Fresh Tunes – #1 - Do You Know What I Mean?

rare 1992/1993' first original pressing commercial release... ! ! !

for sure it's a fresh fruit / sony cbs 'white label', but not a 'promo copy', nothing appears here about it... and too many, actually 287 discogs members have it and have probably paid for it ! if discogs is one part on five on earth to have this release, it will represent more than one thousand promo copies, it was too many gifts for a small label as fresh fruit, as well for a major company, in 1992... ! also, not sure this release is from this year... if it was linked the number etched on the release will have shown a 1993' release on the Sony/CBS, Haarlem's pressing catalog...

that said, this still enigmatic today trancey batucada progressive house monster white commercial release was probably a commercial dj copy, then for letting them to do the buzz playing it, and it has worked... ! few monthes later, Fresh Fruit Records has licensed four repressing releases in uk, germany (Logic Records), and italy, releasing fresh fruit 005 at the same time with additionals productions, to finally (at the moment) licensing the original release to the famous Strictly Rhythm's u.s label, which released it in 1994 with three additionals exclusive remixes, from 'critical mass' AJ Mora, 'nominated 2000 grammy awards' Richard Gonzalez, and 'master' Armand Van Helden, themselves... ! ! !

probably a few promo copies of this release exist... please, submit it if you have ! thanks, 😇

and, have a nice day !

dub_e_72

This was created by DJ Zki (Rene ter Horst) & Dobre (Gaston Steenkist), the same guys who brought us "Give it up" as The Good Men. Actually, they created this even before they made "Give it up" as a tune with a very American feel to it, probably in order to trigger a by then very popular American house label... The vocal was provided by Colonel Abrams, as they sampled his early hit "The Truth".

When "Give it up" became such a big hit (particularly in it's "Batacuda Refrescante" version and augmented by the Dutch carnival festivities), it was decided to make a new "Stick" version (with the same carnivalesque feel as "Give it up") as well as a new track "Ha ha" and release it as a white label promo under the artist name "#1". The promo became a massive success and edited versions of the Stick version of "Do you know what I mean?" were already released on dance music compilation albums even before the official release.

The official CD maxi (released with the artist name "Fresh Tunes #1") contains edited versions of "Do you know..." as well, and the official 12" has another track, "I'm so shy". A year after, the track did actually appear on Strictly Rhythm in the U.S., and it was not before this release until Colonel Abrams and Marston Freeman were properly credited as songwriters.