It's certainly not a bad track, and it never hurts to hear Barbara Roy on something. But when something sounds exactly like tracks made immediately before it, someone needs to mention it, so I suppose it falls to me. This track mirrors "Street Dance" by Break Machine, and also nabs elements of "I.O.U." by Freeez. Then again, Break Machine was a creation of the same mind who brought us The Village People, who came along after Disco Tex & the Sex-O-Lettes, so maybe very few artists in any musical realm are true "originals".

Linda Wesley is one of those people (like Jeanette "Lady" Day) that lovers of rare club grooves of the 80s have likely heard without having "heard of". And like Ms. Day, we fans (hardcore ones, anyway) never seem to be sure if they are, in fact, an actual person. How can that be? Day had perhaps two documented tracks; Wesley has hundreds of singing and songwriting credits in the wide realm of Italo Disco, and even a few major-label releases under her own name. And yet, we know nothing of her, at least in the United States.

We suppose one can concede that Linda did vocals on both Kasso's "One More Round" (probably the most spun Italo track never to have been released as a single in its original form) and Advance's "Take Me to the Top", even though the former one is in a hazy little girl voice and the the latter is strong and forthright, as well as racially-indeterminate in the fashion of famed backing vocalist Tessa Niles.

The fact that the Italo archetype contains many instances of "frontmen" (see Baltimora) or "frontwomen" (see Valerie Dore) who lip-synch to someone else's vocals, sing some of the vocals themselves or other odd circumstances, leads only to more confusion. Is she an American backing singer with a forgotten album here (buried somewhere), who journeyed to Italy in search of other opportunities (see Fonzi Thornton)? Just like with Jeanette "Lady" Day, someone out there knows who Linda Wesley is, or just knows Linda Wesley. Or IS Linda Wesley, or was her frontwoman, or together as a collective WERE Linda Wesley. Or... Anyway, the world is waiting (parts of it, anyway): Linda, show yourself!

Contains mostly similar mixes to each track, with two notable exceptions: Different instrumentation on "The Race", and different lyrics on "Vicious Games". Other mixes seem to be before the protagonist has fouled up their relationship, but in this version the outcome seems clear: "Now that you're gone / and you have left me", et cetera. I got mine (regrettably water-damaged liner notes) from a Canadian chap, along with the limited edition On Track multidisc set, for a song. I don't think he knew fully what he was selling...

One of the rarest Yello collectibles, along with the "New Work In Progress" disc and the "Blame on Yello" interview disc.

I own all four of the Yello video-singles, and no US-spec machine (DVD, PC, anything) will play the video track. From what I've read online, Euro-spec machines won't play it either. Anyone with any information, feel free to contact me. The vids for this, Oh Yeah, Tied Up and The Race can all be found on YouTube, but it would be cool to see them from these little gold discs.

Since none of the four have unique mixes, unlike a few of the rarer Yello singles (the 3-disc vinyl On Track, the three-disc Of Course I'm Lying, the press sampler A Trip Around the World in 1800 Seconds, et cetera), these mostly serve as oddities for collectors.

The Steve Anderson (of Brothers in Rhythm fame) megamix uses the following identifiable tracks: (bits used throughout) Sinnamon - I Want You Now, Master C+J - One Day We'll All Be Free, Coldcut with Lisa Stansfield - People Hold On, Loleatta Holloway - Love Sensation, Kym Mazelle & Dr. Robert Howard - Wait!, ABC - One Better World, Kym Mazelle - Useless, Electribe 101 featuring Billie Ray Martin - Tell Me When The Fever Ended, Adeva - Respect, Chanell - One Man, Adeva - Warning and Alisha Warren - Touch Me. Anderson contributes a lot of extra keyboards which bind the songs together beautifully. A small bit of a Christmas melody shows at the end of the mix, fitting enough, as this is supposed to be an entire year of Deep House music in retrospective.

