It’s All In The Remix

The remix is an all too important element of the music industry when it comes to the commercial success of a single.
Black producers have been at the forefront of the “remix” for decades.
I mentioned in a couple of issues ago how Black disco deejays in the 1970’s used to make their own remixes of songs as patrons danced, mixing three different records at a time and manipulating them to make something almost entirely different.
The remix was used at times to sell a particular track that was good but needed a “little sumpin’, sumpin’” to cross it over to the club scene.
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the two legendary producers formerly of Prince’s protege band The Time are the second most successful producers in popular music after Beatles producer George Martin.
They had made a pact early in their career that they would only work with musicians who were either new to the game or veterans whose careers needed a bit of a push.
They were mainly responsible for spearheading the careers of R&B stars like, The S.O.S. Band, Alexander O’Neal, Cherelle and yes, the stalled career of Janet Jackson, Miss Janet, if you’re nasty!
When George Michael, who was a pop superstar at the time came knocking, they made an exception.
Aa lifelong soul and R&B fan, Michael wanted to get more of a Black audience into his music so he enlisted the Minneapolis hit-making duo to remix a track that he already essentially produced but it needed some “funky oomph.”
“George liked a remix Jam And Lewis did for Janet Jackson’s “Nasty” off of her ’86 album “Control”, her first with the dynamic duo.
He thought that chords usually watered down the funk in music but felt that Jam And Lewis were able to use chords on Janet’s nasty and it still remained funky.
Michael would have a number-one hit with “Monkey” in ’88 from his ’87 debut solo album “Faith”.
Meanwhile Jam and Lewis were inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, last week.
Guitarist, songwriter and producer Nile Rodgers, known for his time with disco hit makers Chic as well as producing smash-hits for everyone from David Bowie to Madonna is responsible for Duran Duran becoming stars by remixing their single “The Reflex,” which became their first number hit and propelled the band into superstar status.
When I spoke to Duran Duran bassist John Taylor last year, he told me, “When Nile Rodgers walks into a room, everything all of a sudden gets funky. I want to be anywhere he’s at.
Rodgers would go on to produce other hit singles for the band like: “Notorious” and “The Wild Boys”.
Hip-Hop has a big history with remixes.
San Francisco deejay Cameron Paul created his own homemade remix for a B-side to a still relatively unknown female rap trio called Salt ‘N Pepa.
Salt ‘N Pepa had a single out in 1987 called “Tramp” and they hastily recorded a B-side called “Push It”.
Paul felt that the B-side “Push It” needed a little something extra in order for him to get a good audience response from listeners for his San Fran radio show on KMEL.
Paul’s homemade remix took off with his audience and eventually the clubs loved it and was finally used as an official remix with the group’s label Next Plateau Records and became one of their signature songs.
However, when it comes to hip-hop remixes, Pete Rock is the quintessential reinventor.
Known for his work with his own group Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth whose 1992 horn-laden classic, “They Reminisce Over You” (T.R.O.Y.), he became a rap star with the duo but even bigger as remixer for the biggest hip-hop artists in the world whose tracks sometimes needed a bit of a makeover.
Heads loved the horn samples on “They Reminisce Over You”(T.R.O.Y.) sampled from saxophonist Tom Scott and his band The California Dreamers’ 1967 cover of Jefferson Airplane’s “Today” from the album “The Honeysuckle Breeze”.
By now, everyone was clamoring for Rock’s signature horn samples taken from obscure records, ensuring that no one else could copy the hooks.
But what really put Rock on the remix map was his reworking of Public Enemy’s 1991 “Shut ‘Em Down” single, complete with another Tom Scott And The Califiornia Dreamers sample, this time a track also from “The Honeysuckle Breeze” called “Never My Love”.
This put Rock on the map as a remixer. It breathed new life into the music of Public Enemy, given them a more melodic sound all the while keeping them sounding hardcore.
Rock would go on to remix more classic tracks for artists like: A Tribe Called Quest, AZ, Nas and countless others.