During these strange times, we are all adapting our daily routine to ensure we remain active... both physically and mentally. Whilst the live events are currently on hold, I'm personally kept busy with my job as Label Manager of Mastermix, child-minding my two young sons and the usual home duties that have resulted in the tidiest garden in the world and the cleanest my car has ever been! The extra time has also allowed me to speak to friends and colleagues far more than I ever did and I've even dropped my guard recently and joined in with a few social media threads doing the rounds.
One in particular was sent to me via Facebook from numerous DJs requesting me to join in a thread entitled '10 Albums That Influenced Your Music Tastes' and asked nominees to post an album cover a day on their timeline. I'll be honest, I don't usually go for stuff like that but during this lockdown period I find myself with a lot more spare time on my hands so I thought I'd join in for a bit of fun. The idea was simple, you list an album a day for 10 days.
The initial thread included the instructions 'no explanations, no reviews, just the album covers' ... well you know me, I can't keep that quiet about anything, especially when it comes to music! So I adapted my posts to include a short description of each choice that was well-received by those friends who had sent me private messages asking about the albums I had ALBUM TRACKS: FILLERS OR FLOOR-FILLERS? By Richard Lee Richard is the Label Manager for Mastermix and heads up the development team for The Music Factory Entertainment Group but still finds time to DJ at selected events across the UK & Europe. : FILLERS OR FLOOR-FILLERS? selected, as well as putting my own twist on the theme...
I don't do ordinary! The albums I chose were: Day 1: C omplete Madness – Madness Day 2: Tango In The Night – Fleetwood Mac Day 3: The C omplete Thom Bell Sessions '77 – Elton John Day 4: Welcome To The Pleasuredome – Frankie Goes To Hollywood Day 5: The Lif e Pursuit – Belle & Sebastian Day 6: Graceland – Paul Simon Day 7: Volume 1 – Travelling Wilburys Day 8: Greatest Hits So Far – Zak Brown Band Day 9: The Liberty Of Norton Folgate – Madness Day 10: The Album – Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers Each of those albums played a significant role in carving out my music tastes, both personal and professional.
Whilst some of my selections are greatest hits collections, others are classic albums that included the chart hits plus the usual array of album tracks that were often nothing more than fillers... but... amongst my choices are albums that include both hit singles and some hidden album track gems. The same can be said for many other albums of course and I’m sure that most of you reading this are already thinking of your own favourites among the many albums in your collections.
As a young boy, I would save up my pocket money to buy as many albums as I could afford. Back in the late ‘70s / early ‘80s you had to wash a lot of cars to be able to afford one... so I did just that... I washed lots of cars and every month I made enough to buy a new album. At first I would use my hard-earned money to buy albums by my favourite band, Madness, and in purchased the seminal 'One Step Beyond' and played it over and over again.
Whilst the hits, including 'My Girl' , 'The Prince' and 'Night Boat To Cairo' , were the main attraction, it was some of the album tracks that I would include on my mix-tapes... remember those? Tracks like 'Rockin' In Ab' and 'Tarzan's Nuts' were more than just album fillers and helped ignite my passion for music that stretched beyond the obvious hits. Of course when you are a fan of a certain artist you are bound to like almost everything on their albums but the same thing happened on future album purchases that I made.
I wasn't a huge UB40 fan but after the success of 'Red Red Wine' I washed a few more cars and bought the album 'Labour Of Love' . It included the extended version of their 1983 number one, with the added toasted verse from group member Astro, as well as their other hits including 'Cherry Oh Baby' and 'Many Rivers To Cross' , but the more I played the album the more I was drawn to a couple of other tracks that were never released as singles: 'She Caught The Train' and 'Johnny Too Bad' .
The latter became one of my favourite album tracks of all time. During the ‘80s I bought a lot of albums to add to my personal music collection and at that time it was mainly to play the big hits. In my early days of vinyl buying I would regularly skip the needle to the hit songs and completely miss out on the other tracks that made up the album, which meant potentially missing out on some hidden classics. As I grew older I took more interest in the entire album and in doing so opened up a whole new world of music.
