The Twelve Inch Presents : 5 Deep Cuts for Easter😈
Devilishly good disco, rare groove and deep dance cuts for your Easter weekend listening
The Twelve Inch is the story of dance music, told one record at a time.
Each week, I follow a track back to the clubs, the studios and the moments that shaped it, and somewhere along the way, I usually end up digging a little deeper into the crates.
Click on the covers and it’ll lead you to the (devil) music
Devil’s Gun (CJ & Co)
Disco was once called the devil’s music… so with Easter weekend around the corner, why not dig a little deeper into his influence on the genre? 😈
Here’s a selection straight from The Twelve Inch archives: five tracks that might just have you dancing like you’ve been possessed.👺
And the first one is a perfect case in point.
If disco was the devil’s music, then Studio 54 was surely his playground. This track by CJ & Co holds a special place in that story, it was the very first record ever played at the club, opening night included. And for good reason. From the haunting sound of the wind at the intro to that deep, hypnotic bassline, everything about it pulls you in.
CJ & Co was one of the many projects produced by Mike Theodore & Dennis Coffey for the Westbound label.
If you want to go deeper into their work, I’ve written about another of their productions here:
👋 Welcome, I’m Pe Dupre, thanks for stopping by.
This is The Twelve Inch, a community about the history of dance music from 1975 to 1995, told one twelve-inch record at a time.
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Up Jumped The Devil (John Morales M&M Mix) (John Davis And The Monster Orchestra)
Dancing to disco can be hazardous. When you’re out on the dancefloor, fully giving in, he can suddenly show up and take over. So consider this your warning for Easter weekend… you never quite know what might happen 😁
And if we go by the cover of John Davis & The Monster Orchestra, the devil seems to take on a rather different form, female, scantily clad, with a red tail that looks suspiciously like a water hose… Alright, let’s not go there 😂
Up Jumped The Devil is one of those signature productions from John Davis and his Monster Orchestra. Before that, Davis was part of the legendary MFSB studio band during its peak years, playing on countless Philadelphia International recordings. He also had a hand in producing and arranging William DeVaughn’s million-selling hit Be Thankful For What You’ve Got.
For this selection, I went with the extended John Morales M&M mix, it gives the groove more room to breathe and really lets those rhythm elements shine.
Devil Woman (Fire & Ice)
We’ve already established that the devil seems to lean toward the female persuasion… so what better follow-up than a track that confirms it outright: Devil Woman by Fire & Ice.
Fire & Ice is one of those anonymous disco projects that flooded the market at the height of the boom. At that point, everyone wanted a slice of the very lucrative disco pie, launching projects left, right and centre, with plenty of labels ready to cash in. Quick money, quick releases.
But this one comes with an interesting twist. The project was the brainchild of none other than Lalo Schifrin and his wife Donna. Lalo handled the music and production, while Donna took care of the lyrics, which, let’s be honest, didn’t need to be Shakespeare. The dancefloor wasn’t exactly the place for elaborate poetry.
The woman on the cover? Not the devil herself, just a professional, and rather striking, model: Valentine Monnier. Vocals were provided by Cheyene Fowler, an American singer of Native American descent. And no, despite the title, this has absolutely nothing to do with Cliff Richard’s earlier hit.
Devil Woman turned out to be a modest dancefloor success for Butterfly in 1979, reaching number 66 on the dance charts.
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Devil’s Run (The Peter Jacques Band)
No disco selection without some top-notch Eurodisco. I’m European after all 😁
The Peter Jacques Band was one of the many creations of Mauro Malavasi and Jacques Fred Petrus. They were behind several projects at the time, the most famous being Change, which I covered in a recent episode (and where I go deeper into their story). Change played a key role in the transition from disco into the sound of the eighties. The Peter Jacques Band, on the other hand, sits firmly before that shift and was instrumental in bringing Italian-made disco to US dancefloors.
I’ve always had a soft spot for their second album, but this track comes from their debut Fire Night Dance (1979). And it’s a perfect example of what made them so effective: pure Hi-NRG, built for the dancefloor and heavily embraced in LGBTQ+ clubs. You can easily imagine tracks like this lighting up places like The Saint night after night.
The formula was classic: music crafted in Italy by top-tier studio musicians, vocals recorded in New York with session singers brought in for the job. Disco at its finest.
The track I’ve selected is Devil’s Run, and at 137 BPM, you’ll need every bit of energy you’ve got.
The Devil Made Me Do It (A Tom Moulton Mix) (Robert Upchurch)
Let’s slow things down a little for the finale. Even the devil himself can’t keep up with those relentless tempos forever.
The Devil Made Me Do It, sings Robert Upchurch on this 1974 dancefloor gem. Pure Philly. Produced by the legendary trio Baker, Harris & Young and later given the full treatment by Tom Moulton, who turned it into a 10-minute-42-second epic. This is the Philly Sound at its finest.
Robert Upchurch was a Philadelphia-based gospel and R&B singer who became associated with The Trammps in the seventies. Before joining them, he released this very single on Golden Fleece Records, and would later provide backing vocals on Disco Inferno.
A perfect way to bring things down… without ever really leaving the dancefloor.
This was deeply informative and thoroughly entertaining. I could have you as my history/history of disco professor all day every day! Happy Easter weekend!
Praise Be!!!