What is going on? Welcome to my weekly mixtape,
the show that takes the classic mixtape approach
to building a modern playlist. I'm your host,
Brian Colburn, and joining me today is the one
and only Jay Sweet. Jay, welcome back to the
show, my friend. Good to be here, man. Looking
forward to this one. Yeah, this one, I have to
thank producer Katie for submitting this idea.
Now, I know people out there are wondering, producer
Katie, did Brian all of a sudden come up with
a budget? And now can afford a producer. No producer.
Katie is also known as my wife, Katie, and she
gets top priority as she should. So when she
throws an episode suggestion my way, I am all
ears. And this one is one that Jay, you and I
have actually talked about in the past about
doing for season one. So when she brought it
up, I thought it was a no brainer that we dive
into it. That being an eighties dance party episode.
Oh yeah. Yeah, this is my wheelhouse. So when
we originally started talking about this, my
thought immediately went to like when I was a
DJ at the local roller skating rink, you know,
when I was in middle school and high school,
because, you know, that's you know, that's what
we did. And it's ladies choice and backwards
skate. And then, of course, into college, I ended
up working at clubs and didn't stop for a while
for a little bit. That was a good time. Well,
mine comes from. The 80s, this is when I was
basically listening to radio, watching MTV, pretending
to be a DJ on my mixtapes, going out to arcades.
This is my, I want to say middle school through
early high school years. So my college and an
early adult life. Yes, because I'm such a youngin
compared to you. I'm significantly older than
you, 11 billion. In my board shorts. Exactly.
I was going to say, did they make those in the
80s? They did. In fact, they didn't call them
board shorts. Not where I was from anyway, but
they were just called shorts. They were just
called shorts. And this is the 70s and the 80s.
What are you going to do? Parachute pants, right?
80s fashion strikes again. Well, like I said,
my wife threw this idea our way and I figured
what a perfect road to go down now. Most other
episodes, I am taking the ideas from you, the
mixtapers. So if you have an idea for a My Weekly
Mixtape episode that you want to hear, send it
in to me. I am all ears and eyes. MyWeeklyMixtape
at gmail .com, at My Weekly Mixtape on all the
social media haunts. You can also find me via
the contact page at MyWeeklyMixtape .com. or
by joining the Mixtaper community at patreon
.com forward slash myweeklymixtape. Now, Jay,
several of the Mixtapers there chimed in with
their 80s dance party must -haves, so it's time
to show a little love to them. Ben from the Too
Vague podcast chimed in with the Human League's
Don't You Want Me. Philip Bergman chimed in with
Michael Jackson's P .Y .T., Pretty Young Thing,
to kick it off. And then he said add some Dead
or Alive after that, Brand new lover. Now, Seeker
is also going with Dead or Alive, only he's going
with a different song choice, one that he considers
a guilty pleasure. You Spin Me Round Like a Record.
Sure. Chad LaMassa going the hip -hop route,
chimed in with Young MC's Bust a Move. Sean Goff
chimed in with Technotronics' Pump Up the Jam,
saying, and I quote, I mean, come on, the title
alone. And finally, Tom Hutchinson chimed in
with Give it to me baby by Rick James saying
it gets him ready to party every time he hears
it. So just as a reminder, you can join the mixtaper
community for free over at patrion .com forward
slash my weekly mixtape. All right, Mr. Sweet,
it's up to you to get this eighties dance party
started on the right foot. Okay. What 45 are
you dropping the needle on first for us tonight?
I want to say that Rick James is a solid selection.
That post -disco funk, right? Yeah. Early 80s
post -disco funk. That super freak. That's a
unique sound. We had Parliament. My brain didn't
go that way. I didn't have Rick on my list on
this round. But what I am going to start off
with is one of the most solid ways to kick off
a mixtape ever. And that's going to be Shannon's
Let the Music Play, 1983. I mean, the birth of
freestyle dance can be traced back to this song.
This was kind of the thing that started out.
I'm going to get a little nerdy here. The Roland
TR -808. Yep. So for those of you that don't
know, the TR -808 is a Roland drum machine. And
a lot of the dance songs you're familiar with
utilize that. This one also uses the TB -303
bass. That's right. So the synth bass sound that
you get in a lot of 80s dance songs all come
courtesy of Roland. So thank you, Roland. Hell,
not to go too deep right off the bat, but if
you remember the hip hop song, Call Me D -Nice,
I'm the TR -808. So just call me D -Nice. That's
a shout out to this. I got to say, man. When
you think about some of the artists' names in
the 80s, there's a kind of a gumption that goes
along with it because a lot of artists said,
we don't even need a last name. Prince, Madonna,
Tiffany, Sade, Martika, and Shannon, they just
said, who needs a last name? The music will speak
for itself. And in this case, she kind of birthed
a whole new sound of music. So I think she gets
the right to use the solo name here. Yeah, listen,
I'm not going to argue with if that's what, you
know, you do what your heart tells you. Right.
And her heart was telling her, you're going to
write some proto freestyle music and you're going
to use your first name only. That's it. And it's
going to rock. So let me set the scene for you.
Obviously, before lasers and those fancy lights,
we had those incandescent 25 watt light bulbs
that were colored in the sticks in the ceiling.
Right. Yes. And you got the music that's pumping
in the lights are kind of synchronized ish. before
computers and algorithms and all that fun stuff.
And even before DMX lighting techniques, which
are for those of you are not inside the industry,
the DMX is, is a, it's a language that the light
lighting program software uses to communicate
with all the lights and synchronize everything
really nice in a club or at a concert venue.
