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Donna Summer passed away this year on May 17. Today is her birthday; she would have been 64. To commemorate, here is a song about social justice and fairness and love and, most of all, hope; a message I think Ms Summer would very much like to have spread during the holidays and for her birthday. This is "Someday" and the mix is by Almighty.
The Mother Superior's big solo number from The Sound of Music. A holiday-appropriate tune -- especially when belted across by the late, great Viola Wills, disco-style!
The New Year is a time for lists, including my resolutions. But here is my totally biased, completely subjective list of the Top 13 Dance/Club songs of 2012, in descending order:
1. Timebomb, Kylie Minogue
2. Hotel Nacional, Gloria Estefan
3. I Heart You, Toni Braxton
4. Key to Your Soul, Debby Holiday
5. Golden Era, David Morales f/ Roisin Murphy
6. Where Is the Passion?, Carol Hahn
7. Let's Have a Kiki, Scissor Sisters
8. I'll Say It, Kathy Griffin
9. Sex Is in the Heel, Cyndi Lauper
10. Let Me Live Again, Colton Ford
11. I Who Have Nothing, Gladys Knight
12. Le Bump, Yolanda B Cool f/ Crystal Waters
13. Revolution 2012, Rich B f/ Marcella Puppini
And my favorite dance-music video of 2012:
Happy New Year to all! Keep on dancing! The beat is real; the beat brings us together. World peace is a serious possibility, so keep the faith and join together on the dancefloor! Let the New Year, 2013, be one of love, peace, happiness and disco. :)
My second interview of 2012 was with writer Johnny Morgan, who authored the books, Gaga, and DISCO: The Music, The Times, The Era, a lushly illustrated and detailed account that is truly a favorite of mine regarding its subject. I can't recommend this highly enough to anyone interested in disco music; it's both brilliantly explored and insightful. Here was our Q & A. Johnny, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of popular music generally, was clever, extremely articulate and thoughtful throughout: http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2012/03/dj-buddy-bs-q-with-author-johnny-morgan.html
Debby Holiday was the first dance diva to agree to do an interview with me. I loved our interview as Ms Holiday comes across as being full of positive energy, with a winning personality shining through. This Q&A came together in time for Gay Pride in NYC, where I'm still hoping she will perform someday soon. Ms Holiday, daughter of soul legend Jimmy Holiday, told me, after seeing the Q & A, that the image of her dad that's included was one she'd never seen before, which I found very sweet and touching.
Amber Dirks, currently fronting the hot electronica of Kopatechnic, has had an illustrious career in dance music, and my interview with her contains several music videos and images. Ms Dirks was very gracious and kind, discussing her work as a singer, what it was like working with Sister Sledge amongst others, and her Donna Summer connection. Amber's album with Kopatechnic has been released since this interview, and you can purchase it at Amazon.com on MP3. http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2012/07/exclusive-q-with-dance-diva-amber-dirks.html
My last interview of the year was with the divine Carol Hahn, who was just wonderful to talk with. I have been a fan of hers for some time now and have blogged about her since one of my very first Leave It to Beaverhausen posts. Carol is a very bright, sensitive and talented individual. I enjoyed discovering more about her jingles and voice-overs as much as I did discussing her career as a dance diva, who has charted on Billboard's Dance/Club chart several times. This Q & A ended on a very kind, bittersweet and personal note. http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2012/09/exclusive-q-with-diva-of-dance-music.html
Carol recently recorded "You Have Rescued Me" with Karin Nagi, available now on iTunes.
I once again want to thank this illustrious group of dance-music stars for granting me these interviews and for taking out the time to talk with us. Please support these people and their enormous talents. It was a privilege for me to conduct these Q & A's.
And, in 2013: More Dj Buddy Beaverhausen Q & A's! Just wait till you see what I've got cooking, and with whom! Thanks to my readers, Happy New Year, and I hope you've enjoyed these interviews as much as I enjoyed the interviewing.
