Marlena Shaw - Touch Me In The Morning

The early days of dance music were the best for so many reasons.

Not because the music was better than any time ever, before or even that the production elements were so far superior those of the day.

It was because there were no rules, no paths one could follown, and only the gut and instinct of what you thought the future might be to get you through to the next day.

One could not even break the rules because there were no rules to be broken in this new burgeoning wide open frontier called Dance Music. Everything we did was considered to be breaking the rules because there was no clear path towards your goal which was to be innovative, trendsetting, and totally fearless of the failure you might experience.

It was the healthy respect of failure, while not being held hostage by it, that made for such an amazingly creative period in our industry. I look forward to that same type of enthusiasm for the unknown to return and surpass the past accomplishments as a great day for our industry.

Here to take you back to the early days of dance music, when everything you did was experimental, is one of my favorite recordings I worked on by the amazingly talented and diverse Icons of R&B and Jazz, the uncomfortable Marlena Shaw and her mega hit cover version of the Diana Ross classic "Touch Me In The Morning". The premier of this record first being played anywhere came in the clubs came when I went to 12West in New York and sat in a corner to see the reaction of the crowd as they went insane upon the first entry of the magnificent Ms Shaw!

it was moments such is this taught me the power of a great vocalist was greater and more indispensable then any groove one might create!

I was very fortunate to learn that if you start with a great song and a great vocalist and you are already ahead of the game!

This is one of the early records I mixed when I got my start at Media Sound in New York!

And yes, it did become a bit hit in the dance clubs around the world reaching number one in many of them!! I'm very proud of my DJ History and Heritage indeed!