"Shannon - Let The Music Play : My story"

Up until 1983, I didn't listen to any non-Rock music - that is, until I heard Shannon's "Let The Music Play" on NYC radio station WRKS 98.7 Kiss FM. This song just had something about it that captured my attention. From the shrill intro, to the crack of that infamous whip, this song was in a league of it's own - period.

Thumping electronic beats, an infectious melody, and outstanding vocals by Ms. Brenda "Shannon" Greene made this single a worldwide hit in no time.

However, as my old friend Rich Weinman (Emergency Records employee at the time) tells it... He went to visit his buddy DJ John 'Jellybean' Benitez @ NYC's legendary hot spot 'The Funhouse' with a 12" acetate of "Let The Music Play" for John to test on the fickle Funhouse crowd . As the story goes, the first time John played the track it cleared the dancefloor. As the nights went by, 'Bean spun the disc a few more times, and before long it was a Funhouse anthem.

Released originally on Emergency Records in 1983, then later picked up by Mirage/Atlantic Records, this single changed my life and changed the face of Dance Music as well.

This was the first 12" vinyl single I ever purchased, and it sparked my decade+ long DJ career. Without a doubt a Turntable Treat!

Shannon would go on to release more Dance classics like "Give Me Tonight", "My Heart's Divided", "Do You Want To Get Away", and "Stronger Together". There have been recent remixes of her classic tracks, and she continues to perform live across the globe.

Shannon released an album of new material in 2007 titled "A Beauty Returns".



U.S. Original 12" vinyl (matrix #EMDS 6540)

Side A: Vocal (5:49)
Side B: Dub (6:10)

Written by: Chris Barbosa & Ed Chisolm
All instruments: Rob Kilgore
Produced by Mark Liggett/Chris Barbosa/Rob Hui

UK Import single cover artwork

German 7" single cover artwork


Original music video

"Paris Hilton named Harvard's Woman of the year"

from UPI

CAMBRIDGE , Mass., Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Heiress and Hollywood red-carpet fixture Paris Hilton has been named Harvard Lampoon's "Woman of the Year."

Hilton is slated to accept the award and speak publicly to Harvard University's student body at a large public ceremony in the middle of Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 6, said Regent Releasing, the studio behind her new big-screen comedy "The Hottie and the Nottie," which opens nationwide Feb. 8.

Founded in 1876, Harvard University's Harvard Lampoon is the world's oldest continuously published humor magazine.

"Hip-Hop on steroids"

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A number of entertainers were named in connection with an Albany-based steroid investigation, but they are not part of an ongoing criminal probe, according to a published report.

The Times Union of Albany cited unidentified law enforcement officials in reporting Sunday that R&B music star Mary J. Blige, rap musicians 50 Cent, Timbaland and Wyclef Jean, and award-winning author and producer Tyler Perry may have received or used performance-enhancing drugs.

Law enforcement officials have said evidence does not indicate that the celebrities broke the law, but that investigators are focusing on doctors, pharmacists and clinics that provide the drugs.

Albany District Attorney P. David Soares launched the investigation into steroid trafficking last year.

Soares is "not confirming, denying or discussing any of the names" involved in the investigation, said spokeswoman Heather Streeter Orth.

A spokeswoman for Blige denied the singer had taken illegal steroids.

Ken Sunshine, a spokesman for Perry, declined to comment.

There was no response to calls Sunday and Monday seeking comment from representatives of other entertainers.

While athletes use steroids and human growth hormone to get bigger, faster and stronger, the drugs can also lure other people with their supposed anti-aging qualities.

Soares' multistate investigation has focused on Signature Pharmacy of Orlando, Fla. So far, 10 defendants have pleaded guilty and news reports have linked some professional athletes to Soares' probe.

Soares has said Signature was at the center of a web of businesses and doctors that illegally wrote prescriptions for steroids. Authorities raided the company almost a year ago and its owners and operators are awaiting trial in Albany on related charges.

Records shared with the Times Union and information from several cooperating witnesses on Long Island allege the celebrities received prescribed human growth hormone or steroids, the newspaper said.

The newspaper said that Blige received the human growth hormone Jentropin and Oxandrolone, an anabolic steroid, in orders sent to her at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Her spokeswoman denounced the report. "Mary J. Blige has never taken any performance enhancing illegal steroids, or any anti-aging steroids," spokeswoman Karynne Tencer said.