I had become a fan of the album track and now found myself skipping past the hits to listen to the other tracks first in the hope of finding something special. Selecting each album for the Facebook thread that I had been invited to partake in, gave me a chance to remind myself just how good they are and how many great tracks are on each one aside of the obvious hits. After I'd selected my 10 choices I started digging out even more vinyl and CD albums from my collection and revisiting some of the forgotten tracks as well as those that I still listen to and play to this day.
In this article I want to take a closer look at album tracks that have influenced both my personal and professional music tastes as well as highlighting those album tracks that were never released as a single but became mobile DJ floor-fillers! Let's start with a couple of the albums I selected for the Facebook thread. 'Tango In The Night' and 'Graceland' each spawned a decent amount of chart hits but among them there are also some brilliant tracks that made up the rest of the album.
Songs including 'Caroline' by Fleetwood Mac and 'Under African Skies' by Paul Simon are favourites of mine to play for my own listening pleasure. They are also tracks that, when performing at live events, I often include in my Warm Up / Chilled set allowing me to play lesser-known tracks by well-known artists whilst keeping my audiences engaged. Mixing up a few carefully selected album tracks with more wellknown hits can really help you create unique and innovative sets for your clients and give you that edge over other DJs.
From a personal angle, the album tracks that I really like mainly come from my favourite artists. Madness have produced a number of fine albums, had a string of Top 40 hits and recorded some impressive album tracks that on another day could well have been released as singles. The 1984 album 'Keep Moving' included the singles 'One Better Day' and 'Michael Caine' , but there are also a couple of excellent tracks that helped maintain my interest in what was otherwise a mediocre album by the group’s very high standards.
The title track 'Keep Moving' is solid but it's a track called 'Victoria Gardens' that will always be known, by many Madness fans, as the “single that got away” . Whilst writing this article I took the time to revisit this album as I thought the years may have changed my mind about its mediocrity... they hadn't... but those two album tracks continue to rescue it! Another favourite artist of mine is Elton John who has so many great album tracks that it's hard to pick only a few.
However, among my absolute favourites are 'Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters' from the album 'Honky Chateau' and 'Durban Deep' from 'Sleeping With The Past' . I also have to mention the brilliant 'Thom Bell Sessions' that includes many wonderful album tracks as well as the full version of the big hit 'Are You Ready For Love' . I digress slightly, and you must forgive me indulging myself somewhat, but there is a reason for mentioning these albums and tracks. Everyone reading this article will also have their favourite albums and by taking the time to revisit some of them you'll also remind yourself of forgotten hits or new tracks that you may have previously missed... or skipped past like I used to!
In my early days as a DJ I would mainly buy albums for the hits, which may go some way to explaining the vast number of greatest hits titles in my CD collection, but occasionally I would add an album to my music library because I had a genuine interest in that particular artist’s music and wanted to listen to more of their work. As I grew older, I realised that many albums would also have future hits on them so buying them made good financial sense too.
Throughout the late ‘80s and ‘90s I found myself buying more albums than ever before to keep up with the demand from my clients to play their album track requests. Artists including Blur, Oasis, The Smiths and The Stone Roses had achieved huge chart success but it was a selection of their album tracks that were becoming more popular, which meant I had to add those albums to my collection. Tracks like 'Champagne Supernova' and 'Married With Children' from Oasis, 'Tracy Jacks' by Blur, The Smiths’ 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out' and 'This Is The One' by The Stone Roses were among the album tracks I was asked to play regularly at events.
That trend continued over the years as I added albums by many artists I would have otherwise stayed away from, including Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Billie Eilish, Little Mix, Amy Winehouse and Robbie Williams, to ensure I had both the chart hits and popular album tracks to hand. Thanks to music streaming platforms like Spotify and Tidal you can now listen to a much wider range of music than ever before and each service throws up some classic album tracks that you may otherwise have never heard.