2012 was, sadly, a year of major losses in pop music, a large number of whom are associated with classic disco and dance music. Not wanting to be maudlin, but attempting to show my respects to idols, legends, superstars, here is an overview of people we dance-music lovers will seriously miss in 2013.
Remember when weekend-afternoon television could entertain us with dynamic talent? There was a time, you know. Soul Train brought us many of the great artists of the classic disco era, and American Bandstand added disco singers to its roster during the genre's heyday. Host and producer of Soul Train, Don Cornelius, passed away early in the year, with Dick Clark of American Bandstand -- upon which Soul Train was modeled -- leaving this mortal coil just two months later.
There probably is no greater icon of classic disco than Ms Donna Summer who, shockingly, left us in May. Ms Summer, posthumously inducted into the 2013 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, appeared on both Soul Train and Bandstand back in the day. The Queen of Disco continued to have successes in the ensuing decades, always primarily a dance diva (despite her masterful ability to assay other musical genres like jazz or ballads), whether the style of her dance music had then evolved into hiNRG or house.
Another iconic diva, Whitney Houston, passed away in 2012, also sending shock waves throughout the world of pop music. Daughter of Cissy Houston (who had her own disco hits), she was a second-generation dance diva who energized the dancefloor with the remixes of a string of hits that were often the essence of fabulousness.
2012's other losses from disco days gone by include Jimmy Ellis of The Trammps ("Disco Inferno") and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees ("Stayin' Alive"), while Andy Williams was known to knock out a disco tune or two, and rapper Adam Yauch of The Beastie Boys was not a total stranger to music for the dancefloor himself ("Shadrach"). The contributions of all these people will genuinely be missed in the new year, but it's through their music that they will continue to live on.
This year, we're living large in Bay Ridge, at Kevin's Christmas dinner party and isn't it grand!
Last night, my friend came up to exchange gifts with me as we gnoshed on jumbo shrimp and cocktail sauce, and drank strawberry wine. Shortly after going back downstairs to his apartment, Kevin -- in the midst of cooking the turkey for our Christmas Day feast -- discovered his recently repaired oven refused to shut off! Bread was burned! Drama! Firemen were summoned, the oven shut down, and all the oven cooking had to be done in my apartment today. My stove and refrigerator were also utilized as there was much cooking to be done.
Below is a photo of Kevin (right) and his friend, Jim, up in my kitchen, preparing food this afternoon. Kevin's Superman apron was one of my Christmas gifts to him last night. But he truly was a Superchef in the kitchens today. Jim, who hails from Colorado, made a fabulous brie with berries baked in pastry!
Friends arrived.
Friends Jo Ellen & C.J.
Lisa, C.J. & Janet (ex-Wanda of Wanda & the Way It Was)
The hors d'oeuvres were fantastic; the turkey, ham, mashed potato, green bean, cranberry, and every type of salad imaginable made for a very fabulous holiday feast; the desserts were divine. What really made the dinner party, though, was the combination of positive energies all around.
There was a tour of my apartment (the floor-through over Kevin's), and most guests followed Kevin on a tour of the famed Christmas lights on the homes of Bay Ridge. (I just saw these last week, so stayed at home.)
After desserts, once everyone was reunited, I received an unexpected but fantastic Christmas gift from from C.J.: a great print of the Supremes at Lincoln Center poster and an 8" x 10" girl-group publicity shot!
What a great Christmas! In the end, a lot of work, especially for Kevin who says, maybe next year he'll go to a Broadway show. But it was great company, a great time was had by all, and now it's my time to slide into tomorrow and return from the magical to the mundane. But only for a while.
As for tonight, Merry Christmas to all! ~~ Dj Buddy Beaverhausen
So ends my Christmas Countdown for 2012 as it's Christmas Eve. And what says "Merry Christmas" better than the famed Joan Crawford radio interview? It was recreated in the movie, Mommie Dearest," abridged, with Faye Dunaway infamously assaying the part of Joan. Here is the full, original 1949 broadcast. "From tomorrow on, they earn their gifts!" Merry Christmas to all my viewers!
My poll is closed, the results are in. You were asked to "VOTE for your favorite all-time disco song from the...
modest list of classic disco songs." You could vote for more
than one song.