Former Sen. George Mitchell released a report last month on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. That report said former Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski provided steroids and human growth hormone linked to several prominent players. Radomski pleaded guilty last year to charges that he dealt steroids to players for a decade.

Congressional hearings are to begin this month on the Mitchell report.

"Smurfs to celebrate 50th anniversary with new movie & more Smurfettes"

Envisaged as secondary characters for a single cartoon album, the blue gnomes widely known as the Smurfs will celebrate their 50th anniversary this year with a movie deal and an invasion of new female characters.

Smurfs -- known in the original Belgian comic strip as Schtroumpfs -- may only be as tall as three apples and do little more than forage for food and mend the village dam, but the business they have created in over 30 languages is put at some $4 billion, generating $5-12 million in royalties per year.

They will mark 50 years with a series of new comic adventures, statuettes, an exhibition at Brussels' cartoon museum, a set of commemorative stamps and, in a reflection of changing times, more females in their mushroom cottage village.

Blond-haired Smurfette, originally created by evil sorcerer Gargamel to foster jealous rivalry in the community, has been the single love interest for almost every other Smurf for years.

"There have been dramatic changes in socio-cultural values in the past 20 to 25 years," Hendrik Coysman, head of Smurf rights holder IMPS told a news conference on Monday. "One of these is girl empowerment."

"So, there will be a greater female presence in the Smurf village and this will, of course, be a basis for new stories and this will probably turn upside down certain traditional situations within the village."

Nine Culliford, the widow of Belgian cartoonist Peyo who was instrumental in choosing the color blue, argued that her husband Pierre had never been overtly political, but avidly read the newspaper and made his creations address current themes.

Notable among them was the 1973 story of the conflict between northern and southern clans divided by language, echoing the ongoing dispute between Belgium's Dutch-speaking north and French-speaking south.

Thierry Culliford, Peyo's 52-year-old son, argues the Smurfs are otherwise timeless, explaining their continued appeal.

"They live in the Middle Ages ... They don't live in the 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s so the clothing or their look doesn't change ... After 50 years we see they are still popular with children."

The Smurfs will be brought into the modern age, nonetheless, with a computer-animated 3-D style movie.

IMPS has agreed a deal with Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom. A script is being written and further details are set to follow in the coming weeks.

Coysman also has hopes for a 26-episode series of half-hour shorts to add to the 272 that Hanna-Barbera made in the 1980s to propel the Smurfs around the world.

The 50th anniversary could also mark a return for Johan and Peewit, the characters that first stumbled across the vibrant village and the curious "Smurf" language in "The Magic Flute" cartoon album in October 1958.

from Reuters - By Philip Blenkinsop

(Additional reporting by Elaine Codogno; Editing by Caroline Drees)

"The table's turned: Big 12-inchers thrill new generation of music fans"

from bostonherald.com - By Jed Gottlieb

Digital downloads have found an unlikely ally in their increasingly successful war on the CD: the old-fashioned vinyl record.

Those same big, black discs the CD all but killed off in the '90s are the only music format other than digital predicted to see a sales increase in 2008. While nowhere near digital's 2007 54 percent sales increase, no-longer-dormant vinyl sales jumped more than 15 percent last year. CDs' slump continued with a 19 percent decline.

Locally, vinyl's comeback has managed to outpace the national trend. Newbury Comics reported an astounding 37 percent spike in new vinyl sales in 2007.

Wayne Rogers, owner of Harvard Square's Twisted Village, says sales of new releases are as strong on vinyl as on CD at his specialty record shop. At Planet Records, a Harvard Square used music store, owner John Damroth says the vinyl LP business is brisker than it's been in a decade.

"Around 1998 the vinyl market fell right off a cliff," Damroth said from behind a counter crowded with piles of unmarked stock. "Then, maybe three years ago, things started back. Yesterday, 25 percent of my business was used vinyl. The younger age group is getting into it to get good deals buying stuff like Journey and Loverboy. Then you've got the hip factor.

"I'll hear kids come in and say, 'Oh, cool. Look, man, vinyl.' 'But dude, you don't even have a record player.' 'I know, but . . .' Inevitably, they'll walk out with a stack of everything from Aerosmith to ZZ Top."

Damroth also sees his own baby boomer generation getting back to their first love. People reared on bold, beautiful Santana LPs are finding fragile iPods and flimsy earbuds no replacement for reclining in a big, brown puffy chair and dropping a needle in a groove.

And the industry is noticing.