For example, you'll see that all the time. So
this is the first major. I mean, you can go into
from here. You can go into without this. You
don't get breaking to right. You don't get electric
boogaloo. So this is the kind of the music that
really started off that Euro dance. It kind of
picked up where disco was and it kind of made
it a little bit more wild. Well, speaking of
wild, I think I'm going to follow that up with
a song. I'm going to go all the way to the end
of the decade. I mean, I'm going to tow the line.
with a song that I'll tell you right now, 1989
and 1990 is my musical blind spot. I don't know
why, Jay, if you tell me an album was released
in 1989 or 1990, I'll just say yes. Because those
two years to me completely blend together. And
there are so many songs that if you said to me,
this song, came out in 1989 and belongs on an
80s playlist, I would agree with you. And you
could say to me, this song came out in 1989,
but it belongs on a 90s playlist. I would also
believe you. And this is definitely one of those
examples. Okay. This album was released in November
of 1989. And the reason I know that fact is because
I remember asking for it for Christmas. And I
have to give a shout out. to Patreon mixtaper
Sean Goff, because he chimed in with this as
well. We are going to go with Technotronic featuring
Ya Kid K's Pump Up the Jam. Nice. This is one
of those songs that, yes, it is an 80s song.
It was a summer of 1989 hit, but the album, Pump
Up the Jam, colon, the album was released right
before the turn into the new decade. So when
a lot of 90s dance playlists feature Technotronic,
that's the reason why. And the other reason I
think this is an interesting pick to start is
while it fits and it checks the box for an 80s
dance song, there's a shelf life to this song.
And that is thanks to stadiums and sports picking
it up as a sports and stadium anthem. You remember
those ESPN jock jam CDs in the nineties. This
was a feature track on it. And I was playing
this for my soon to be 17 year old. And she goes,
dad, that song is played everywhere. And it is
35 plus years later. And it is still just as
prominent. I make the case. I submit to you,
Jay, that pump up the jam. is a timeless dance
song and definitely deserves to be on this playlist,
80s or not. You will get no argument from me.
This song, again, it follows right along the
lines of that end of the decade freestyle, right?
It's kind of evolved and it's got a little bit
more bass to it. We're starting to lean into
the path of that 90s bass, Miami bass sound,
right? And this song, it's ubiquitous. You can't
get away from this song. If you're a sports fanatic,
if you go to the club still, it brings tremendous
energy. And that's why it's everywhere. All right.
So we got let the music play and pump up the
jam. Where do we go from here? Let's we got a
nice little kind of freestyle groove going here
with that feel. And I want to go with Company
B's Fascinated next. Oh, that's probably a deeper
cut, but it did hit pop radio and it it was huge
in clubs. Look at you, Mr. Box Checker, for the
freestyle movement. Yes. I mean, Shannon, like
we mentioned earlier, was at the beginning of
the freestyle sound, but Company B was part of
freestyle's mainstream acceptance. Because if
I'm correct here, Fascinated was one of the first
freestyle songs to make a solid Billboard Top
40 impact. This song, as far as I remember, was
unescapable on Z100 New York in 1987. However,
I have to go with the kind of maybe forgotten
song, Jay, because like you said, I wonder if
people are listening right now going, I don't
know what the hell song he's talking about. Trust
me, when you go to the episode page at myweeklymixtape
.com and you click play on it, you're going to
go, oh, yeah. How did I forget this song? It
is an absolute banger. And I promise you, if
you feel like you don't remember it, there's
a good chance this one's going to clear some
cobwebs because I can think of a few times over
the decades this song has come on and people
have gone, why do I? Oh, my God, I completely
forgot this one. It's one of those songs. But
at the end of the day, the vocals on it are absolutely
incredible, almost veering a rock territory.
The note she hits in it, she's got some. grit
to her voice and the song just oozes that late
80s club feel absolutely and like i said these
are the kinds of songs that we listen to running
around that giant oval at the skating rink swallowing
down uh what did we call them atomic bombs the
little old style soda machine that you could
get and we'd mix the the coke and the orange
and the sprite and the cherry coke and then you
drop an atomic fireball in there oh i called
those a graveyard Graveyard. Okay. We call them
atomic bombs. Okay. All right. Those were many
a summer and a few weekends in the spring. That
takes me right back. Well, you said this before,
Jay, we have been going pretty female heavy so
far. So I'm going to bring the men into the discussion
here. Cause there's a lot of great male dance
songs. And I think I'm going to move the needle
slightly away from freestyle. And I think I'm
going to bring some new Jack swing into the fold
because That was a huge part of the late 80s.
I'm talking 1988 here. And in 1988, one of the
songs that was everywhere was Bobby Brown's My
Prerogative. Nice. Number one hit for a good
part of the year. Fast forward 20 years later,
Britney Spears covered it. And I'm wondering,
I think she covered it more for the message of
the song. than the actual music itself, because
I don't consider Britney a new Jack swing artist.
However, the message of the media giving her
a break was similar in nature to what Bobby Brown
went through when I'll just say he exited new
edition, whether he was kicked out or not, we
can get, you know, his, his, his departure from
new edition. Right. My prerogative, I want to
say it was the second song. that he put out from
don't be cruel. It might've, I think don't be
cruel might've been the lead single, but don't
hold me to that. But this was the one that the
album exploded and you couldn't escape Bobby
Brown. He solidified himself as a solo star with
this song. Absolutely. And this is his, he had
that little bit of a bad boy image to him. And,
and that unfortunately plagued him for most of
his career, but I'll tell you what. the man could
perform and he could do a song and it's infectious
and it's a great addition. That's a nice little
middle of the pack run there. Yeah. That baseline
to me reminds me in a way, not exactly, but it
has elements of the Humpty dance where the Humpty
dance is a do re do re. You have the do, do,
do, do, do. It's got that swing to it that we've.
kind of avoided for the first few songs. And
I feel like this gives you kind of a chance to
break off in any direction you want now. So it's
not a complete freestyle mix. You know, like
I said, my head kind of went here. So I'm kind
of in that rut. Let me, let me yank that right
back in because you can't, there's no dance party
that would be complete without. This song and
the relevance that it has. Another one of those
you can't escape it kind of songs. J .J. Fad's
Supersonic. Oh, yeah. I mean, from from the sporting
venues all the way up to Fergie Ferg redoing
the song after her exit from the Black Eyed Peas.
And again, that's true freestyle right there
with three females rapping over that beat and
those instrumentations. Perfect. Having recently
watched the 2025 Grammy Awards ceremony and seeing
Salt -N -Pepa get inducted and thinking about
the way that had it not been for J .J. Fadd,
Salt -N -Pepa, the door might not have been open
for them. And Salt -N -Pepa is now in as an artist,
as a group. And J .J. Fadd kind of paved that
way. And there's a reason why the Beastie Boys
referenced them in too many rappers and Eminem.
does a shout out in rap. God, like these are
decades later. It all points back to this song.