The winner from that list is: "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor, with 13 votes! She has certainly survived with that international hit that almost everyone in the world knows by heart. And she is still going strong; a diva to be reckoned with. http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2011/11/presenting-ms-gloria-gaynor.html
Yvonne Elliman's "If I Can't Have You (I Don't Want Nobody, Baby)" from the movie, Saturday Night Fever, was #3, with 9 votes. Sylvester's "(You Make Me Feel) Mighty Real" garnered 8 votes, while Donna Summer's "I Fee Love" received seven. And Cher came in with 6 votes cast for "Take Me Home." It should be noted, however, that the Bob Esty/Michele Aller song was the winner of my Cher poll last month, and you'll note a comment on the link from the esteemed Mr Esty himself. Dj Buddy B was thrilled and humbled by it! http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2012/11/sharing-cher-results-on-dj-buddy.html
"I Love the Nightlife," by the divine Alicia Bridges, is a perennial disco fave that has been featured in major motion pictures and remixed over the ensuing decades, oddly enough receiving only 6 votes by participants in this poll.
Five songs came in with four votes each: Vicki Sue Robinson's classic "Turn the Beat Around," "Born to Be Alive" by Patrick Hernandez, "Cherchez la Femme" by Dr Buzzard's Savannah Band, Love Unlimited's "Under the Influence of Love" and Pamala Stanley's floor-filler, "Coming Out of Hiding."
Kelly Marie's "Feels Like I'm in Love" gathered 3 votes and "I Need a Man," by Grace Jones, received two. All the nominees were winners to my mind as they remain iconic tunes from the classic disco era that moved us to the dancefloor and, sometimes, emotionally as well. They are a part of our history, popular culture and musical legacy.
Thirty-six people participated in voting. Thanks to all! A new poll will be posted on New Year's Eve and we begin anew! Love to all ~~ Dj Buddy Beaverhausen
It's the end of the year and the dawning of a new one! And, so, thank you, kind readers for checking out my various posts throughout 2012. My blog certainly has grown and I am thrilled that you mostly seem to enjoy what I'm putting out there. Of course, there are dissenters. "You can delete this after you read it but you are one crazy fucking idiot," commented one Anonymous critic, while another Anon. wrote: "This is the biggest bullshit I have ever seen." I must admit I do love controversy!
But there's so much hot stuff coming through (and, no doubt, some hot messes) in the foreseeable future! My top 12 dance/club favorites for 2012 will be posted right before the new year! Coming in 2013, new Q&As with disco/dance names you'll recognize and love, love, love! Reviews of live performances! Club music reviews, Billboard views! Lifestyle chatter, more Joan Crawford blather! Cine Beaverhausen! Book Nook! Broadway Beaverhausen! Cabaret Beaverhausen! Videodrome Beaverhausen! And much, much more!
I'm quite the bon vivant, you know, and in 2013, I'm gonna take you higher!
Shouting out around the world now: Thanks to my views from the USA, the UK and Canada; my backbone! To big hits from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia and Latvia! Thanks to South Africa, Abu Dhabi, Australia, Mexico, Brazil! To Germany, France, Netherlands, Spain (Hey, Dj Roger Balta!) and Italy!
Love, Peace and Disco, my friends! It's all one world as Evelyn Thomas sings in a classic track below (audio only). Let's go gently into the new year together. ~~ love, Dj Buddy Beaverhausen.
With a Spanish accent so thick, you couldn't cut it with a chainsaw, here's Charo singing "Feliz Navidad" on a 1988 Christmas episode of Pee Wee's Playhouse. Cuchi cuchi from my Christmas Countdown!
Another Christmas dance track for your spiked egg-nog holiday parties, with the always-divine Kristine W singing "Hard Candy Christmas", remixed by Resolution (as in New Year's), as my Christmas Countdown 2012 continues.
Here's the "And All Through the House" episode from the 1973 film, Tales from the Crypt, starring Joan Collins. May your days be merry and bright! I'm not so sure about your nights.