The Dakenye remix of Doug Lazy's third and final US Dance #1 (all in 1989) is almost as good as hip-house ever got. The unofficial title of "Best Hip-House EVER" goes to the Jungle Brothers, who managed to one-up Tyree Cooper, Kool Rock Steady and everyone in the genre specifically by not taking the style seriously and just having fun on "I'll House You". Anderson also contributed keyboards to the Doug Lazy remix.

The Ben Liebrand remix of Chas Jankel's club smash of almost a decade before is guilty of trying far too hard to sound current, and thus sounds forced and unnatural. The way the hip-hop and house elements are tacked on is reminiscent of the 1986 Frankie Knuckles remix of Kasso's (Claudio Simonetti) Italo classic "One More Round", which just didn't work well. Liebrand doesn't tack synth-marimba on at least, but still...A definite miss.

The rock megamix features too much bad hair and arena metal for me to sit through, so no track listing. There WAS good metal available that year, but most that was included in this mix was chart hits, none of which has aged tolerably.

These old DMC samplers are at times fascinating artifacts of (mostly) club music. Grab one if you see it.

The Steve Anderson (of Brothers in Rhythm fame) megamix uses the following identifiable tracks: (bits used throughout) Sinnamon - I Want You Now, Master C+J - One Day We'll All Be Free, Coldcut with Lisa Stansfield - People Hold On, Loleatta Holloway - Love Sensation, Kym Mazelle & Dr. Robert Howard - Wait!, ABC - One Better World, Kym Mazelle - Useless, Electribe 101 featuring Billie Ray Martin - Tell Me When The Fever Ended, Adeva - Respect, Chanell - One Man, Adeva - Warning and Alisha Warren - Touch Me. Anderson contributes a lot of extra keyboards which bind the songs together beautifully. A small bit of a Christmas melody shows at the end of the mix, fitting enough, as this is supposed to be an entire year of Deep House music in retrospective.

The Dakenye remix of Doug Lazy's third and final US Dance #1 (all in 1989) is almost as good as hip-house ever got. The unofficial title of "Best Hip-House EVER" goes to the Jungle Brothers, who managed to one-up Tyree Cooper, Kool Rock Steady and everyone in the genre specifically by not taking the style seriously and just having fun on "I'll House You". Anderson also contributed keyboards to the Doug Lazy remix.

The Ben Liebrand remix of Chas Jankel's club smash of almost a decade before is guilty of trying far too hard to sound current, and thus sounds forced and unnatural. The way the hip-hop and house elements are tacked on is reminiscent of the 1986 Frankie Knuckles remix of Kasso's (Claudio Simonetti) Italo classic "One More Round", which just didn't work well. Liebrand doesn't tack synth-marimba on at least, but still...A definite miss.

The rock megamix features too much bad hair and arena metal for me to sit through, so no track listing. There WAS good metal available that year, but most that was included in this mix was chart hits, none of which has aged tolerably.

These old DMC samplers are at times fascinating artifacts of (mostly) club music. Grab one if you see it.

Features Evelyn Thomas on lead vocals. She also co-wrote the song. She's more uninhibited here (and on "Is This the Future"), unlike on her many Ian Levine productions--Levine wanted her to sound vaguely white, obviously not realizing that many club divas were black women who sounded it.

Lyrically absurd, but fun midtempo electro. The third charting single (the releases of which were spread out over about 18 months) off the Is This the Future album, it was a minor R & B hit in early 1985 (peaking at #88), and got a bit of club play (#32).

The "evolution" of these two tracks into "Holiday" by Madonna is obvious. One John Benitez apparently spun this frequently in a club Madonna spent a lot of time in in 1982, so Arthur Baker might have a bit of a beef with Jellybean. The flip side has most vocals missing (it resembles the A-side only right at the end) and plays up the great vibraphone and guitar work in the mix, which just builds and builds to the end--this is no mere dub mix. Flip it, play the B-side first, and you will doubly enjoy this hot disc.