So Jay, you're really picking these monumental.
These are historical tracks you're choosing so
far in this mix while they're awesome to dance
to as well. Of course. Of course. I, you know,
I tried to, like I said, my, my brain immediately
went to all of the. roller skating rink parties
that i was part of and or hosted or whatever
the case may be but it was also the fact that
you know let's hit the highlights here let's
really give homage and pay credit where credit
is due well i think we're gonna have a trifecta
though because my prerogative and supersonic
both came out in 1988 so i feel like i gotta
stay in 1988 for one more song all right because
and i don't know maybe i'll try to pitch bend
my voice for the recording When I actually air
this. But as soon as you hear the words. Right
about now. You're about to be possessed. By the
sounds of. MC Rob Bass. And DJ Easy Rock. Hit
it. It takes two. I don't think I've been to
a wedding reception. Post 1988. That this song.
Wasn't played. This song. As far as I'm concerned.
Is one of the greatest. hip -hop dance tracks
of all time. There's a timeless energy to this
song. It feels just as new this year as it did
in 1988. That is something that is so hard to
pull off in music. And I'll say this, without
picking on any of the songs we've talked about
tonight, there are a few that you could say,
yes, I pinpoint that to the 1980s. And I'm sure
someone will make an argument that it takes two
is definitely an eighties vibe, but I don't know,
man, you throw that into a nineties hip hop playlist.
I don't think anybody's going to argue it. You
throw it into a two thousands hip hop playlist.
I don't think anybody's going to argue it. It's
like a fine wine. It pairs well with any era
of music. Absolutely. I do have a critique of
the song though. Something I've been mad about
since 1988. All right. The beep in the song,
the censorship. I like the whopper. Yes, there
is no uncensored version anywhere. I hate the
beef because even if you're in a dance club,
the lays over the whole song. And in a lot of
nineties, when cursing and radio edits became
much more commonplace, they would reverse the
word. or do the vocal dip where the voice track
just drops out. Having the beep sit on top of
the entire song has always pissed me off. I don't
know why. It's my only critique. I don't get
negative often, but damn it, Rob Bass, if you're
listening, drop the uncensored version already.
It's 2026 now. I think we can handle it. I don't
know if the Big Mac can, but we can handle it.
I don't remember. Does the album version have
the censor too? Yes. Now I should go on record
and say there is a re -recording where he just
drops out and doesn't say the word, but it's
not the original track, the original album cut.
I have looked for years because I hate it that
much. And I have not been, I almost want to make
one myself. That's wild. Cause so maybe, maybe
there was no intention to, I mean, the whole
reason that these songs came out. And remember,
with the PMRC and that, the way that the country
still kind of laid into its puritanical roots
a little bit, that very well may have played
into it. But I seem to remember a few, like when
I was in radio, when I started working in radio,
we started doing those backmasket, right? You
cut the tape and then you flip it around and
then it's, you know, it reverses the word. Yes.
And it kept the beat and everything. I would
have been fine with that censoring of the song.
Sure. The beep over the track, even if you're
at like a wedding, that beep, it's jarring. And
at the time, I guess maybe they didn't know the
impact that this song would have. Sure. So here
in 2025, when you can't hear any song, like I'm
sure there's Kid Bop CDs now that are littered
with the F -bop. At this point. Well, didn't
they just do a Sabrina Carpenter tune? I mean,
that's insane. We sound like we're old men yelling
at a cloud right now, but damn it. Rob bass,
take the beep out of the song, but besides that
point, a timeless dance, hip hop, classic hands
down, full stop. Here's something we've gone
onto a tangent about this, but it's worth the
conversation. When digital undergrounds Humpty
dance came out. On MTV, didn't they bleep Burger
King? Now that you mention it, I know there was
censorship in the video. I'm just not 100 % sure
if it was Burger King or not now. Maybe I'm misremembering
it, but I'm almost positive that they bleeped
out Burger King. I once got busy in a beep beep
bathroom of all things, right? You would think
Burger King would like the publicity, right?
It was a free promo. No, I seem to remember.
I'd have to look it up, but. Might have been
in the single version, too. I don't know. I'd
have to go back to Syracuse in circa 1990 and
find WNTQ playing the song. But yeah, it's a
great pick. It really is. Like you said, tying
it all back in and putting the train back on
the track here. It's a transcendent song. It
goes with every genre because a good dance song
is a good dance song. So how are you going to
follow that up, though? Because that is a barn
burner of a track. It sure is, Brian. Let's stay
in the pop radio side of things. Let's talk about
another female trio. Wonderful vocals, great
harmonies, and some real high energy. And I'm
talking about Expose. The song is Point of No
Return. Nice. I honestly thought when you were
starting to lead into it, I was thinking Bananarama
for some reason. That would work too. No, but
yeah, this is another one I discovered. this
group through my sister who was 18 months younger
than me. So she was into all of that while I
was into new wave and different songs. This is
one of those bands that people don't realize
the impact they had in the eighties expose. And
I don't know the exact number, so don't quote
me on this, but they're up there with the Supremes
in terms of having the most. Top 10 hits in a
row for a female group. They did their dance
stuff, but they also had ballads. If you remember
Seasons Change. Sure. Was also from this album.
They were unstoppable in 1987. This album, I
knew so many people that had it on record and
cassette. And then I remember when my friends
started getting CD players in the late 80s, early
90s. They re -released Exposé's Exposure on CD,
and it kind of had not a resurgence, but people
went out and got it because they had to hear
it on the new sound. The new clean digital, which
was analog to digital conversion. At that point,
yeah. Right, right. All right. I'm going to stay
right in that same vein, but I'm going to stay
towards the late 80s again with a song that I
think follows it up. Really, really well. And
this artist is from Sweden. Sweden? Oh, is it
the Swedish chef? No. Mork? No. Oh. This song
has dance, hip hop, pop, all thrown together
in a blender. And she does it with absolute ease.