(Note: I posted this last year but that link has been removed & the image quality of the new link is better anyhow. Hope you like.)
The most recent Billboard Club/Dance chart sucks, frankly, and I'm only happy about Frenchie Davis' ascent with "Love's Got a Hold on Me," at number 15, and it truly has a hold on the dance floor right now with true diva energy.
The 2012 dance chart for the year is also a huge disappointment. It's not that the year's dance music had a poor showing; it's where the better songs charted! Ok, there's Florence + the Machine at #3 with "Say My Name," but you have to scroll down to #18 to get to the first dance tune that really excites me, that being "Timebomb" by Kylie Minogue. Madonna's "Girl Gone Wild"? Number 44. "Marry the Night" by Lady Gaga? Number 47. "If It Wasn't for Love" sung by Deborah Cox? Number 50. Believe me, this lackluster listing could use a big fabulousness infusion.
So, in light of all this, will you settle right now for openly gay artist Cheyenne Jackson's very happy preview of his music video for "Don't Wanna Know"? This video looks and sounds kind of poptastic!. Have a good look and pray for dance mixes! Good ones this time.
We live in a sizeist society, hence the biased term "Napoleon Complex." I think, speaking for the vertically challenged male (which nobody asked me to do, by the way), short, ambitious men are given negative attributes in our society just the way women, or gay men, generally, are. The world belongs to the white, straight, male and the tall. To prove that point, it seems Celebuzz found it necessary to let us know who the 12 shortest male celebs are. I can proudly say I am taller than four of them.
I can look down on Danny DeVito and Prince, and I am 1/2-inch taller than Scott Caan and Daniel Radcliffe. The other eight shrimps, in ascending inch-by-inch order, include Jack Black, Mark Wahlberg, Tom Cruise, Darren Criss, Joaquin Phoenix and Jason Stratham.
And, so, the vertically challenged are outed, though I don't think it's largely (or shortly) any big (or small) surprise. I'm in good company. And pocket gays are people, too! Up with short men!
Below, tall talent Randy Newman gets down on short people in the video of his '80s hit:
I completely agree that Jews make the best Christmas albums: Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, Mitch Miller and even Bob Dylan. In this video, Dylan does my favorite track from his 2009 Christmas album: "Must Be Santa." When we were kids, my brother and I wore this track out on the Mitch Miller album.
Yes, it's The Puppini Sisters once again, at Christmas. This time giving "Step into Christmas" the big band swing/ Andrews Sisters-like harmonies on the Elfin -- I meant Elton -- John song. Even Sir Elton is a big fan of this rendition. So, step into Christmas, everybody, as it's drawing all so near!
My friends, Tracey and Merv, joined me today for our Christmas get-together, and the season was wrung in with great cheer. Then, downstairs friend and neighbor, Kevin, joined the party, returning from his Bistro Awards committee meeting. Great friends, great food, fabulous gifting -- like the chic pair of chairs Tray and Merv brought over and assembled for me (see directly below). They complement my glass, three-tiered art-deco coffee table beautifully. And they're so comfortable! They actually give, or rock, a little bit and are perfectly contoured for any pair of buns to nestle into. I also received a set of wine glasses and two bottles of strawberry wine from Jones Winery in Connecticut.
New chair
White-wine-flavored salami, salmon, cheeses, crackers and jumbo shrimp were on the menu, along with an assortment of drinks. The shrimp were huge, meaty and came cooked, un-shelled and de-veined from Bay Ridge's Frank & Eddie's, complete with their own cocktail sauce. The living room was artificially scented with a pine spray to match my artificial tree and spread the holiday spirit via Odorama. My Soul Christmas cd played, as did my Merry Happy dj-promo-only dance mix, a popular downtown Manhattan bar-and-retail-store player since 2010.
At dark, designated driver, Merv, transported us all through the neighborhood, with Kevin navigating. Again, the burg is aglow with awe-inspiring lights on houses and landscaping that I first experienced last year, but on foot. Car is better.
