How about....

How about a bit of history of "Classic Tunes"
Im sure Rob and others could come up with some goodies. I know Id be dead keen on learning about the creation of classic tunes.
Whatdya reckon?

Define "Classic Tunes"...

Are we talking about its beginnings in Chicago? The genre defining tracks of a particular era? The big tunes?

Classic seems to me as having som,e sort of defining quality for an era as well as therefore some longevity to be played and take peeps back to those 'classic' moments...

I'll start with something that doesn't go all the way back but always does it for me:

Steve Silk Hurley - The Word is love

History: Steve Silk Hurley was sitting in his DJ study, scribbling furiously away at some vocals for a new killer club tune, when he had a mental block..."Damn, I need something that rhymes with ABOVE...I just had it on the tip of my tongue...come on, come on, someone help me out here..."...

just then Gus 'Polyester' Hurley (his not so famous younger brother) stepped into the study to drop off Silk's oatmeal biscuits, and unknowingly delivered the line that would once again propel Silk into the annals of DJing history:

"The Word is Love"

aaaah, Friday

Im talking any big classic tune that became either a crossover hit, a genre defining biggie, or a tune that got somebody hooked on becoming a dj etc..
Example :Stardust (I do know some other songs too )
Where the inspiration came from, any odd techniques used for its creation, who's idea it was, any dramas involved and so on.
Oh yeah and its house.

there's a youtube clip where Derrick May does his best at making the creation of String of Life sound profound...but it goes something along the lines of..."umm, yeah, I had this melody in my head and walked over to the keyboard and had a play around and...voila!...Strings of life was born"

wow, really.

Love the tune though.

yeah i doubt there are any exciting stories for anything.

Geek sits at puta, pushes buttons, music happens.
has a wank to gay porn, goes to bed

or fancy git pays a geek to do above for him.

He he Ive missed your posts dude.

Yeah, I think much of the interesting stuff came after the tune was made, but before anyone realised how big it would be.

I remember Pete Heller telling me (when he was here for a gig) that he made Big Love one day. Samples a late 70s record, 'Wear It Out' by Stargard.

...and then Terry Farley, walked in and was like: major tune, let's finish it... Pete was ummmmmm, nope. I think Pete was the more technically apt of the two - by far - hence why they stopped doing stuff. He could make great tunes himself no problem.

Anyway - a few labels were keen and the guy from Black Market (I think) said something like 'I'll give you £1000 for it right now'... Lucky he waited as it became worth much more and the eventual label (London Records) signed it to a new sub-label just about to launch, Essential Records - A&R: Pete Tong.

BUT.. from experience he knew he could do an American deal too - which he did, with Eric Morillo's Subliminal. 'Big Love' would have been a much bigger chart hit in the UK but Subliminal, against their contracted agreement, shipped copies to the UK right away. Since import copies don't get factored into the UK charts it screwed the chance of 'Big Love' being a bigger chart success. Worse yet, Morillo added some vocals to his release which I don't think Pete thought much of (he was right they were totally suck). Weirdly, the vocalist Octavia Lambert has a great voice - she did the vocals on Angel Moraes' 90s hit 'I Like It' and was one of the singers on SOUL SYSTEM's 'It's Gonna Be A Lovely Day' - but the lyrics written for 'Big Love' were too average to be any good, no matter who sung them.

Anyway, the rest of the story can't really be repeated here ha ha.

You mean that sort of story?

ooo i got 1!!!

Aparently the moaning in lil louis's french kiss is him nailing his bitch and him recording it

personally i don't buy it

The lyrics were performed by Shawn Christopher. I sort of doubt he was nailing her ha ha. She was already a star from her singing with Chaka Khan.

There was also a European release where they used someone else's vocals too.

i like my story better

Most of the above story applies for "Horny" except substitute Peter Heller for Mousse T and Morillo for Armand Van Helden.

In fact the above scenrio shares a common history for many tunes of that ilk.