And I'm going to go with Nene Cherry's Buffalo
Stance. Oh. Beautiful. This song took over radio
in 1989. I remember being at summer camp, arguing
with my friends over what we were going to play
next. Was it going to be Buffalo stance or Metallica's
one? Because we liked both songs, but it felt
weird listening to them back to back to back.
Two great tastes that don't quite taste great
together. We had a cassette deck outside when
we were sitting outside having our pizza at lunch.
And we had both tapes. And we're like, well,
let's put on Metallica. Then we'll do Buffalo
Stance. No, we should do Buffalo Stance first.
I said, you know, but if you do the darker part
of Metallica going into the heavy part where
you're amped up, then it'll go into Buffalo Stance.
So we literally had these arguments in seventh
grade. Now, this is something that. I learned
a lot about in this era. I was seventh, eighth
grade around this time, radio edits versus album
versions. You had this cassette single. At least
I had the cassette single for Buffalo stance.
And that was the version you heard on the radio.
If you went out and got the raw, like sushi album,
it was two minutes longer with segments looped.
And it's a completely different experience. And
to people that heard the song, 12 million times
on the radio that could either be a good or a
bad thing you were getting more of the song but
it also didn't feel as familiar to this day i
still have the radio edit on my phone because
i'm so used to the radio edit version the way
it starts with the rap at the beginning the version
on raw like sushi doesn't and it's weird for
me yeah this is a song that the minute you hear
buffalo stance you immediately know every word
to the song and no money man can win my love
it's sweetness that i'm thinking of the coolest
thing about nina cherry by the way her brother
eagle eye cherry of save tonight fame the coolest
thing about her was she was a package she could
dance she could sing and she could rap and putting
all of that together on on that single now again
growing up in little syracuse new york It's a
shame that we didn't hear more from her from
that album on the radio. I thought she was well
on her way to being bigger than she ended up
being in terms of radio play. But that record
is solid. Yeah, she is certainly much more popular
than the song indicates around the world. But
in the U .S., she didn't take that trajectory
as much as you would expect. Exactly. All right.
Well, look. Let's come out of that and we'll
talk about this band hit my radar because of
the fact that they sampled Mr. Spock. Nah, I
know where you're going. And we're going to talk
about Information Society or INSOC with What's
On Your Mind, Pure Energy in parentheses that
had the beginning. Again, you're talking about
single versions versus album versions and radio
edits versus the seven inch club mix and those
kind of that thing took off. There are no less
than five versions of this song on any given
sampler CD. Right. And I think the thing that
really sticks out to me is the beginning of it's
McCoy. Right. That says in the beginning, well,
we're not out of the woods yet or something.
It's been a while since I've heard that version
of the song. But and then it goes, I want to
know what you're thinking. And it's all acapella.
And then the beat kicks in and it's sick. It's
kind of proto nine inch nail industrial, right?
It's got the hammers hitting the anvil. It's
just really, really well done. I guess kind of
Euro freestyle. I'd call this synth pop. And
I feel like you can't do an 80s dance mix without
acknowledging the stranglehold that synth pop
had in the late 80s on top 40 radio. And I'm
going to go out on a limb and say this would
be the only song we'll talk about tonight that
features Leonard Nimoy. So as soon as you said
Spock, I knew exactly where you're going with
this. This, like Pump Up the Jam, had a life
in the 90s. Now I'm going to get really nerdy
on you here, Jay. Okay. Did you own a Sega CD,
the console that came out after the Sega Genesis?
No, I didn't. My friend Tim did. Okay, if you
got a Sega CD, it came with a sampler disc, and
it was a CDG sampler. So that's CD and graphics,
similar to the karaoke graphics you'd see on
a 90s or 2000s karaoke screen. And one of the
songs on the sampler disc was Information Society's
What's On Your Mind, Pure Energy. I'm going to
look this up. I am sure there's a version of
it living somewhere on YouTube. And if I find
it, I'm going to embed it on the episode page
at myweeklymixtape .com. CDNG was a very strange
phenomenon. I had a copy of Jimi Hendrix's smash
hits that also had the CDG treatment. And it
was a situation where you put one of these CDGs
into a Sega CD player. Only to be treated to
this very Nintendo 4 -bit, which is actually
less than the Nintendo Entertainment System,
but I think it was a total palette of 16 -color
graphical cartoon that played as the CD music
was playing. So it was synced up in time. Sometimes
there was lyrics. Sometimes it was just these
strange psychedelic graphics. That was more the
Jimi Hendrix. The theme of the Information Society
version had the lyrics going across the bottom
of the screen with some animation going on top.
It was, man, at the time, it was mind -blowing.
However, when you compare it to a PlayStation
5, I mean, it basically was like beep, boop,
beep, boop, beep, boop in terms of graphics.
But at the time, it was mind -blowing. It was
absolutely mind -blowing. And every time I hear
this song, I remember seeing that on screen for
the first time on my Sega CD and having my mind
blown in the 90s. So it kind of lived in two
decades for me. Well, that's wild. I mean, you
you brought up synth pop. And I think, you know,
not that I want to spoil where we might go on
side two, but you could not. You've got soft
sell. You've got Depeche Mode, I guess, you know,
to an extent. Oh, who did? Hold on. Who did?
Let's make lots of money opportunities. Patch
up, boys. Yep. Beat me to it. Very much in that
vein. And there's a lot of that to spread the
wealth. But Information Society had another song
called Walking Away. Not as big of a hit song
as what's on your mind. But boy, again, you couldn't
go into any club or roller skating rink or dance
venue of any kind without that song playing.
Oh, I still have the 1988 self -titled CD and
it's great all the way through. I mean, seriously,
if you've never heard the Information Society
album, do yourself a favor and go back and give
yourself a little synth pop experience because
you deserve it. And follow it up with Erasure.
Well, I'm not going to do that. Oh, okay. You
started off with an artist that went by a singular
name. So to close out Side A, I'm going to go
with an artist. That could be a singular name.
