Tag Archives: Fun Rhode Island DJ

Al Green Let’s Stay Together

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Al Green Let’s Stay Together “People are born to do certain things, and Al was born to make us smile.” These are the words of Justin Timberlake about Al Green for Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Al was number 65. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Green in 1995, referring to him as “one of the most gifted purveyors of Soul music.”

 

For me, he is an amazing and a powerful songwriter and singer. He has the unique ability to inspire and soften pretty much anybody. You do not have to like his music or Soul to enjoy and appreciate especially, Al Green Let’s Stay Together.  I remember having the cassette, yes cassette, of the Al Green Let’s Stay Together album. The tape broke from overuse and by that time I had a record player and got the record to play it on vinyl. This is the kind of song that as a professional DJ when you want to slow the crowd down on the dance floor before they get burned-out you can play this song and it even fills the dance floor more than with the party stuff.  You will always get a few couples and future-couples making their way to the dance floor with a sparkle in their eyes for the first time of the night.

 

When Tina Turner’s cover of Al Green Let’s Stay Together first came out, I was a bit bothered by her rendition, not that I didn’t like it, I do. I just felt it did not touch Al Green Let’s Stay Together.  I eventually appreciated the fact that a whole new generation was getting to learn and enjoy Al Green Let’s Stay Together.  Many of them have been turned-on to the original since then too! Professional DJs now have two versions to choose from.

Al Green Let’s Stay Together Music Video

http://youtu.be/COiIC3A0ROM

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Marvin Gaye What’s Going On

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Marvin is and always has been one of my heroes. He has inpisred me to cry, laugh, want to be a better person and get off my butt and dance!  When I was a kid I had this ’45’ and wore it out. I am sure my family was sick of Marvin but not me. When I first became a professional DJ and was aked to do performances at Oldies DJ Parties, I knew I would have a chance to break out my Marvin Gaye What’s Going On and Stevie Wonder records, and did as often as possible.

 

Marvin Gaye What’s Going On in particular has a message that still resonates today. Hate and violence are still a significant current in our culture and globally. At some point we have to chose peace and respect. I think that is part of what he was trying to say in Marvin Gaye What’s Going On. I am amazed at how he could produce songs like this and “Mercy Mercy Me” and then balance them with “Sexual Healing” and “Got To Give It Up”. That sweet voice and passion rang through whatever he touched, Marvin Gaye What’s Going On, and he will be remembered by me and many others.

 

Thanks for Marvin Gaye What’s Going On!

As one of the pioneers of Motown, singer-songwriter and producer Marvin Gaye helped shape the sound of R & B music and is considered one of the greatest artists of all time. ‘I think I’ve got a real thing going. I love people. I love life and I love nature, and I can’t see why other people can’t be like that.’ –Marvin Gaye

 

Marvin Gaye What’s Going On and What’s Happening Brother Music Video

http://youtu.be/RE7-2XWGNk4

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Katy Perry Firework

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I often do not post videos of Top 40 songs while they are popular. They typically get enough promotion on their own. Katy Perry Firework is somehow different than the bulk of pop songs by teen stars. Katy Perry does seem to try things that are a bit off the beaten path and this is no exception.

 

The video and lyrics of Katy Perry Firework go beyond what is often flooding the pop charts. I wish more artists were willing to incorporate messages in their music and videos that speak to the challenges that many young people experience. Today more than ever pop stars influence their youthful listeners and the messages they provide are rarely supportive to healthy development.

 

Katy Perry Firework Lyrics

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag
Drifting throught the wind
Wanting to start again

Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin
Like a house of cards
One blow from caving in

Do you ever feel already buried deep
Six feet under scream
But no one seems to hear a thing

Do you know that there’s still a chance for you
Cause there’s a spark in you

You just gotta ignite the light
And let it shine
Just own the night
Like the Fourth of July

Cause baby you’re a firework
Come on show ’em what you’re worth
Make ’em go “Oh, oh, oh!”
As you shoot across the sky-y-y

Baby you’re a firework
Come on let your colors burst
Make ’em go “Oh, oh, oh!”
You’re gunna leave ’em fallin’ down-own-own

You don’t have to feel like a waste of space
You’re original, cannot be replaced
If you only knew what the future holds
After a hurricane comes a rainbow

