Disc one completed, my thoughts turned to which grouping of tracks gathered in my iTunes longlist I should focus on next. Growing up in the age of 80s and 90s NOW, my brain almost automatically tries to divide up the songs on any mixtapes and CD-R compilations I create into distinct stylistic “sides”; rock, pop, dance, indie….or something approximating those arbitrary genres.
The second volume of A Jamboree… turned out to be the dance “side”. By dance, that means anything with a beat, or a vague connection to the club sounds of the decade (the influence of Record Mirror’s Club chart rears its head again, as three of my picks were massive #1s on that particular rundown). I didn’t have enough tracks in that vein to fill a whole disc (besides, that would probably have been boring anyway), so using the same methods as on CD1, I ended up taking some unexpected but pleasing detours into reggae, ska, funk and jazz, before concluding with two of my favourite white-soul hits of the Eighties.
A JAMBOREE OF SURPRISES: THE FORGOTTEN EIGHTIES [CD2]
- Wordy Rappinghood [7″ Edit] Tom Tom Club 3:50
- All And All Joyce Sims 4:26
- Let It All Blow Dazz Band 3:57
- Diamonds Herb Alpert 4:55
- Rumors Timex Social Club 4:51
- Jump Back Dhar Braxton 3:43
- Chief Inspector Wally Badarou 3:17
- This Is My Night Chaka Khan 4:41
- Music & Lights [Edit] Imagination 3:47
- Breathe Life Into Me Mica Paris 4:07
- Do You Feel My Love Eddy Grant 4:39
- Love Wars [Edit] Womack & Womack 4:03
- Free Yourself The Untouchables 3:40
- Me & Mr Sanchez [7″ Version] Blue Rondo A La Turk 3:59
- A Night In New York [7″ Single Version] Elbow Bones & The Racketeers 3:47
- Garden Party Mezzoforte 6:11
- Bad Day [7″ Edit] Carmel 3:40
- This House (Is Where Your Love Stands) [Single Edit] The Big Sound Authority 3:59
- Closest Thing To Heaven The Kane Gang 4:52
It ended up flowing surprisingly well; I wasn’t quite sure where I was going with this one until the run of Eddy Grant / Womack & Womack / Untouchables made me realise I could bring in some of those really unheralded mid-80s jazz/funk/retro hits like Elbow Bones, Blue Rondo, Big Sound Authority and Mezzoforte. By the finale, we’re some way from the electro/R&B flavours of the first 8 or 9 tracks, but I like closing with The Kane Gang.
What unites these tracks is they have generally been either overshadowed by other songs by the act in question, or allowed to drift into obscurity despite being chart singles in their day (quite how The Big Sound Authority continue to be airbrushed out of pop history, despite their album getting a fantastic CD reissue not long ago, continues to flummox me).
I’m not entirely sure of how many of these have ever been compiled, or how often if so, but they’re not the usual suspects you find on today’s compilations.
Amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes 