italians do it stranger.

Series premiere! The next few posts are going to be about some of my favorite Italo-Disco jams. No better way to start off than with some good old-fashioned ESL antics from 1983. Gary Low (née Luis Romero) was a Spanish singer who got suckered into putting out disco records in the early 1980's. The fact that he could barely speak English never seemed to bother anybody who was producing and putting out his records. I guess that it shouldn't be that big of a deal as far as we're concerned either.

Because Gary Low, regardless of his diction, had heat rocks!

In this italo series, this is also the first of two Gary Low sessions.

If you feel that you just have to know more about this beautiful enigma, look to the following:

La Colegiala

Forever, Tonight and All My Life

The glare that sent a dozen hearts afire.

And here, without further ado, is a classic:

Gary Low - I Want You

got it all together.

I do not own this record. If anybody wants to buy it for me, please, feel free.

Bo played me this because it is the only disco single that he owns. I have a crate full, yet few are comparable to this number. Cheri were a two piece lady group from Montreal. They were produced by one of the member's brother, Freddie Jones.

According to Bo, this was a mild radio hit in 1982, and just so happened to be playing when a co-worker at the parking lot in which he was employed at the time, told him that John Belushi had died. I'm pretty sure that the sentimental value is the only reason why he owns it.

We know that he didn't buy it for the cover shot.

Regardless of looks though, this really is a pretty great song.

In honor of Samurai Futaba:

Cheri - Murphy's Law (12" Mix)

oiling the machine.

This is a breezy monster jam. So much so that Debarge bit it pretty hard for their also epic joint "Rhythm of the Night" (Side note: I own that shit on vinyl. The Last Dragon soundtrack like whoa!)


This one comes from our boy Teddy's Talking To The Night mix. Like I did with that Avalanches mix, I'll probably throw up a few more individual stand-outs from that crucial mix later on at some point.


(I'd love that Warp 9 song if you have an mp3 Theodore.)


Anyways, the shit that shredded for me in this song is the lyric:

"All I can manage to push from my lips Is a stream of absurdities Every word I intended to speak Wind up locked in the circuitry"

Love & technology sentiments always seem to get to me.

The Pointer Sisters - Automatic

not related to funk flex.

I could go through these Heights bangers for days. In fact, it is only now that I realize that I have. In all actuality, it's been months now. Jeez. Well, here is another hot fire single. This cheeky little bugger comes to us all the way from 1983 by way of a Ms. Barbara Norris. This (along with another album which came in an all black jacket) was completely untitled. Two records with white labels with small factory numbering. White dust jacket. No info what so ever. I decided to play it last, but couldn't contain my curiosity...and all to find out that the mysterious record was something that I'd had digitally for months. Ha.

But then I was like, "Oh shit, I've got not one, but two test pressings of a rad jam, sick!"

My best record photo yet.

So without further ado, a really good disco number that I have two of:

Barbara Norris - Heavy Hitter

playing the games you do.

The original post title was "Saturday Night's All Right For Writing."

Ugh.

Anyways, jammers. This one is by Status IV. It came out on a little record label based out of Queens somewhere in between 1980-1982. This is yet another one of the gems from the Washington Heights record expo.

Status IV - You Ain't Really Down

permanent reminder.

Another banger from the Washington Heights vinyl expedition.

This one is in beautiful condition and was a pain in the ass to find digitally.
(The only reason I'm even giving this one away is because I doubt that anybody will be able to track down the disco-edit b-side version. Ha!)


Apparently this was a semi-hit, which I totally understand. The regular version is a sort of dark tale about those sketchy characters that you'd find in a 1970's b-movie bar scene.

My type of dudes.

Side note: Denise McCann was hot. Just saying.


Denise McCann - Tattoo Man