Maybe you’re reason why all the doors are closed
So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road

Like a lightning bolt, your heart will blow
And when it’s time, you’ll know

You just gotta ignite the light
And let it shine
Just own the night
Like the Fourth of July

Cause baby you’re a firework
Come on show ’em what you’re worth
Make ’em go “Oh, oh, oh!”
As you shoot across the sky-y-y

Katy Perry Firework Music Video

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Jagged Edge Featuring Run-DMC Let’s Get Married

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Jagged Edge Featuring Run-DMC Let’s Get Married is one of my favorite remixes ever! How bad can it be to have Run DMC beats and vocals with Let’s Get Married lyrics and Jagged Edge doing his thing? It is easy to not pay homage to Run DMC since they seem to have become the forgotten pioneers. It is too bad because they found the beauty in simplicity and staying true to what they wanted to say and produce beats that were danceable, strong and hard to ignore. They never veered from the roots of Hip Hop as a movement, not just a musical genre. Social awareness and sharing the The Struggle were what they did best and did not really feel the need to re-invent themselves as something different.

“Every turning point in American music has its originator, its progenitor, its King.  The blues had W.C. Handy and jazz had Louis Armstrong.  Swing had Benny Goodman and bebop had Charlie Parker.  Rhythm and blues had Ray Charles and rock and roll had Elvis Presley.  Punk rock had the Stooges and disco had Barry White.  And hip-hop had Run-DMC – and always will, with their uncompromised vision and attitude, as laid out on their formative albums and singles, serving as the DNA of rap music for more than two decades and counting.”  Run-DMC Website

As a professional Wedding DJ, Jagged Edge Featuring Run-DMC Let’s Get Married is one of the Wedding Introductions songs that is most fun to play. It is high energy without being over-the-top, gets everybody rockin’ and has the wedding message right there for all to hear.  I am glad that when I recommend Jagged Edge Featuring Run-DMC Let’s Get Married to Brides and Grooms, they often get excited if they happen to appreciate Hip Hop and R&B.

Jagged Edge Featuring Run-DMC Let’s Get Married Music Video

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

One Republic Featuring Timbaland Apologize

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One Republic Featuring Timbaland Apologize. I was in a small night club in the city of Osh in Kyrgyzstan. Osh is the second largest city in Kyrgyzstan and sits on the border next to Uzbekistan. I was out having fun with a young lady who is from Bishkek I met the night before at a wedding of one of her cousins.

 

We were dancing to the grooves of the DJ with a mix of Kyrgyz pop, American pop and dance and some current Russian hits.  We barely sat down the first hour we were there with her sister and a friend.  We decided to enjoy some nice fresh cold pineapple juice and catch a breather. Then One Republic Featuring Timbaland Apologize came on and she grabbed my hand as if I did not have a choice but to join her on the dance floor. It was the song we connected the most throughout the night and as someone who had not stepped foot on American soil in well over a year at this point, it was refreshing to hear something that reminded me of home.

 

“OneRepublic is an American alternative rock band from Colorado Springs, Colorado.[1] Formed in 2002 by Ryan Tedderand Zach Filkins, the band achieved massive success on MySpace, becoming the most prominent unsigned act on the website then. They signed onto Mosley Music Group in 2006, and released their debut album, Dreaming Out Loud in 2007. OneRepublic made radio history when with their first single, “Apologize“, received the largest amount of airplay in history with 10,331 plays in one week.” Wikipedia

Nice song with the contrast of gentle beats and voices with the passion needed to grab and hold all who listen. Enjoy! Every professional DJ can play One Republic Featuring Timbaland Apologize and it is great for segueing different genre including Pop, Hip Hop, Dance, R&B, House,slow and up-tempo, really, it mixes well with most music!

One Republic Featuring Timbaland Apologize Music Video

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Yolanda Be Cool and DCup We No Speak Americano

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Every now and then there is a song that we professional DJs get to play that no matter the crowd, venue or demographics, somebody will come running up and asking with their eyes wide open with excitement, “Who is this?”  Currently for me this song is Yolanda Be Cool and DCup We No Speak Americano. A fun, playful song with a hysterical video. I like the longer versions of the song better but this 2:12 version is OK too.