Creating a range of playlists on these platforms allows you to collate and experiment with tracks like never before and in doing so enhance your music knowledge that in return can be passed on to your clients. I've mentioned before that clients are becoming much more involved in the music selections for their event and this often includes some of their favourite album tracks. I remember one client being absolutely delighted when I included a couple of album tracks from his favourite group, Muse, as ALBUM TRACKS: FILLERS OR FLOOR-FILLERS?2828 part of my set.
We had spoken earlier in the day, whilst I was setting up the AV for the evening's party, and I took the chance to listen to the tracks during lunch. The client had already sent me his preferred music selections but the previous night he'd seen Muse live and wanted to show me some footage of the concert. I can't confess to being a huge Muse fan but the tracks he mentioned were good... really good... and would fit with my Warm Up set perfectly. I obtained the tracks, legally of course, and added them to my music library and have used them on numerous occasions since.
By expanding one's music knowledge, even by a couple of album tracks, it keeps you on top of your game and personally keeps me motivated and inspired. Over the last few years I've added album tracks to my musical repertoire from artists as diverse as Pink Floyd to Joe Bonamassa, Earth, Wind & Fire to Ed Sheeran, and just about everyone else in between, with most coming from client requests for the various events I've been involved in. Here are a few classic songs that were never originally released as singles in the UK: 'Stairway To Heaven' – Led Zeppelin (Untititled Album) 'Maybe I'm Amazed' – Paul McCartney (McCartney) 'Thunder Road' – Bruce Springsteen (Born To Run) 'Under My Thumb' – Rolling Stones (Aftermath) 'More Than A Woman' – Bee Gees (Saturday Night Fever) There have also been a few tracks in recent years that have become hugely popular thanks to their inclusion on a world tour, through radio play and even thanks to being featured in a TV advert for a well-known fastfood outlet: 'Your Disco Needs You' – Kylie Minogue 'Rockstar 101' – Rihanna with Slash 'I'm Lovin' It' – Justin Timberlake Finally, I have to mention the Beatles who arguably have the greatest collection of tracks favoured by DJs but never originally released as singles in the UK: 'All My Loving' – (With The Beatles) 'When I'm 64' – (Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) 'Eight Days A Week' – (Beatles For Sale) 'Yesterday' – (Help!) 'I Saw Her Standing There' – (Please Please Me) The list goes on and is almost endless! As the lockdown period continues, I've found myself joining a few Zoom meetings with SEDA, NADJ and other DJ groups. Whilst on them, I've been soaking up the immense knowledge from DJs across the UK especially when the topic of conversation turns to music... including album tracks!
Since interacting in these meetings I've added to my music library albums from David Bowie, Moby, Groove Armada, Robert Cray, Brand New Heavies, Block & Crown and Bob Marley, to name but a few. I must also mention Dimitri From Paris and his album 'Le CHIC Remix' . It features new workings of Chic's classic hits and is absolutely sublime. Another artist who I’ve been introduced to who I had previously known very little about was Joey Negro.
Whilst it's his 2005 hit, 'Make A Move On Me' , that he is probably best-known for, his disco-sampled remixes are well-worth adding to your music library, especially the awesome 'Remixed With Love vol. 3' that includes an unrivalled remix of '(Are You Ready) Do The Bus Stop' by the Fatback Band. Another Joey Negro remix that I recently discovered is his ‘Sunburnt Mix’ of 'Half A Minute’ by Matt Bianco. Having been a fan of this group since 1984, I was delighted to add the album ‘Sunshine Days: The Official Greatest Hits’ to my collection when it was released in 2010.
However, that was where it remained until recently when I dug the album out for a mix I was working on... and that's when I came across this absolute gem of a remix! The original track was a minor hit but this remix gives new life to the song and lifts it to a whole new level and the result is a cool remix with Tropical House undertones... a wonderful album track that wouldn't be out of place in any DJ set. I've only touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to classic album tracks and I'm sure some of you are already scribbling down many more suggestions of your own, either as personal favourites or ones you play as a DJ.
