Building a playlist: '80s singles or album tracks that feature a choir of some kind

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed

Thompson Twins - Lay Your Hands on Me
Tina Turner - We Don't Need Another Hero
Foreigner - I Want to Know What Love Is
Band Aid Artists - Do They Know It's Christmas?
USA for Africa - We Are the World

Give me more.

Johnny Fever, Saturday, 4 July 2015 19:27 (eight years ago) link

Talk Talk - I Believe In You

stoomcursus rockisme (unregistered), Saturday, 4 July 2015 19:41 (eight years ago) link

Talking Heads - Road To Nowhere

kornrulez6969, Saturday, 4 July 2015 20:06 (eight years ago) link

It came out in '96, but I'd say they're an '80's band:

The Blue Nile - Happiness

Hideous Lump, Saturday, 4 July 2015 20:12 (eight years ago) link

Housemartins -- I'll Be Your Shelter (Just Like A Shelter)

Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, 4 July 2015 20:14 (eight years ago) link

The Church — It's No Reason

austinato (Austin), Saturday, 4 July 2015 20:15 (eight years ago) link

The Joubert Singers - Stand on the Word

Tuomas, Saturday, 4 July 2015 20:34 (eight years ago) link

Madonna - Like a Prayer

the article don, Saturday, 4 July 2015 20:36 (eight years ago) link

The Joubert Singers - Stand on the Word

Tuomas, do you have a handle on this song's remix history? It seems like there's a remix credited to Larry Levan that actually isn't his, but was instead a Walter Gibbons mix. I just spent 10 minutes reading up on it and I know less now than I did before.

Johnny Fever, Saturday, 4 July 2015 21:01 (eight years ago) link

Linda Ronstadt - Cry Like a Rainstorm

who epitomises beta better than (ShariVari), Saturday, 4 July 2015 21:17 (eight years ago) link

Kate Bush, Hello Earth

Dr X O'Skeleton, Saturday, 4 July 2015 21:46 (eight years ago) link

Donna Summer – State of Independence

dubmill, Saturday, 4 July 2015 21:49 (eight years ago) link

Talk Talk - I Believe In You

oops, I was thinking of 'Happiness Is Easy'

stoomcursus rockisme (unregistered), Sunday, 5 July 2015 00:11 (eight years ago) link

Michael Jackson - Man in the Mirror

franny glasshole (franny glass), Sunday, 5 July 2015 00:13 (eight years ago) link

(...but 'I Believe In You' has a choir too. guess I was thinking of both - xpost)

stoomcursus rockisme (unregistered), Sunday, 5 July 2015 00:15 (eight years ago) link

Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down

Buried in the original mix, highlighted in the extended version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymW7N3cUd0k

... (Eazy), Sunday, 5 July 2015 00:24 (eight years ago) link

Billy Joel - The Longest Time
The Cars - Drive

that's not my post, Sunday, 5 July 2015 00:35 (eight years ago) link

The Longest Time is, iirc, all Billy doing doowop parts with himself. For the video, he had to teach the band to lip sync it.

I thought that the Will to Power Freebird/Baby I Love your Way Mashup had a choir, but I may be misremembering.

I Wanna Know What Love Is is totally the grandaddy of this category.

Ye Mad Puffin, Sunday, 5 July 2015 01:29 (eight years ago) link

mike & the mechanics - the living years

slugbuggy, Sunday, 5 July 2015 02:24 (eight years ago) link

U2--I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. Rattle and Hum version

kornrulez6969, Sunday, 5 July 2015 04:17 (eight years ago) link

xpost The Longest Time. Completely forgot about Billy doing all the vocals himself.

A substitute then: Dream Academy - Life in a Northern Town.

that's not my post, Sunday, 5 July 2015 05:04 (eight years ago) link

The Joubert Singers - Stand on the Word

Tuomas, do you have a handle on this song's remix history? It seems like there's a remix credited to Larry Levan that actually isn't his, but was instead a Walter Gibbons mix. I just spent 10 minutes reading up on it and I know less now than I did before.