Below are some pics from our adventure in sight-seeing:
Tracey in front of a Bay Ridge Christmas-crazy home
Dj Buddy B & a glowing Santa Claus
Tracey & I at the house of blue lights
Kevin & I washed out by the lights of this house
Kevin & Tracey in front of another beautiful display
We came back, from our tour, to gingerbread men, cookies and egg nog spiked with just a little Southern Comfort, chatting and once again eating, this time at Kevin's new dining room table. And I loved being with my besties, supportive, schmoozing and laughing, happy.
I moved to Bay Ridge last year, on the day after Thanksgiving, so I was in no way prepared to do a whole Christmas thing. Plus, my mother had just passed away that October, so I just wasn't in the mood.
This year is different. This year is relaxed and happy. Christmas is a time of joy and love. I experienced that with my friends tonight. Bless us all and Merry Christmas! Tonight, I'll count my blessings instead of sheep.
It's the weekend and Christmas is drawing near, so it's time to twirl to this hiNRG Christmas song from the fabulous Bananarama on my Christmas Countdown 2012. Baby, it's Christmas! (Hang a banana on your tree for me.)
The latest, stomach-churning violence regarding guns in the USA resulted in the deaths of innocent kindergarteners. The world looks at us and cannot comprehend the madness as we, ourselves, struggle to comprehend it. America has a powerful gun lobby. But there is no excuse for allowing citizens to purchase semi-automatics any more than we are allowed to possess a nuclear device. The "right to bear arms" surely meant muskets and swords when our Constitution was drawn up; not the sophisticated weaponry of today.
Columbine, the "Batman" movie theater slaughter in Colorado, the Arizona shootings that resulted in the death of a 9-year-old and the shooting of Gabriel Giffords among 18 others (some lethal), and other fairly current events are rightly referred to, regarding the growing violence of shootings in America. But this contemporary craziness, where any psycho can easily get a gun, is probably rooted in the 1979 shooting by a 16-year-old girl (Brenda Lee Spencer), killing two adults and wounding eight children.
She said she did this because she didn't like Mondays. That simple. (Well, who dies like Mondays? Even Karen Carpenter carped about them always getting her down, along with rainy days!)
The Boomtown Rats had a #1 single about that incident, "I Don't Like Mondays," that same year, written by Bob Geldorf. Here it is. May serious gun control in America finally become a reality.
A wonderful song about peace, love & understanding, originally written and performed by Amber, then covered by Cher on her Living Proof album. Here's the Eddie Baez club version, my favorite remix, for your weekend (and to get you in the holiday spirit), on this year's Christmas Countdown.
We all want a new toy for Christmas. This great song by Lene Lovich, from 1981, brings back memories of Danceteria, and was once used in a Target tv spot in the '90s on American television:
Ironic, since the song is a sardonic view of materialism. Still, we do want those toys under our tree, no? I'll settle for the Hoover.
Bonus: Lene sees Mommy Kissing Santa Claus on this rare, limited release:
My Christmas Countdown 2012 continues with Madonna singing "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room," a cover of the song originally done by ABBA. Below is the Idaho Fireplace Club Edit.
From last week's show at the Beacon Theater NYC, Cyndi Lauper & Adam Lambert duet on "Mad World." It made my hair stand up (just like Adam's). So good; you have to check it out.
Kicking off Monday on a high note with this fan mix of Donna Summer, Cher & Celine Dion. Tweeted Cher of Donna, after her passing last May, "She was exquisite!... One of the GREAT voices of our time." Have a rosie Christmas, everyone, with three of the iconic voices of our lifetimes! We miss you, Donna.
The year: 1953; almost 60 years have passed since Louis Armstrong and The Commanders recorded "Cool Yule." Still a very cool song written by Steve Allen, one of the first late-night talk show hosts. Dig! It's Christmas once again.
Oh, yeah, Santa honey, just like Miss Pearl says, lay some $$$ under the tree for me! And seriously, when I was a child, honeys, I -- for honest -- thought her name was Elephant Gerald! Yeah, for real! But I love her! Loved her on tv. Now, Santa baby, get busy on that money for the 2 of us!
