Taana Gardner – Heartbeat

Jay Negron: “ Tropicalia closed in late 1980, so I was looking for a gig. A few months later, a friend of mine said they are looking for a DJ at Pegasus; a club just a few blocks where I lived at 64 St & 2nd Ave. I went, spoke to the manager who told me they are having auditions on Thursday; I went brought 20 records with me. I was intimidated right away...
Number 1: I was the ONLY white looking guy (Puerto Rican) in a black club....plus I never went there to experience the vibe; I went in blind.
Number 2, there were 4 DJs auditioning plus me; and they were mixing their ASS OFF.....Long crossfades, meticulous mixing, and they were rooting for each other; obviously they were friends and looked at me and said WHO ARE YOU???
Anyway the audition went like this: each DJ would play 20 mins and then hand off to the next guy, who would mix in flawlessly to the last guy's song.....I was last.....
All 4 of these guys mixing was OFF THE CHAIN....I could never mix like these guys....one guy had on SHE'S A BAD MAMA JAMA playing under LOVE IS THE MESSAGE for what seemed like forever.....then the last guy hands off to me playing the WORST track to mix out of.....BAD LUCK by Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes.....there is no great mix coming outta that record....I didn't even know WHY he was playing it, being it was 5 yrs old....I was thinking sabotage.....
Anyway in my PANIC I was flipping thru my 20 records and did not have anything that was close to fitting....so I told myself....alright, calm down and let the song just fade out...
That same day, I picked up a Test Pressing of HEARTBEAT and said ok lemme start here and work my way up......
I let BAD LUCK fade all the way then started the <boom boom> from HEARTBEAT.....when the drum came in & the BASS......ALL 4 DJs RAN to the booth to find out what it was...
It was a white label that said just Test Pressing and Heartbeat in ball point pen......the DJs were going crazy in the booth.....the manager came in, told the other DJs to leave the booth, and then told me I GOT THE JOB....WHEN CAN I START????.....on ONE song!!!!
He then told me he noticed the other DJs reaction to the song, and noticed the way I went about it.....lol...he thought I had it planned like that all along.....He gave me 2 nights Thursday & Friday, which soon changed to Friday & Saturday. I was very happy that I got to spin there for over a year...I did not have to play that HiNRG commercial stuff coming out at that time.....No requests for Funkytown or things of that nature.
Thanks Kenton Nix for making that song WHEN you did!”

Am I alone in thinking that The Levan mix is not very good? Apart from the odd track, most of his mixes are inferior to the original - due to the copious amounts of class A's consumed during remixing?

looks like : Ini kamoze - here comes the hotstepper

Stone cold classic here, and the biggest release West End ever released! Also been sampled over 50 times over the years, making it ubiquitous.

However, it's strange that nobody ever picked up on how the sustained synth strings are way out of tune with the rest of the synth parts and the other instruments.
It's a rather large tuning discrepancy too, and it makes for a real "SMDH" moment.

Great song nonetheless....and this is a bonafied, stone-cold CLASSIC of epic proportions. I being so excited to buy the 12" after owning the 45 (edited version) for weeks prior.

what a tune! a definite "air guitar" playing track when it comes in midway. anybody know if there is an instrumental version?

sampled in De La Soul ‎– Buddy

Probe 1979 great song to dance to, sexy.

Outstanding Record: I think that kind of record will (maybe) be released every ten years. After 24 years reflecting about this record I can't tell it's magic. The rhythmic magnitude got always a straight way into the sound. It has one true timing which is best at PITCH ZERO - might be for dancers on Pitch +3%, but on it's original pitch it has enough patterns in it's musical kaleidoscope.

Wicked idea, to use the beat of a human heart as basic rhythm of a disco track.

very beautiful vocals: "my heart beats for the one I love"