― Johnny Fever, Saturday, July 4, 2015 5:01 PM (Yesterday)

Okay, so after some detective work, it appears the track that's always been credited as Levan's remix is actually the original version from the 1982 private press LP that the church released to its own congregation, the one that was discovered by Walter Gibbons and that Levan later incorporated into his dj sets. He didn't do any kind of remix to it, though. In fact, that version isn't even The Joubert Singers, but is actually The Celestial Choir of First Baptist Church of Crown Heights. When they recorded a version in 1985 for Next Plateau, they did so under the name The Joubert Singers, but the mix was completely different and honestly not as good as the original (which is the one everyone seems to know and is mis-credited to Levan).

Phew!

Johnny Fever, Sunday, 5 July 2015 06:01 (eight years ago) link

Sorry, I didn't notice your post until now, but yeah, I had to do the same detective work for the disco poll, and came to the same conclusions. Except that the re-recorded version is not "the everyone seems to know and is mis-credited to Levan". The version most people know is the original version (which has a piano-led, stripped-down arrangement), and that's the one that's usually credited as a "Larry Levan remix", or even a Larry Levan production, even though it wasn't produced by either Levan or Gibbons.

This is the original version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sncDrO7YIgU

(Apparently it was actually produced the choir leader(?) Phyliss Joubert and a guy named George Rodriguez, who had mixed some other 80s disco/boogie tunes, by artists like Karen Silver and Jocelyn Brown.)

The re-recorded version was produced Tony Humphries and was released on the 1985 single. It has a less minimal, more mainstream 80s boogie sound with synths and all (still quite good though).

This is the re-recorded version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78MsPSSKAMY

Tuomas, Sunday, 5 July 2015 12:09 (eight years ago) link

Sorry, I misread your post, you did actually say that the original version is the one usually mis-credited to Levan. Sorry about that.

Tuomas, Sunday, 5 July 2015 12:13 (eight years ago) link

Also, for whatever reason the original version of this tune was not released on any official CD before 2012, and the original single had become quite pricey as well. Back in the day I had to buy a bootleg "Larry Levan's Greatest Hits" comp just to get this one tune. Thankfully a French label reissued in 2012, so it's much easier to get it now.

But I think part of the reason why this tune's history became so obscure was because most people had just heard it as a part of a DJ set, and didn't have a copy of the original (where the credits are clearly stated, and there's no mention of Larry Levan).

Tuomas, Sunday, 5 July 2015 12:25 (eight years ago) link

Gerard McMann - Cry Little Sister

nashwan, Sunday, 5 July 2015 12:26 (eight years ago) link

Eurythmics - Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves
George Michael - Father Figure
Carly Simon - Let The River Run
Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes - Time Of My Life

vmajestic, Sunday, 5 July 2015 13:28 (eight years ago) link

Hear N' Aid "Stars"

billstevejim, Sunday, 5 July 2015 14:36 (eight years ago) link

Sisters of mercy - this corrosion

feargal czukay (NickB), Sunday, 5 July 2015 14:48 (eight years ago) link

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Souvenir

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDIYOiQUi2s

L'Haim, to life (St3ve Go1db3rg), Sunday, 5 July 2015 15:50 (eight years ago) link

Dare i mention...

Foreigner - I want to know what love is

feargal czukay (NickB), Sunday, 5 July 2015 16:11 (eight years ago) link

Madness - Wings of a Dove.

"Whoa-Whoa .. "

mark e, Sunday, 5 July 2015 16:25 (eight years ago) link

Peter Gabriel - "Biko"

The album version of the song is book-ended by a recording of the South African song "Senzeni Na?" as sung at Biko’s funeral.[2] The single version is bookended by "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", also sung at Biko's funeral. One line of the lyrics reads "Yehla Moya" which in Xhosa means "Come Spirit".

Paul Simon - "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes"

... (Eazy), Sunday, 5 July 2015 16:41 (eight years ago) link

Yeah was gonna say loads of Graceland era Paul Simon.

the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Sunday, 5 July 2015 17:03 (eight years ago) link

Bob Dylan - "They Killed Him"

The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Sunday, 5 July 2015 21:50 (eight years ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.