Still less than 1 percent of total music sales reported by Nielsen SoundScan - digital accounts for 10 percent, CDs for 89 percent - vinyl is no longer being ignored by bands, labels and retailers.

In October, Amazon debuted a vinyl-only store to compete with its recently launched download store. Artists from Linkin Park and the Killers to Modest Mouse and My Morning Jacket are giving their albums the deluxe vinyl treatment. Issued as pricy 180-gram, double-vinyl, gatefold LPs (as opposed to the standard 120-gram single LP most bands released during the format's heyday), these new albums can cost more than $20: pricey for buyers and not cheap to produce, but a lot more lucrative than having kids steal your whole catalog off a bit-torrent site.

Vinyl's only challenge is a lack of pressing plants; only about a dozen remain in the United States. But Europe, where the vinyl comeback started earlier, may be able to help with U.S. demand.

"Early last year I was on tour in Europe with my band, and no one wanted to buy our CDs," said Twisted Village's Rogers, who plays guitar with local rockers Major Stars. "The CDs were just packing peanuts for all the vinyl we sold."

When asked why he, his fans and his customers are opting for vinyl over CDs, Rogers' answer is simple: "Because CDs are an awful format that can't die fast enough."

Rogers may have his wish soon enough. With music shifting toward iPod shuffle-small and double-vinyl big, fewer and fewer fans seem happy with the humdrum middle ground CDs offer.

"RUN-DMC's Rev. Run signs to UK Indie record label"

from hiphop-elements.com

Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, who has played a key role in creating Hip-Hop supergroup RUN-DMC, has annouced his signing to United Kingdom independent record label Crazed Productions.

Kid Rock, a Rap/Country artist who is also closely asscociated with Rev. Run, will be assisting in tours and publicity campaigns as a way to kick off the promotion for Simmons' album, which is set to be released sometime this quarter.

"This is a landmark deal for Crazed Productions, which will put our company at the forefront of multi-faceted marketing and promotion in Hip-Hop," said Sam Kleinman, CEO of Crazed Productions, also predicting that the deal will "lead other major artists to sign direct with digital record companies thus bypassing the major recording companies."

Crazed Productions have had a notable online music history, having only been mainly a Web and mobile downloads/ringtone company.

"Bringing the music to the people"

from southtownstar.com - by Brian Marchetti

ALSIP, IL -- The history of rock 'n' roll came alive last weekend at the Doubletree Hotel in Alsip at a record convention sponsored by Record Recovery Productions.

A dozen dealers from local stores and as far away as Tennessee spread their collections of thousands of records along with 8-tracks, cassettes, videos, books and CDs, which were carefully examined by collectors from as far away as Great Britain.

"Rock 'n' roll is very much alive," said Larry O'Connell, of Chicago, founder and event planner for Record Recovery Productions. O'Connell's love of music began as a 13-year-old in the Midway neighborhood while jamming on his drum set as he listened to the radio.

"There are a lot of great songs out there that no one gets to hear," O'Connell said. "This convention gives people the chance to find rarities on imports and lesser-known labels."

Greg Biggs, a vendor originally from Elmhurst but now living in Clarksville, Tenn., owns CVC Collectables, a mail-order service offering rock standards, collectables and lesser known acts on import labels.

Biggs boasts a rare copy of a Brazilian cover of the Who's monumental "Live at Leeds," which sells for $150. And he recently acquired a 45 by The High Numbers, the original name of the Who, one of only 1,000 records printed.

"Records have a warmer sound," Biggs said. "Cover art is also a big factor in record collecting. Record covers offer more innovative cover art and legible liner notes that you don't get on CDs"

Geoff Maguire, of Frankfort, attended the convention in the hopes of finding original mono recordings of his favorite artists.

"I've been collecting since 1993," said Maguire, 33. During his search, he acquired an original mono record of Pink Floyd's debut album "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn," which he purchased for $50.

Val Challoner, a 48-year-old record collector from England, searched for rare 45s of soul and funk artists.

"I occasionally make trips, but I just happened to find this convention while on holiday," Challoner said.

With a couple of thousand records in his collection, Challoner represents the quintessential collector.

"I spent $500 on a 45 of Mickey and the Soul Generation," he said.

Record Recovery Productions hosts six events a year. The next one takes place March 9 at the Doubletree Hotel.

"Because of all the downloadable music out there, most of the record stores are gone," O'Connell said. "This is the only way people will be able to find rare songs from the beginning of rock 'n' roll."