Today’s compilation:
The Best of Personal Records
1989
Disco / Post-Disco / Eurodisco / Electro / Boogie
Despite only existing between around '83 to '86, the New York-based dance label Personal Records possessed an uncanny ability in churning out floor-burning bangers. In just less than four years, and without the assistance of any major label, they managed to chart twenty-eight of their own releases. That's a lot, folks!
Personal was co-founded by famed disco producer Jurgen Korduletsch and record biz executive Don Oriolo. And here's a fun bit of trivia about Oriolo: he also ran the Felix the Cat brand. It was actually his dad who created Felix—as well as Casper the Friendly Ghost—and when he died, Don took over operations for Felix. So, if you've ever wondered why Felix appeared to have this sudden resurgence in the 80s and 90s, it's because the co-owner of this excellent 80s dance label was the one who was pulling the strings! Neat, huh?
Anyway, there's few things in this world that I love more than 80s club music. Just a total hodgepodge of stuff like disco, post-disco, boogie, funk, R&B, soul, hi-NRG, electro, hip hop, dance-rock, freestyle, synthpop, house, dance-pop, and new wave, all flowing carefreely through each other. Never has music really felt more like a melting pot than when it was played on a 1980s dancefloor. Purely unprecedented peak eclecticism that I don't think we're ever going to see again.
And Personal contributed to that spirit of dynamism with their own catalog, which this compilation manages to provide a retrospective of in eleven songs. Personal's stuff lit up New York clubs, but not all of it was made by New Yorkers. In fact, four of the songs on here were actually licensed from Germany, including probably the album's most popular song, George Kranz's "Din Daa Daa," a peculiar, onomatopoeia-heavy, beatboxing precursor that was featured on the soundtrack for none other than Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. And the other three German-made tracks come courtesy of a guy named Fancy, whose "Chinese Eyes" sure as shit hasn't aged well at all lyrically, but sonically, it's something of a new wave-synthpop-Eurodisco masterpiece. Kranz's song hit #1 on Billboard's dance chart, while "Chinese Eyes" peaked at #2.
Also, do you remember that 1991 dance-pop-house piece of cotton candy fluff, "Touch Me (All Night Long)" by Cathy Dennis (I actually posted about it a while back...you think you haven't heard from Dennis since that song came out, but trust me, you have.)? Did you know it's actually a cover of a 9½-minute freestyle-electro-post-disco bop by Wish & Fonda Rae? The original's far less known than Dennis' version, but it still peaked at #5 on the US dance chart and it was also featured in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2. It's co-produced by the great and recently departed Patrick Adams (he made up half of Wish), who shows up in a couple other places on this comp too, including "Let's Change It Up" by Inner Life, a studio group fronted by Jocelyn Brown that he was also a member of.
Oh, and eminent 80s producer-remixer extraordinaire Shep Pettibone is on here as well, providing his signature sound in Clair Hicks & Love Exchange's "Push Push (In the Bush)," which, come to think of it...do you think that provided some inspiration for "What What (In the Butt)"? 😂
And one last thing! She's not on here at all, but Lisa Lisa was actually also signed to Personal Records for some time. They licensed her hit debut single, "I Wonder If I Take You Home," which Korduletsch and Oriolo both had a hand in producing, to CBS Records for a European compilation called Breakdancing, and it led to her getting signed to Columbia. Just another feather for this powerful, yet ultimately fleeting 80s dance label to wear in its cap.
Highlights:
George Kranz - "Din Daa Daa"
Wish featuring Fonda Rae - "Touch Me"
Fancy - "Chinese Eyes"
Fancy - "Come Inside"
Clair Hicks & Love Exchange - "Push Push (In the Bush)"
Fancy - "Check It Out"
Claudja Barry - "Born to Love"
Inner Life - "Let's Change It Up"
6 notes
·
View notes