And I'm sure some would argue should be. Isn't,
but the album title is. And as soon as I say
the album title, you're going to know who I'm
talking about, and you're going to know exactly
what song I'm about to drop to close outside
A. From 1987's Whitney. Ooh. Whitney Houston,
I Want to Dance with Somebody. Nice. Pop anthem.
You cannot talk 80s dance and not include Whitney,
one of the greatest singers of all time in the
R &B pop space. I don't think there's a lot of
people that would argue that she deserves to
be in the female vocalist pantheon of singers.
Maybe there are people that would argue that,
but I'd be on Team Whitney for this one. We had
Bobby Brown earlier, her husband. I don't even
want to get into the later years with the reality
TV nonsense. This is focused solely on the music.
This song, undeniable. Every wedding you go to,
it's played. So much so that if you're out there
saying you don't like this song, let's say you're
a, I don't know, metal fan. And you're like,
oh, I don't like Whitney Houston. Jay, have you
ever seen the viral video that went out around
TikTok and on all the social media sites of the
metal concert where they started moshing to I
want to dance with somebody? Yes. When the chorus
hit, not only was everybody moshing, they were
singing it at the top of their lungs. Unbelievable.
I will embed that video on the episode page at
myweeklymixtape .com because if you have not
seen it, it is awesome and is the reason why
I'm using it to close out side A because even
if you're a metal fan, this song works. Absolutely.
You can't argue. I mean, much like when Kurt
Cobain said, you know, you've made it as an artist
when Weird Al covers you, right? You can't deny
the mark that Whitney Houston has left on the
music. universe everybody it's again i use the
word transcends it's she's everywhere everyone
knows that song everyone knows the now it's the
newest tiktok trend where they're they're doing
the i will always love you challenge where you're
supposed to hit the beat you know when she does
it it's bananas but that's we're talking about
30 years 40 years later and it's still An enormous
song. We talked about how Information Society
was synth pop. This song is more pop synth, right?
But it's still got that flavor to it. And it's
a great dance song, no matter how you slice it.
Well, there you go, folks. Side A of the ultimate
80s dance party, which kicked off with Shannon's
Let the Music Play, followed up by Technotronic
featuring Ya Kid K's Pump Up the Jam, Company
B's Fascinated, Bobby Brown's My Prerogative,
JJ Fad's Supersonic, Rob Basin, DJ Easy Rocks,
It Takes Two, Exposé's Point of No Return, Nene
Cherry's Buffalo Stance, Information Society's
What's On Your Mind, Pure Energy, and Whitney
Houston's I Wanna Dance With Somebody. Head over
to myweeklymixtape .com to hear all the songs
we've discussed in this mix. through the playlist
embedded on the episode page. And now Jay, I'm
going to kick off side B of our 20 song eighties
dance party playlist. And on side a, you brought
up JJ fads, supersonic. And I said, that song
helped pave the way. And maybe because it's still
fresh on my mind from their rock and roll hall
of fame induction. I feel like to kick off side
B. We have to give some love to Salt -N -Pepa's
Push It. Yes. This song is an 80s dance anthem,
1986's Hot, Cool, and Vicious. DJ Spinderella,
and she said it herself, she is the first female
DJ to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame. Now, I know there's somebody out there
that's listening that's thinking Salt -N -Pepa
aren't rock and roll. And I'm here to challenge
that in every aspect of the argument. Rock and
roll is not always a sound. I feel that rock
and roll is a state of mind and a state of being.
It is the entire package. And Saul and Peppa
are that. They were trailblazers, trendsetters,
influencers before there was a such thing on
social media. And they put out one of the most
infectious dance songs of the eighties and then
followed it up in the nineties by staying just
as relevant with the changing tides of dance
music. Shoop. What a man within Vogue. Let's
talk about sex. They knew how to follow the trends
of music and stay ahead of the game. They deserve
to be on this playlist and they deserve to kick
off side B. I cannot. Agree with you more. It's
just not metaphysically possible. We have to
go back and you look at what rock and roll was
to all of you. And again, I don't want to belabor
the point, but it's to all anybody who thinks
that rock and roll does not encompass R &B and
hip hop. Look, rock and roll was a counterculture.
And then it splintered into, you know, you had
doo -wop and you had R &B and you had soul. And
then it splintered further in all of those. genres
are counterculture to an extent. So they absolutely
belong in the whole theme. Although I will say
there's a lot of bands that I feel like still
need to get there just do. But that's another
conversation for another time, Jay. Yeah, definitely.
Definitely. All right. You can't put a dance
mix party mix out without including this guy
who kind of closed out the 80s in terms of high
energy and great rap. And I believe that Chad
LaMassa chimed in with this gentleman. And that's
Young MC with Bust a Move. Yes. Yes. I love it.
I liked Principal's Office, by the way, was his
follow up hit. And it was a little bit one of
those parents don't understand kind of songs.
But Bust a Move has got some infectious energy.
And both of those songs, fun fact, feature the
one and only Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers
on bass. Well, I learned something today. You
didn't know that? I did not. Oh, well, this is
what you get when you sit there and you open
up the J cards as you're listening to the tape
over and over and over again. I had known at
the time Mother's Milk from the Red Hot Chili
Peppers, but that was it. So I'm like, oh, this
guy Flea, who I also read was in the Red Hot
Chili Peppers, plays bass on this song. Flea
was everywhere. Alanis Morissette's Who Ought
to Know. Yeah, yeah. I mean. If you're going
to put a funky -ass bass line on your track,
why not? He was also Needles in the Back to the
Future series. That he was. And this was a song,
believe it or not, both Bust a Move and Principal's
Office that, as far as I'm concerned, in my personal
life, were intergenerational. And I say that
because my father friggin' loved Stone Cold Ryman.
Nice. From I Come Off. principal's office, bust
a move, fastest rhyme. My dad loved this tape.
I played it all the time. And when he, when I
would make him mix tapes, cause he worked on
the road. So he was in his car all the time.
He'd be like, Hey, throw principal's office on
it for me or throw bust a move on it for me.
Or I come off. Cause this was getting to the
point where I was starting to splinter from what
my parents listened to. But there were certain
albums around this time. Aerosmith's Pump was
another one where my father and I connected.
And it was like a generational cross of music.