Yeah, but the re-release of Horny with vocals was at least six months after the original if I remember correctly... and they were co-done by the original producer.

But you're right - plenty of tunes have patchy beginnings... I'd bet Bob Sinclar had run-ins with more than a few labels over his not disclosing samples in many of his tracks back in the day.

Exactly!! Keep em coming!!

While we're telling stories:

Fragma: Toca Me absolutely destroyed Ibiza in 98, when was playing it he noticed a young spanish porn actress by the name Carolina Cochentas (also known in the porn idustry as Coco Star) trying to pick up punters on the dancefloor. Carolina's beauty enchanted Ramon Zenker (the record producer) and he decided that he would sell more copies by having a porn star sing over the original hit, complete with music video.

the result was the commercial smash hit:

Fragma: Toca's Miracle

Zenker later remarked that he decided to change the name of the track because "it's a miracle that I could take such a perfect tune, completely ruin it with such ugly vocals, and still sell more copies than the original"

Ramon Zenker. Legendary status as half of Hardfloor but also as Interactive who had some solid ravey tunes... plus as Bellini Brothers, F-Action and many more.

Wrong.

In 2000, a mash-up, "Toca's Miracle" was produced, taking the music of Fragma's "Toca Me" and placing the vocals from Coco Star's 1997 song "I Need A Miracle" over the top, which gained further attention from DJs Pete Tong and Judge Jules. As Fragma and Coco were on the same record label at the time (Positiva), the vocals were rerecorded by Coco and an official release was made, and went straight to number one in the UK chart, and was popular in Australia and Ireland.

Also wrong.

In December of 1998 Fragma was in his studio doing lines off a Spanish prostitute by the name of Coco "Star" Cola. It just so happened that around the same time, a fire had ripped through the south of France destroying much of the nations major export at the time: marijuana. Needless to say, when people could track down the ganja, it was in pretty high demand. On this particular occasion, Fragma had some in his possession and he rolled up a joint. Coco whispers sexily across the studio (not realising the mics were on) "Give me a toca that, come on, toca me". He (who was not near the mics) replied, "Baby it will be a miracle if you ever manage to get this out of my hands". With that Coco stood and sang at the top of her lungs "I need a miracle!" and then promptly tripped over some guitars (which also happened to be plugged in and recording). When Fragma still refused to give up the joint, she picked up and beat him into a coma with the first thing that came into her hand: one of Fragmas drum pads (you guessed it, it was recording).

In her delight at getting the joint after so soundly beating him, she wrote on his face with a vivid the words "I got my miracle". When Positiva came to check on Fragmas progress on his album, they found him unconscious but with the full track recorded and after listening to it, seeing what was written on his face, and assuming that was what Fragma thought of as "artistic expression", they called the track Tocas Miracle and promptly pressed the vinyl.

Interestingly, Fragma made the rest of the album while still in a coma



Disclaimer: may contain traces of historical inaccuracy

Bart: How do you know so much about history, Grandpa?

Grandpa: I pieced it together mostly from sugar packets

awesome.

Coco 'I need a miracle' was written by Victor Imbres (and Rob Davies).. The vocals were by Sue Brice (aka Coco) and it came out in 1996 before being signed and remixed by Positiva. They own the lyrics and it has been remade a couple of times. Coco was merely the artist 'front'.

We used to play it at Redzone in its original form before it was turned to a cheese-fest.

Victor is famous for his recordings as Alcatraz, Submarine & Satori - he produced the first two records released on Yoshitoshi Records. That is a big claim to fame in house music imo.

After the remakes & mash-ups in between then and now Victor recently re-released the tune again with a new vocalist.

man, why'd you have to go and make the thread all serious again, what do you think this is, the house forum?

i neeeeeed a copy of satori - satori,

mp3 would be fine

Great record huh... and to think the same guy made Coco 'I Need a Miracle' lol. Go figure.

Beatport bro... It's there for about less than the price of a coffee.

Will swap for a copy of Theo P 'When The Morning Comes' if you have a good recording of it lying about.