 

For those curious about the artists and producer that created Yolanda Be Cool and DCup We No Speak Americano, here is a bio:

 

“Yolanda Be Cool is an Australian electronic dance music duo who scored an international chart-topping hit with the house smash “We No Speak Americano” in 2010. Comprised of Sylvester Martinez and Johnson Peterson, the duo hails from Sydney, Australia, and is affiliated with producer DCUP (born Duncan MacLennan). Yolanda Be Cool made their commercial recording debut with the Afro Nuts EP on the Australian independent label Sweat It Out in 2009. The following year they teamed up with DCUP on the house track “We No Speak Americano,” which notably samples the 1956 song “Tu Vuò Fà l’Americano” by legendary Italian singer/songwriter Renato Carosone. Initially released on Sweat It Out and later licensed for release by numerous other labels, “We No Speak Americano” was an international smash hit in summer 2010, topping the charts in over a dozen countries, including most of Europe.” ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi

 

Enjoy, crank it up and let your body do its thing! And of course ask your local professional DJ to play Yolanda Be Cool and DCup We No Speak Americano for you.

Yolanda Be Cool and DCup We No Speak Americano Music Video

http://youtu.be/CR8logunPzQ

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

 

 

The B-52s Love Shack

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The B-52s Love Shack is one of the great party songs of all time for all professional DJs!

I remember when The B-52s Love Shack first came out and all the professional DJs I knew kept adding the newest remix of this as they came out in 12″ form. I think I ended up with three of four versions of The B-52s Love Shack plus the original album version. Today I only have three versions on my MacBook but I like all of them. Both back then and now, The B-52s Love Shack is one of those songs that works with most audiences when a professional DJ needs something to really push the event to the next level and bring out the playful side of all involved.

 

I had the opportunity to see the B-52s at what was fomrerly known as The Gsdrden State Arts Center many years ago with The Violent Femmes as the opening act. It was a great night and a lot of fun and The B-52s Love Shack was one of the highlights of the show.

 

“The B-52s (originally formatted with an apostrophe as The B-52’s) are an American rock band, formed in Athens, Georgia in 1976. From 1976, the group consisted of Fred Schneider (percussion, vocals), Cindy Wilson (vocals), Kate Pierson (keyboards, vocals), Ricky Wilson(guitar), and Keith Strickland (drums). Rooted in New Wave and 1960s rock and roll, the group later worked in many genres ranging frompost-punk to pop rock. The “guy vs. gals” vocals of Schneider, Pierson, and Wilson, sometimes used in call and response style (as in “Strobe Light,” “Private Idaho,” and “Good Stuff“), are a trademark. Presenting themselves as a positive, enthusiastic, slightly oddball party band, the B-52s tell tall tales, glorify wild youth, and celebrate wild romance.”

 

I thought it would be neat to take a quick look at who was part of that Athens music scene. This is what Wikipedia had to say,

 

“The success of Athens’ local bands is apocryphally attributed to “something in the water.” The contributions of Athens to rock, country music, and bluegrass have earned it the nickname “the Liverpool of the South”, and the city is known as a birthplace for both modern alternative rock and New Wave music. Athens was home to the first and most famous college music scene in the country, beginning in the 1970s. The formation of local bands like the B-52s, Ravenstone, Pylon, Widespread Panic, Indigo Girls, Love Tractor, the Georgia Satellites, and R.E.M. had brought Athens rock to national attention by 1980.”

 

Don’t you love the bee hive hairdos on The B-52s Love Shack?

The B-52s Love Shack Music Video

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Lupe Fiasco Superstar

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I was turned on to Lupe Fiasco when I was participating in a training for youth educators on utilizing Hip Hop in the classroom. The training was incredible. The teachers were excellent! I was able to use some of the techniques in the middle school that I was coordinating an after-school program for at-risk youth. The kids loved it. The funny part is I think I got more from the training, than the kids I brought the stuff back to. But that is not anything new for me. Lupe Fiasco Superstar was one of the songs we dissected and praised.

