Yesterday's News - Countdown To Love (1985)

     got this rare obscure 1985 doo wop 7" yesterday, at a local record store of all places. heard a snippet of it on ebay years ago and it's always been in the back of my mind. for some reason i was thinking about it lately, so i went digging for it again on the net. to my amazement i found a link to it at a local record store for 5 bucks. even had the picture sleeve, which as you can see is killer. the track itself, Countdown To Love, is really great out-of-nowhere funky mid-80s doo wop. it's the only song by Yesterday's News that has instruments on it, that i know of. actually the b-side to the 7" is an instrumental version. which was a fantastic surprise, since i was assuming it would be some boring slow tune on the flipside. the band is incorrectly spelled as Yesterday News on the record label. 

The Raes - Dancing Up A Storm (1979)

     this is one of my favourite disco records ever. it was put out and recorded in 1979, right around the corner from me here in Toronto. 6 of the 7 tracks are catchy uptempo disco. the opening track A Little Lovin' (Keeps The Doctor Away) was what really got me into this. i had heard the track and always kept an eye open for the record. Get Up And Dance is super catchy, second favourite track. my other favourite has to be Don't Make Waves, the strings on that one are insane. Boogie Shoes, Don't Turn Around and School are all great uptempo disco cuts too. the slower Honest I Do is good enough for a mention here. the Raes actually had a show on CBC for a while too. here's a really great and fast live performance of Get Up And Dance from that show.

Kakko - What Kind Of Fool (1990)

     might as well round off the Kakko posting with her only other 7". this one was penned by Phil Harding & Ian Curnow, and while it's not as great as her first single, it's still really good on its own. more catchy pop tunes on this one. the a-side being What Kind Of Fool (7" Version), a super catchy tune. it's not the same song as Kylie Minogue's of the same name. the b-side is I Pledge You My Heart, the little pre-chorus on this one is the best part of the song. unlike her first single, this one never made it to a CD maxi release. which is just as well, since that first CD maxi is pretty rare and goes for a good chunk of change. 

Kakko - We Should Be Dancing (1990)

     got this 7" in the mail recently, one of only two singles put out by Kakko. penned by Stock Aitken Waterman, the single came out in 1990. the 12" re-mixes sadly lack the punch that this first version has, so this 7" is the best and cheapest way to listen to it. i ripped it two weeks ago and threw away the garbage mp3s i had of them before. this is such a great pop tune and i don't know why they claim it as their biggest mistake. the first side is the Radio Mix and the other side is the essential Instrumental. the worst part is there's equally as great songs made for Kakko sitting in the PWL vaults. there's a few snippets of the famous unreleased Kakko album out there, and they kill. unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any interest from Waterman to release them. we'll see if Cherry Red can get their hands on the rights.

Barry White and Gene Page Instrumentals

     i got a bundle of Barry White 7"s a few months ago now, just so i could get the instrumentals on the b-sides in high quality. i ripped them a while back and made a little instrumental compilation. it's not all the instrumentals obviously, but it's a good chunk of them. every single one of the tracks here absolutely kill, but my personal favourites are Under The Influence Of Love and Just A Little More Baby. what else can i say, Barry's probably my favourite musician of all time so this gets heavy play for me. don't have any of the picture sleeve versions, so i just took a big pic of the records together. early to mid 70s stuff here.