Hi all! Due to life events, I will not be posting or reupping albums in the future. Some of the albums might be available on the Facebook group mentioned below. Thanks for understanding!

For Facebook users, please check out and join my new sharing group Trashy Treasures, featuring 70s, 80s and 90s music pleasures!! A lot like the Isle, but with everyone able to contribute and discuss the tasty old music we love!!!

For all you pop lovers on Facebook, you should join the Pop Rush Community Facebook page immediately. Lots of amazing shares of great pop music from the 1990's and 2000's!!

And don't forget to follow the Isle on Facebook and Twitter!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Debbie Johnson - Just Like Magic (1988) & So Excited (1991) DOUBLE POST!!

By request, here is another 'lost' Canadian singer, Debbie Johnson. I was going to feature this album some time ago, but her daughter contacted me through Discogs about a year ago, praising me for submitting several of her mother's releases. I asked her to fill me in on her mother's current whereabouts, but unfortunately I never got a response. And then Isle fan Jarrett e-mailed me recently and asked if I had this album, so I just couldn't wait any longer. Debbie was born in Trinidad but moved to Toronto as a child with her musical family. She and her siblings formed Sweet Ecstasy and had a minor disco hit in Canada with "Pull Our Love Together". Then she hooked up with singer /producer / former Stampeder Rich Dodson in the mid-1980's (he also produced previous Isle postees Manee and Aashna, as well as Alanis' very first single as a child). She released the ballad "Mama Said Why" in 1986 on Dodson's tiny Marigold label. The single got a lot of local buzz and she received a Juno award nod. This led to the release two years later of the awesome funky album Just Like Magic, also on Marigold, as well as many other singles. She released another album on the label entitled Touch The Sky, but it is very rare. It was all enough to get her signed to a more established label, Aquarius, where she released So Excited. She was marketed as a dance singer, and the remixes of her first two singles, "I'll Respect You" and "Power To The People", became pretty ubiquitous on Canadian radio, as were the videos on Muchmusic. Also, like every other Canadian artist on the Isle, she was nominated for more Juno awards. But the buzz soon died down and Debbie appeared to leave the scene. It is rumoured that she continued behind the scenes as an engineer and producer, but there is no solid proof that it is the same Debbie Johnson. Her daughter Ashley informed me that she herself has started recording music, however, and directed me to her Myspace page. And I just discovered that Debbie herself has a Myspace page HERE, which indicates that she has a "Best Of" album coming out with a couple new tracks. But no one has logged in since December, so I guess we'll have to wait to see if that ever materializes.

Download Just Like Magic

1
Night Life

2
Right From The Start

3
Just My Imagination

4
Secret Love

5
Just Like Magic

6
Mama Said Why

7
Lonely Lovers

8
Because Of You

9
Walk Away

10
Dance With Me

11
Secret Confrontation

Video for I'll Respect You

Download So Excited

1
Power To The People
2
I'll Respect You
3
So Excited
4
If You Don't Call Back
5
Everlasting Love
6
Behind Closed Doors
7
Do It For The World
8
I Know You Very Well
9
Bad Business
10
Let Me Go
11
Missing You
12
Just A Little Love
13
Sun Doesn't Shine

21 comments:

  1. OOOO i can't wait to hear this one!

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  2. Hey there - it's Debbie's daughter! I totally forgot my discogs login to try and get back to you, but thanks for putting up this blog about my mother.

    And, yup, her producer put out a Best of album available on iTunes and I'm still pursuing a career as well in music. If u are on twitter, please keep in touch! twitter.com/mspaigemusic

    Much luv!
    xoxox

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  3. Awesome!! So glad you found this!! And thanks so much for your comments on other artists! I was hoping someone had personal recollections of them!! xo

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  4. Cool to see you featured Debbie! And yes, she did release a second album entitled 'Touch the Sky' - which, like her first, includes a nice combination of catchy pop-dance tunes and soft ballads. I'll try to post a song from it on my YouTube channel (retrorhythms) soon!

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  5. I loved her song Mega Love, takes me back to happy times :) This blog is fantastic!

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  6. Consolecharlie/Dream101March 19, 2011 at 2:12 PM

    Hey Nasty G, loving all the great stuff you're putting up. You never cease to amaze me! I had a look around for you and found her album 'Touch The Sky' - it's only on LP though and costs quite a lot but it's there:

    http://www.cdandlp.com/item/2/0-220206-0-1-0/1040274287/debbie-johnson-touch-the-sky.html

    Btw, are you able to order CDs from Amazon.jp? I found all of Hiroko's albums there but since I'm in the UK, it doesn't like me ordering them :( - desperate to get Let's House Hiroko dance dance dance! :D

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  7. Hi ! can you reupload the first album ( Just Like Magic ) . Thank you . peace !

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  8. Hi, can you reupload the first album (Just Like Magic, 1988) & (So Excited, 1991). Thank you
    Lien Invalid

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  9. And it possible to have (Touch The Sky, 1989)

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    Replies
    1. Sorry, don't have Touch The Sky.

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    2. The links are dead again, any chance for a reupload, please

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  10. Wow!! so sad to hear of her passing. Just now found out as I was searching the net. Really sad indeed, I knew her through a friend of mine. Beautiful person, Wonderful singing family.Enjoy the journey sis. Desmond would be proud of you.

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  11. hey.. great blog!! can u reupload the so excited lp link?

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  12. Thank you for posting this! I had these on cassettes long ago. I wish Touch the Sky was available too. I really loved the song Mega Love and would love to have it again - I remember getting the 7" single of that at Sam the Record Man back then. Wonderful post, thanks for sharing!

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  13. I am happy to share I have uncovered several sealed copies of this album.
    The records came from Peter Dunns Vinyl Museum; a record shop in Toronto.
    They sat in someones basement for years, until I decided to put some love into the collecton.I hope to share more finds soon.

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    Replies
    1. OMG the Vinyl Museum ... I miss those days of travels to Tdot to rummage and dig in the city in places like Peter Dunns, Sam, Honest Ed's, shop at Eaton's and lots of great hidden gems in the city ... now just memories. The city and street experience by foot was real, so raw and alive. The days of Erica Ehm, Northern Pikes, the Pursuit of Happiness and of course the dancing vocals of Debbie Johnson!

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