into him in the building’s lobby. I told him I enjoyed the article about him in the new issue of Rolling Stone, which I was holding. He said he hadn’t seen it yet and took my magazine from me to look at it. I wouldn’t let him keep my issue – I was a poor office clerk, after all – but he was gracious enough to sign an autograph for me.

Smokey autograph

Today is Smokey’s 74th birthday. Enjoy this playlist comprised of songs Smokey sings and songs Smokey wrote or co-wrote, songs you know and songs you should know.

Ringo + C + C

It’s Friday And I Need To Dance!

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Ringo + C + C

Every Friday Tunes du Jour presents a dance playlist to get you into the weekend spirit. Today we kick off with C + C Music Factory’s “Things That Make You Go Hmmm…” in memory of David Cole, who with Robert Clivillés were the C + C of the Music Factory. Besides their own group’s hits, Cole and Clivillés produced/remixed tracks for Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Chaka Khan, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Mariah Carey, Cover Girls, Seduction, Martha Wash and, um, Jim Carrey. Cole died on January 24, 1995 of complications of spinal meningitis brought on by AIDS. He was 32.