Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Everything She Wants - Wham!
2. If You Let Me Stay - Terence Trent D'Arby
3. Theme From S-Express - S-Express
4. You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) - Dead Or Alive
5. Heaven - The Chimes
6. I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) - Daryl Hall, John Oates
7. Friends - Shalamar
8. Down On The Street - Nigel Wright, Shakatak, Les McCutcheon
9. Trapped - Colonel Abrams
10. Misfit - Curiosity Killed The Cat, Stewart Levine
11. Something About You - Julian Mendelsohn, Level 42, Shep Pettibone, Wally Badarou
12. Breakout - Paul Staveley O'Duffy, Swing Out Sister

Disc 2:

1. I Feel Love - Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte, Patrick Cowley
2. Big Fun - Inner City
3. Love Can't Turn Around (I Can't Turn Around) - "Jackmaster" Funk Farley, Jessie Saunders
4. I.O.U. - Freeez
5. I Wonder If I Take You Home - Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Full Force
6. Roadblock - Stock Aitken & Waterman
7. Paid In Full - Eric B. & Rakim, Raine Shine
8. Beat Dis - Bomb The Bass
9. Beat Box (Diversion 1) - Art Of Noise
10. Out Come The Freaks - David Was, Don Was, Was (Not Was)

Disc 3:

1. Single Life - Cameo, Larry Blackmon
2. Last Night A D.J. Saved My Life - Indeep
3. Somebody's Watching Me - Rockwell, Curtis Anthony Nolen
4. Treat Her Like A Lady - Albert Phillip McKay, Ralph Randolph Johnson, The Temptations
5. Love Town - Booker Newberry III
6. All Night Long (All Night) - Lionel Richie
7. Get Down Saturday Night - Oliver Cheatham
8. Walking Into Sunshine - Central Line, Roy Carter
9. Oh Sheila - Ready For The World, Taavi Mote
10. Ai No Corrida - Dune, Quincy Jones, Tom Bahler, Patti Austin, Jim Gilstrap, Charles Hugh May, Jerry Hey
11. The Medicine Song - Hawk, Stephanie Mills
12. Sexomatic - Allen Alvoid Jones, The Bar-Kays

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45298 in Music
• Released on: 2006-02-27
• Number of discs: 3
• Format: Box set
• Running time: 205 minutes

Customer Reviews

Quality or Quantity?
The previous 12" 80's compilations from Family Recordings are ultimately frustrating affairs, this being no exception. Digging out the diamonds from a mountain of coal seems to be the order of the day. I'm not sure what the 'aim' is from the compilers. If it's to provide us with top notch 12" mixes of our yesteryear that we may have missed, something I have longed for someone to release since I left my teens - but where are the quality mixes?

In this installment there are probably a slack handful of top-notch mixes - namely by Coldcut (Paid in Full, Shep Pettibone (Something About You) and Patrick Cowley (I Feel Love) and kudos to Family for having the balls to use up nearly 16 minutes of a CD for the aforemention Donna Summer classic.

Those aside, I wonder what the hell is going on. The first CD - Pop (so is it Pop or is it Dance? Make up your mind!) The cash in opener of Dead Or Alive is topical, and surprisingly, not a bad version of the 80's kitch Pete Burns. But the Chimes? Heaven? Never heard of it. An 8 minute mix that only livens up in the last third. Only the standout mix of the CD from Level 42 saves the day. The second CD - Club is equally as confusing. The inclusion of the likes of Inner City - Big Fun has been done to death on countless compilations, when the much better mixed Good Life (Oh where is the Mike 'Hitman' Wilson mix?!) is sadly not chosen. Why, oh why the laborious Stock Aitken Waterman 'Roadblock' gets an airing I have no clue. The second CD saved by I Feel Love, and the shorter extended mix of Farler 'Jackmaster' Funk's Love Can't Turn Around - beat those vocals! Not forgetting Paid in Full and Beat Dis.

The last CD you may is coaster fodder. Barely a decent mix among them. Why choose Single Life when you could have Word Up? Why have The Temptations when you could have Papa Was a Rolling Stone '87? Why have Booker Newberry III at all. I'm struggling to wonder as to why try and split the compilation into disctint genres as the last portion fails miserably. There are plenty, plenty better 80's dance mixes available to choose from, but I fear the compilers are hamstrung by what they are able to license.

As a result, I wonder what the compilers are trying to achieve, is it hailing mixology or familiarity (and in some cases neither!)? Where do you draw the line on a track that's barely changed from the 7" in terms of length or sound - or a track you've heard a thousand times deemed not fit for purpose for a supposed 12" compilation? (If I bought a 12" in the 80's that was 4.40 long, I would feel ripped off! Back in the day, there was no iTunes to preview the quality or time, remember!)

If the aim is to release compilations of 12" versions/remixes, then at least give us decent mixes - otherwise, it's as good as any other faceless 80's compilation. As per the previous compilations, there are some absolute gems inside but they are diluted by some shocking 4 minute half-baked trash that's not remix or extended! Must try harder Family Recordings, yet nobody else is releasing this kind of compilation, so I will still keep the faith, but please, more quality mixes not quantity of tracks. Either take some risks or don't bother at all.

not fantastic!
Its the typical CD, you see the advert on TV and think wow i remember every song on there...then you buy it and you only know about 10 songs from 35! Its ok value for money, and i can imagine listening to it more when the weather gets better and you can blast it out of your car.
Like i said not fantastic.

Let's Dance
Family Records have now set quite a precedence with their 80s compilations: must have good 80s music, a la 12" but not too poppy. So how did they do with this instalment? Not bad really, just Wham which is a little questionable.

This 3CD set has 34 hot 12 inches - which should be enough to get any retro party started. CD1 is mainly pop dance music, with S-Express' massive 1988 hit "Theme From S Express", which still sends shivers down my spine like it was a new entry! Other treats come in the form of Terrence Trent D'Arby's funky "If you let me stay", which still has really nice memories for me. Not really a bad start could have been better though!

CD2 is the dance CD, with Chicago techno pioneers Inner City really ripping up those 80s clubs with "Good Life", still has a very happy vibe today, and doesn't look out of place! Other favourites of mine include that alarm clock driven "Beat Dis" by Bomb Da Bass (they're still great in my opinion) and the kings of dance music (Coldcut) remix "Paid In Full" for Eric B and Rakim. This is the best CD in my opinion, and the 808 on the cover was the main tool of dance music back in the 80s.

CD3 is your soul and funk CD - so great for those slo-jams at the end of the night. Classics like Oliver Cheatham's "Get Down Saturday Night" are here; and well apriciated. A nice addition to this CD is the chilled out vibes from Michael Jackson's producer Quincy Jones, with his latin "Ai No Corrida". I did find the inclusion of Lionel Richie a bit too "cheesy" but that's me.

Altogether not a bad CD, but not as good as the 12"/80's compilations we've had over the past 18 months. The music is great, but I think it's maybe time Family thought about expanding the franchise to other areas of music, like hip hop and the 90s. Not their best, but not their worst either, but I still admire the way they've not gone all commercial on us. If you really like this sort of music then buy it, otherwise I'd "walk on by"