Hamilton Bohannon – “Let’s Start A Dance (Special Remix)”

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Each week I record a song from vinyl and post it up here. I missed last week though. Sorry about that. Moving forward, this week’s song is “Let’s Start A Dance (Special Remix)” by Hamilton Bohannon and Carolyn Crawford on vocals.

This version is a 10 minute “Special Remix,” and according to Discogs, was mixed by Larry Levan. Originally, this song was released on Mercury and it was called “Let’s Start THE Dance.” It was later released on a number of different labels and called “Let’s Start TO Dance,” “Let’s Start 2 Dance,” “Let’s Start II Dance Again,” etc. you get the picture right? Anyway, Bohannon was a percussionist, band leader, and producer. He was known for his driving aggressive rhythms and, at one time, was Stevie Wonder’s tour drummer. I don’t mean to be name dropping so much, but Bohannon had some serious jams, however he managed to remain relatively under the radar. The man was majorly influential in the 70s Disco scene and beyond though. In the versions with his vocals he says “shimmy shimmy coco pop.” I don’t know if that was a common phrase in the 70s, but the first time I heard it was from Digital Underground. And is it just me, but when Carolyn Crawford sings, “Get on up and dance now,” doesn’t it sound like that’s where C+C Music Factory got “Everybody dance now“? Sorry, I didn’t mean to go there. In any case, “the message is in the music” and this is a must have in disco sets so I’ll just leave it at that. Here’s a fun video too!

via Mike Cruz, 4 April 2009 2:49pm | |