Nirvana, all the way up through Heart Shaped
Box, there was still that cross. And then it
really started to splinter throughout the 90s
where he kind of like, as I call it, tapped out
of music at that point. But this album, he loved
it. He knew every word to bust a move. This played
at our wedding. This was a must have on the dance
floor. And I'm sure I'm not alone. A lot of weddings
probably rock this song. Absolutely. But now
I only have one aching need, and that is to get
some kind of footage of your father singing every
word to principal's office by a young MC. I wish
I had it, man. It was so much fun. We lived in
a time where there were no cell phones, man.
You couldn't just whip out a phone and video
somebody. And some of it, it's good. It's a good
thing that most of it, it's a good thing that
that's the case. But for this, I would have loved
to have seen that. I will say this. I do have
one of the karaoke cassettes from Wildwood of
my father and his friend doing Beastie Boys Fight
for Your Right to Party. Awesome. And when they
were done, you could literally hear the crowd
that gathered because they used to air it live
on the boardwalk while people were singing. And
they played the song and they aired it on the
speakers outside the booth. At the end of the
recording, you can hear people cheering because
my dad and his buddy knocked it out of the park.
Very cool. All right. We're on side B and I feel
like. You checked off, you were Mr. Box Checker
on Side A with like important historical songs.
And I feel like there's certain artists, I got
Whitney Houston in there, but there's some other
artists that I feel like we are going to catch
so much hell and so much flack if we don't include
them. So let's go with an obvious one here because
you can't talk 80s dance without talking Madonna.
I just don't know. express yourself holiday,
lucky star into the groove, open your heart.
That's a little bit more on the pop radio side
of things, but I'm going to go back to some earlier
Madonna and go off of 84 is like a virgin and
let's go address you up. Nice. It's got a little
bit more of a punkier pop spirit to it. So much
so that real big fish and Zoloft, the rock and
roll destroyer covered it decades later. And
it worked as a punk rock song. So I feel like
I don't want to bring rock into this playlist
in terms, especially of like the rock sound.
I know I just went on a spiel about the rock
and roll hall of fame. Sure. But Madonna is the
rock and roll attitude and you feel it on dress
you up. It's, it's a, I don't want to say heavier.
But this song's got a bit of a edge to it that
I feel like coming out of Push It and Bust a
Move holds up. And I love her vocals on the chorus.
There's just such a almost Joan Jett -type rasp
when she's singing it. It works so well. The
song is just so much fun. So there are so many
Madonna songs I can include here, and I'm sure
there's going to be some Madonna fans out there
that are like, why didn't you go with Express
Yourself? given the vibe we've had so far and,
and you're right. An amazing song, but I just,
that's nineties, isn't it? No, it was 89 on the,
like a prayer album, but like technotronics pump
up the jam. It had life in 1990. So it gets put
on both decades when it comes to playlists, but
I don't know. I'm just feeling dressy up today.
Nice. Oh, I like it. I'm not going to argue with
it. Madonna has long since cemented her position
as the the queen of pop and unmitigated, just
able to, again, reinvent herself for all styles
of pop music and how that how the changing trends
were and how she was able to stay on top of all
that. She's the undisputed queen. There's no
question about it. dress you up as a great tune
has great energy high energy and then he's guaranteed
to get everybody dancing so um i know i've set
the bar kind of tough for you now because that's
like yeah like how do we um all right um let's
go into this later on 80s trends of of where
dance music kind of was going and this is kind
of like one of those I can't call it a boy band,
but it was a group. Well, it's the Jets. Wow.
Let's go with all over him. Oh, wait, no. No,
I'm going with Crush On You. Yeah, let's go with
Crush On You, because I could have gone with,
what was the other? Now I can't even think of
the name of it, but it was the one where he's
singing about the girl calls him all the time
to go over and fix all her stuff. The theme to
Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers? Maybe. Could
have been. No, it's Crush on You is one of those
great high energy tunes. And again, it's one
of those where these guys just one hit after
another. And for a little while, you couldn't
get away from this album. No. if you were younger
in the eighties and you watch Nickelodeon, Nickelodeon
latched onto the jets with the Nick rocks show.
If you remember that, if not, I might've cleared
some cobwebs off your brain. They were all in
on the jets. Yeah. Rocket to you was the song
I was thinking of. Okay. Okay. Yeah. That was
definitely a, uh, coming out of Madonna, but.
Yeah, undeniable. I honestly, when you said group,
I assumed you were going to go new kids on the
block. But then when you said a mixed group,
I knew that wasn't the case. I could easily make
a case following up the Jets crush on you with
you got the right stuff. But I know I can't do
that dance. I can't either. I can't do any dance.
Let's just be honest. I think the reason my wife
picked this is because she knows how terrible
of a dancer I am. But I also have artists that
I'm like, if we don't get to them, I got to be
obvious here, dude. And we got to go with another
artist that if you don't include it on an 80s
dance mix, like what are we doing here? And that's
Michael Jackson. Oh, you've got to. I mean, you've
got to. Philip Bergman chimed in with Pretty
Young Thing. You could go with Billie Jean. You
can go with Beat It, Smooth Criminal. want to
be starting something, but we're almost halfway
through side B. So that seems oddly placed and
anticlimactic. Had I started side B with want
to be starting something instead of push it,
it might've made more sense, but I'm just going
to go with the title track. 1982 thriller. Beautiful.
I mean, that song is a, I know it's universally
tied to Halloween because of the Vincent price
segment. But when I think of 80s dance, I know
we're talking roller rinks and dancing on the.
But in my mind, one of the first dances I think
of is either the moonwalk or the thriller dance.
The post graveyard scene, of course. Both of
them are in my mind. They're equally as iconic
on the 80s music spectrum. Now I'm going to,
I'll throw a poll up on the episode page. I want
to know if you're listening, which of the two
do you feel is more iconic in the history of
music, the moonwalk or the dance and thriller?
Ooh, I think I'm going with moonwalk just for
the, the nostalgia feeling, but I'll tell you
what, that world premiere video. We were allowed
to watch and stay up late and wait for that video
to drop when it premiered on MTV in 1982. And
we had nightmares for weeks. Yes, that was an
event. That video, John Landis, by the way, American
Werewolf in London, where a lot of the special
effects were taken from. He directed that video.