While we all have a bit more spare time at the moment, it's the perfect time to sort your music collections out, take the time to dig out a few albums and savour the tracks on them... you might just be surprised! ALBUM TRACKS: FILLERS OR FLOOR-FILLERS?(DJ VERSION) 1/ Phoenix – Elton John vs. Pnau Elton teamed up with Australian dance producers Pnau to create the 2012 concept album – 'Good Morning To The Night' . The album features new songs made up of samples of other Elton John songs and is one of the most creative albums I've had the pleasure of listening to and implore more of you to do the same.
This remix features elements of 'Are You Ready For Love' , 'Bennie & The Jets' and 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight' as well as two tracks from one of my favourite albums of all time, 'The Thom Bell Sessions '77' . 2/ Into The Mystic – Van Morrison I was introduced to this song a few years ago when a client requested it was played as their wedding First Dance and I instantly fell in love with it. A beautiful track that featured on the 1970 album 'Moondance' and has become a hugely popular song with many other DJs and their clients.
3/ Here Comes The Sun – The Beatles I could have chosen any number of album tracks from the Fab Four but this track resonates more than any other. George Harrison penned the song in 1969 and it originally appeared on the 'Abbey Road' album. A wedding favourite, a classic summer anthem and one of, if not the, most streamed Beatles track of all time in the UK! 4/ Mardy Bum – Arctic Monkeys I've lost count of the amount of times in my life that I've had to explain the term 'Mardy Bum' to people living outside of Yorkshire and it happened even more when the Arctic Monkeys released their debut album 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not' and included this gem as part of the track list.
The song became a cult-classic in their home city of Sheffield and quickly spread as their popularity grew. A reyt good tune! 5/ Madness – Madness This is a huge fans’ favourite and always goes down well at the band’s live shows. I first played this track at a wedding as part of a set for the groom and his mates, who had up until that point spent their time propping the bar up.
It went down a storm and attracted guests of all ages to join in the raucous fun on the dancefloor. It's not for everyone and I carefully select when to play it, but when I do it proves to be a useful secret weapon to have in my musical armoury! 6/ She' s Electric – Oasis I love it when an album track becomes more popular than any of an artist’s hits and in 1995 that was the case for this track. I was playing at events across the UK and Oasis were arguably the biggest act at that time.
They had a string of hits under their belt but it is this track from the album '(What's The Story) Morning Glory?' that was the most requested and always hit the mark... and can still do the job to this day! 7/ Enjoy Yourself – The Specials Nothing like a bit of skanking to get the heart pumping and this track certainly does that. A brilliant ska rendition of this often covered song that has become a party anthem with DJs and audiences alike. For many years it was my song of choice after 'Auld Lang Syne' on New Year’s Eve and I still sometimes us it as the last track to finish off a party in style!
You’ll find it on track 1 of side 1 on the 1980 album 'More Specials' . 8/ Isn' t She Lovely – Stevie Wonder Whilst an edited version of the song was pressed for promotional use by radio stations, it was never released commercially as Stevie Wonder was reluctant to shorten the track to fit the 7” single format. Taken from the 1976 album 'Songs In The Key Of Life' it is one of a number of album-only tracks I could have selected from Stevie but this is the one that came out on top... but it was close!
9/ Woman In The Wall – Beautiful South I remember hearing this track every time I went for a drink at one of the local pubs in my village and having no idea who it was by. I eventually became the resident DJ there and immediately scanned the jukebox to research the most-played tracks and this was one of them. It's a brilliant pub anthem and one that became a favourite with other DJs across the UK both at live venues and on radio. The lyrics are deep, the initial feel of the track is somewhat haunting but when the bassline kicks in it signals an epic sing-a-long with audiences old and new... fabulous song!
10/ Tango In The Night – Fleetwood Mac The album of the same name is one of my all-time favourites. It is perfect... absolutely perfect! The hits are sublime and the other songs that make up the album are wonderfully crafted including this track that I often use as part of a Warm Up / Music For Food set and have recently added it to my After Dark set list with amazing reactions from my clients.
