A Taste Of Honey ~ Boogie Oogie Oogie 1978 Disco Purrfection Version

Back in da day, the first thing I learned about mixing was the irregularity of the drumming throughout most disco songs. Often, I noticed that the beat changed on one of the records near the edit point as I listened on the headphones. After a few hours of mixing practice every night for a week, I knew the song structure well enough to know where the edit points that had steady beats and learned how a light fingered touch to adjust the speed to keep the two in sync. Today the beat is mechanized, a total perfect drumming beat, back then, not so much but I learned fast enough never make a mistake in public, so I was practicing for several hours a night perfecting my mixing technique. Once I got that down, I was able to concentrate on the song groupings, the toe tapper beginning, then into and evening of dance music well unto 3AM, when it was time to go home.

I was usually in the studio after school hours cataloging the inventory, listening to the progressive rock collection that was the radio library and practicing my mixes for the really late finishing students who came to the student lounge. I knew I got it when students came into the radio room (which had no window on the lounge) and said they really enjoyed . Today computers have standardized the beat so to ensure everything is easily mixable, in and out.

Turntables used to be suspended in wells and held up by two large rubber bands, front to back. That way the bass response from the speakers did not make the records skip, nor did they skip when I saw someone literally smacking into the DJ booth and moved it a little bit but those turntables kept playing as they gently swayed back and forth never disturbing the needle in the groove beat.

This is one of those songs where the beat changes throughout the song starting with the opening which was about 3.5% slower than the rest of the song. You probably never noticed it because it was kinda like the opening of "Boogie Nights", the jazzy intro seguéd into the uptempo part disguised it. Once I figured that out, this one just came together. Love that guitar lick!

Our artists of the week's story starts with Janice Marie Johnson, born January 18, 1954 who joined a band called the Quniques that went to audition for a Princess Cruises gig in 1970. While there she met Perry Kibble, a keyboardist who was auditioning with another band called Exit for the same gig. She hired his Kibble and his bandmates to play behind her group since they were all vocalists.

In 1972, Janice chose a band name, A Taste Of Honey. Gregory Walker was handling the lead vocal duties until he quit the band in 1976. At that point Janice welcomed a second female guitarist named Hazel Payne into the band. Their next break came when a chance meeting with Larry & Fonce Mizell who had produced the Jackson 5 (I Want You Back, #1 pop) and LTD (Love Ballad, #1 R&B). They brought A Taste Of Honey to Larkin Arnold, Capitol Records Vice President who signed the band in 1978.

"Boogie Oogie Oogie" was written by Janice and Kibble in response to their icy reception when they played for the members of an Air Force club. They tried everything to get them moving, but got no reaction, which Janice was due to the military chauvinism of the audience. She was so pissed when she went home and wrote the biting lyrics that Percy Kibble put to his joyously funky music track.

The song hit the charts on June 24, 1978 at #82 and then topped the Hot100 Chart for three weeks beginning September 3, 1978, topping the disco chart for three weeks starting July 15, 1978 and then it topped the R&B chart for the week of August 5, 1978.

I thought it might be fun to get a song that at its peak this time of year back in 1978...it made the summer of 1978 so much more fun as I was going away to college that fall. It was scary moving but ya know, it turned out to be a totally enjoyable experience! Songs like this buoyed my mood, I mean who can't relate to this one? The summer and fall of 1978.....exciting times!

Видео A Taste Of Honey ~ Boogie Oogie Oogie 1978 Disco Purrfection Version канала DJDiscoCat