And I mean, that video was a movie. It was a
movie in and of itself. And it was complete.
complete with this gorgeous choreography that,
you know, all these zombies and monsters and
ghouls were doing in this alleyway. It's just
so well done. The choreography is stellar. Oh,
and I got chills from that. I mean, listen, 1982,
those effects where he transforms into the wolf.
I don't want to spoil nothing. If you haven't
seen it, you should see it by now. Like I would
imagine that everybody has. But by this point,
man. the whole special effects with the ears
and the hair growing up out of his skin. And
they showed the making of after the video. So
after we were too busy crying, scared out of
our gourd, we got to see how it was made. That
kind of helped me sleep a little better knowing
it really wasn't real. Absolutely. Absolutely.
What a, I mean, listen, Michael Jackson is musically
not touchable. He could sing, he could dance.
He was there. He just had his finger right on
the pulse of the music industry where it needed
to be. And Thriller is a perfect album. You can't
go wrong. Every song on that was a hit. PYT is
an amazing song, by the way. Great choice. But
I think very on the nose to include Thriller.
And I'll say this for anybody who's thinking,
well, that's a Halloween song. It's not really
a party song. I know the movie hasn't aged well
for a lot of people. But think back to the Lambda
Lambda Lambda and Omega Moo party in Revenge
of the Nerds. Sure. When they break out the wonder
joints, what's the song that's playing? Michael
Jackson's Thriller. Thriller. It works as a party
song. I'll stand by that. Well, look, if you're
going to call it a Halloween song, okay, where
are you playing it? At a Halloween party. That's
where you're playing it. So it's a party song.
Brian, what a great pick, man. That was a great
pick. How do I come out of that? Again, I'm setting
you up here. I'm really sorry, man. I'm just.
Well, you know, let's do this. We went through
with through Thriller and Thriller is a wild
song with a wild video. Let's stay in the pop
dance version of this mixtape. And I'm going
to go with Escape Club's Wild Wild West. Oh,
yeah. That's a fantastic song. That it is. My
old cover band used to play it. Such a fun. I
loved when that came up because that baseline,
because the drums start and you really don't
know what it is. But then when you hit that,
people would go absolutely nuts. And it's again,
one of those radio edit album version, two completely
different experiences because the whole reggae
sequence is doubled on the album. So I have both
versions on my playlist. Depends on what mood
I'm in. Such a great song. And another one of
those, I think I picked it up first on a compilation
CD, the Pop 88, whatever it was, Pop 80s. It
had a bottle cap as the picture of the CD liner.
It was really, really cool to kind of have that.
And that song is, you know, Escape Club is another
one of those groups that. I think they kind of
suffered with the change of the times a little
bit. They did have a great ballad in 1991 or
92 called I'll Be There. And it was a that's
a great song. It's a longer one. I think it's
over five minutes, but it's a nice it's a great
song. And their lead singer is fantastic. Oh,
they also had Shake for the Sheik was a great
follow up to Wild Wild West. Yeah, the whole
album is great. Yep, absolutely. All right, your
turn. All right. I've got other artists that
I need to include or else it's just, this one's
tough though, because this can lean me very easily
into rock because I, I mean, as far as I'm concerned,
I did the episode back around Thanksgiving about
my father. And I talked about how I would get
up and go crazy to let's go crazy from purple
rain. And part of me wants to go there because
we're thinking Prince and Prince, you can't,
have a dance playlist, but the guitar solo at
the end really does take it a little bit more
rock leaning. And I want to highlight the dancier
side of Prince. And I think the only way to do
that is to say 15 bucks, little man, and go with
Morris day and the mother in time and jungle
love. Speaking of which this episode should have
had a third guest. However, you were too busy
taking selfies with silent Bob, recreating your
own J. Hey, look, it's the new J and silent Bob.
That's right, dude. And I'm going to put them
on the episode page at my weekly mixtape .com.
So everybody can see them, but come on, man.
Wow. Oh, you got to meet Kevin Smith, which is
absolutely awesome. But the times jungle love
following up while, while West just musically,
it feels good. It works. It works a lot. I, you
know, so I missed, Muse. He was, they were both
here for chronic con in Chicago. And, um, they
both came into the station to do an interview,
to promote the show, to promote the convention.
And I think Muse was feeling a little tired and
he had left to kind of go back to the hotel room.
And he, he said, I guess it was before I happened.
One of my TDs, one of my, one of my technical
directors happened to run into the both of them.
And he said to, uh, he said, Muse said to Kevin,
You got this right. I'm going to go. And he just
left. So I got to meet him afterwards. I had
to do a double take while I'm walking down the
hall and he's standing in the green room. He's
standing in the doorway at the green room, just,
you know, hanging out. And so, you know, he used
to be a bigger dude. Oh, yeah. He lost a lot
of weight since the heart attack. Absolutely.
And I haven't seen him in person since ever.
So this would be my first time. So I'm like.
I'm looking and I'm walking past. I'm on my way
down to the director's office to find my directors.
And I walk by and I have my head because there's
a gaggle of people just hanging out the green
room. And I've got my head kind of cocked to
the left a little bit. And I see him and I'm
walking and I just got the stupid grin on my
face like, hey, everything's fine. It's a. thursday
whatever the hell they are in your board shorts
just i'm here in my board and next thing i like
it took me a full four seconds for my brain to
process hey that was kevin smith i was like wait
a minute. And he did the whole double take thing
to me. It was hilarious. And we had a, we had
a great, like five minute conversation. He gave
me a big hog at the end. He's like, thanks for
being a fan man without you guys. Uh, you know,
I'm nothing. And I was like, no, you have all
the talent. And you didn't ask him to come on
the show. I, you know, I could have, I should
have next time. Okay. Next time we're going to
have to make it happen, but back to jungle love
Prince. Besides the vocals, Prince plays every
single instrument on this track. When I talk
about Mammoth and Wolf Van Halen, why I'm such
a fan of his music, he plays everything on the
album. Prince was doing this back in the 80s.