“To intervene and provide effective affordable assistance, the Hip-Hop Education Center (HHEC) was formed to fully promulgate and explore the potential of Hip-Hop pedagogy. Officially launched in June 2010 under the auspices of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at New York University, and a generous donation from the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

The mission of the HHEC is to cultivate and support Hip-Hop scholars, teaching artists, cultural workers and activists, and social entrepreneurs to professionalize the field of Hip-Hop Education and inform the larger education sector. It achieves this through research and evaluation of programs, development of standards and best practices, documentation and archiving, community outreach and programming, leadership and teacher training, teacher placement, policy and advocacy development, and social enterprising.”

 

I find Lupe to be an inspiring writer and has the gift of being able to write and perform often hard-core songs with a light, Top 40 appeal and sound. Lupe Fiasco Superstar is an excellent example of this.

 

One of the last nights of the week-long training, the group of instructors decided they were all going to check out Lupe Fiasco, since he was in town performing not too far away. I passed. I wish I had taken their advice and gone to the show. Enjoy!

Lupe Fiasco Superstar Music Video

http://youtu.be/B6f9VXjWOwk

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Bob Marley and Lauryn Hill Turn Your Lights Down Low

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Two of my favorite artists – Bob Marley and Lauryn Hill on the same song.  To begin with, what a sweet melody and groove, few songs have the beat to match Bob Marley and Lauryn Hill Turn Your Lights Down Low with its cool rhythms and base line.

 

One of the things that I appreciate most about Lauryn Hill outside of her raw talent and passion is her ability to find songs that she cherishes and cover them with taste, respect and a new fresh sound. Unfortunately, many artists today just see dollar signs and make a remix of anything they think will sell. Lauryn is not like this and it shows in all of her covers with and without The Fugees, especially Bob Marley and Lauryn Hill Turn Your Lights Down Low.

“Nesta Robert Marley OM (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981), more widely and commonly known as Bob Marley, was a Jamaicansinger-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae bands The Wailers (1963-1974) and Bob Marley & The Wailers (1974–1981). Marley remains the most widely known and revered performer of reggae music, and is credited with helping spread both Jamaican music and the Rastafari movement to a worldwide audience.” Wikipedia

Bob Marley and Lauryn Hill Turn Your Lights Down Low is one of Bob Marley’s smooth, soulful beauties that never get old.

Bob Marley and Lauryn Hill Turn Your Lights Down Low has become one of the songs I play as a professional DJ to end the night in environments that it makes sense. A nice way to close down a gig and leave everybody with a smooth, warm feeling.

Bob Marley and Lauryn Hill Turn Your Lights Down Low Music Video

http://youtu.be/JREcKmXDeAs

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Which version do you prefer, Bob Marley and Lauryn Hill Turn Your Lights Down Low or the original Bob Marley version?

Rolling Stones Angie

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Rolling Stones Angie. I was in 7th grade.  I had crush on a young angelic creature named Licia. We talked on the phone almost every night. Licia was tall, beautiful, nice, genuine and most importantly, fun and smart. We used to talk about everything from music to science to social dynamics.

That night I was getting ready to ask Licia on a date, I was procrastinating waiting for the right moment to go for it. That moment came in the form of her favorite song, Rolling Stones Angie.

The Rolling Stones were near the peak of their popularity at the time. Mick Jagger was the international star that he is still known for today. Rolling Stones Angie is one of their best love songs – slow, simple and textured. The video lacks the creativity and polish we are accustomed to today but the song itself holds up well. If you have never heard it, Tori Amos has a haunting cover on her album Crucify.

“Released as a single in August 1973, “Angie” went straight to the top of the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached No. 5 on the UK singles chart. The song was also a No. 1 hit in both Canada and Australia for five weeks each and topped the charts in many countries throughout Europe and the rest of the world.”Wikipedia

Some radio stations made edits because of the length, down to 3 minutes, thereby omitting the longer Coda and the second instrumental sections of the song.

When I hear Rolling Stones Angie, I still think about Licia and that night on the phone sitting at our kitchen table hoping that a girl like her would go out with a boy like me, It never fails to produce a smile. Fortunately I still get requests for Rolling Stones Angie as a professional DJ and wonder if Licia still remembers that moment.

Rolling Stones Angie Music Video

 

Tori Amos Version of Rolling Stones Angie

http://youtu.be/kru916XfPGM

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