Listen to Jungle Love. That is just Prince laid
over Prince laid over Prince laid over Prince.
And if you got the Originals album that came
out, I want to say around 2019, it's a Prince
album. There's the version with his vocals on
it, if you've never heard that. Jungle Love is
just one of those songs that it's perfect. How
do you not feel good when you hear that song?
It instantly makes you smile. Yep, absolutely.
All right. Well, let's get back into the club
synth pop, kind of the synthier sounds. And I
believe that another one of your faithful Patreon
listeners suggested this group, maybe two. I
believe Philip Bergman was one of them that came
up with dead or alive. And I'm going to go with
brand new lover. Ah, because as much as I do
like spin me around, that's the one secret shows.
Yep. Yeah. Seeker had that. And I love that song.
And that song is great, especially since, you
know, the wedding singer kind of revitalize that
song. I think brand new lover kind of speaks
more to that dancey kind of frenetic energy feel.
OK, that's fair. I personally am a spin me around
like a record guy because I remember in the late
90s, early 2000s, Dope did their industrial cover
of it that took off on that scene. So that still
kind of hangs in my head. And you mentioned the
wedding singer movie. But Brand New Lover is
just as infectious of a song. 86 is mad, bad
and dangerous to know is a great album. These
guys are underrated when it comes to. the impact,
at least in the U S that they had on dance music.
And I'm glad that they were included in this
mix tonight because they definitely deserve to
be a part of the discussion. Yep, for sure. And
again, it's, it's one of those with the repeated
loop tracks and the, the real heavy synthy drum
feel just, it works perfectly. Well, we each
have one song left. And I think there's no denying
that we've covered a lot of bases here when it
comes to 80s dance. And there's a lot of artists
and a lot of songs that I feel like we are staring
down the barrel of a volume two for this, Jay.
I don't think there's any way of escaping it.
Yeah, I've still got at least 20 songs on my
list. But I feel like there's one song that just
keeps bubbling up to the surface that if we don't
include it, is it really an 80s dance mix? Yeah,
I'm going to Rick Roll this bitch. Rick Astley
never going to give you up from 1987's Whenever
You Needed Somebody. The Rick Roll became a thing
because the song is just so damn catchy and so
damn infectious. When Rick Astley joined the
Foo Fighters on stage and the entire arena started
going nuts, people want to hate on the song and
use it as a joke. But deep down inside, there's
a love behind. Never going to give you up. And
we have to include, if nothing more, as a historical
moment, you could not escape this song in 1987.
Absolutely. It was a dance anthem, a pop anthem,
and you still can't escape it now. It has to
be in the discussion. Whether you feel it belongs
or not, it's up to you. But I think it's worthy
of a spot here tonight. Don't lie and say you
don't like this song. Don't do it. It's like
Nickelback. It's like people who hate on Nickelback.
You know every word. Stop. Don't lie. Don't lie
and say you don't like this song. I mean, listen,
pop culture all over the place. One of my favorite
Family Guy episodes that we've talked about a
million times on the show and on TuneStyles is
the one where Norm Macdonald's death keeps doing
the back to the future thing. And at the end,
it's Brian playing the keytar. Rick Astley has
recut. I think he remixed the song. And before
that, there was a choir in London or in England
that was doing a choral version of Never Gonna
Give You Up. So this song is high A column. Let's
go. I guess you can at me if you really, really,
really hate the song, but it's going to be so
loud. I probably won't hear you because I am
just rocking out. And also, I will say this,
though. It does make my. My kids kind of squirm
a little bit, which makes it even more special
for me when I put it on. So cringy. It's great.
Death. That's great. I love it. I love it. That's
a great pick. Well, you got to get the festivity
started tonight. So now you got to wrap this
up in a bow. Well, no pressure, Brian. No pressure
at all. But what better way to close out an 80s
dance party than by killing the prime minister
of Malaysia. Let's go with Frankie goes to Hollywood
and relax because that's a great thing to do
at the end of an 80s dance party is to relax.
Oh, my God. What a great song. 84 is welcome
to the Pleasure Dome. Unescapable everywhere.
And just like a lot of the songs we talked about
tonight, lived a double life, had a second life
in the 90s. Think about the reference on Friends.
That's right. The Frankie goes to Hollywood shirt
with the relax with Ross and Rachel. Think about
Bloodhound Gang sampling it and calling it out
in Mope, which was the follow -up to the Bad
Touch single. They have a video for it. This
song has taken on a life of its own over and
over again, similar to Rick Astley's Never Gonna
Give You Up. And, oh yeah, it's just so much
fun. And this is a song that I think you can
pinpoint to the 80s, but in all the best ways.
Yeah, you've got that slamming synth bass solo,
just high, high energy and questionable lyrical
content. OK, sure. For the time. Sure. For now,
absolutely. No, not so much. But yeah, I think
this is the perfect close. Well, I'll leave it
up to the mixtapers to fully decide. But there
you have it. Side B of the ultimate 80s dance
music playlist, which kicked off. with Salt -N
-Pepa's Push It, followed up by Young MC's Bust
a Move, Madonna's Dress You Up, The Jets' Crush
on You, Michael Jackson's Thriller, Escape Club's
Wild Wild West, The Times' Jungle Love, Dead
or Alive's Brand New Lover, Rick Astley's Never
Gonna Give You Up, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Relax. Head over to myweeklymixtape .com to hear
all 20 songs we've discussed in this mix. through
the playlist embedded on the episode page. Jay,
as always a pleasure, my friend, thank you so
much for joining me and look forward to definitely
volume two -ing this one down the road. Yeah,
man. Name the time and the place. We'll be there.
And to those listening, if you have a topic you
want to submit for a future My Weekly Mixtape
episode, email me myweeklymixtape at gmail .com.
You can also find me at myweeklymixtape. on some
extra stuff. I appreciate you listening. If you
listen on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube, please
drop a like or a five -star review. Let other
people know about the show. Continue to spread
the word and help me keep this conversation going.
My name is Brian Colburn. This has been my weekly
mixtape, and I'll see you next time. But until
then, enjoy cranking up this ultimate 80s dance
party playlist. See you next time.