Nemorin - Creole Dance (1992) and Mission Of Love (1995) DOUBLE POST!!

So, I was looking into the work of Toby Gad, the Danish super-producer and songwriter who has worked with the biggest pop stars in the world, including Madonna, Fergie, Ricky Martin, Selena Gomez, Kelly Clarkson, Demi Lovato, and Beyonce, and I came across an artist he worked with who I had never heard of before, Nemorin.  I checked out a couple of her videos and liked what I heard, so I ordered her two CDs.  Little did I know at the time that she was once Toby's girlfriend and that she had an extensive career of her own. Jacqueline Nemorin was born in Mauritius. She moved to London with her parents, and then to Germany on her own, where she married German producer and composer Frank Diez.  In Germany she also hooked up with disco composer and producer Veit Marvo and became part of his Red Point Orchestra in 1972.  She also did a lot of session singing.  She soon changed her name to Jackie Carter and briefly became part of disco trio Silver Convention.  Before they released their first album and biggest hit, "Fly, Robin, Fly", Jackie was replaced in the group and only sang lead on one album track, "Please Don't Change The Chords Of This Song".  However, she soon signed a solo deal with Atlantic Records and released her first album Treat Me Like A Woman in 1976.  She released the moderately successful singles "Treat Me Like A Woman" and "Just Like Lightning", but then lost her deal with Atlantic. In 1977, she performed in the German musical Tell!, and in 1978 she released disco remakes of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" and The Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On". In 1979, she released her second album, Ruby Shoes, which was produced by her husband.  She released the singles "Stay For The Night" and "Ohh, What A Way To Go" to little success. In 1980, she and her husband joined Eric Burdon's Fire Dept. for one album.  She did mainly backing vocal gigs after that and then released her last single as Jackie Carter, "Heat Of The Night" in 1985.  She also returned to Mauritius that year for her own TV special. Also that year, she joined the pop vocal quartet The Hornettes.  She stayed with the group until 1993, wanting to concentrate on her solo career.  During her time in the group, she released the solo single "A Ci Lelao", which took influence from her Mauritian background and took on a world pop sound. In 1990, she met Toby Gad, who at the time was best known for his work with producer Frank Farian with Milli Vanilli.  She had divorced her husband in 1987. When Jackie left the group, she and Toby started writing together, which led to her first album as Nemorin, Creole Dance.  It included "A Ci Lelao" and took it's overall sound from that.  Toby took the reigns as producer, and they both wrote the songs.  "It Feels Good To Be Loved" was the only other single released.  Working on the album began a long romantic and professional partnership between the two, and Jackie started to write and produce as well.   In 1994 she had two songs on the soundtrack for The Neverending Story III, "Mission Of Love" and "Dream On (The Neverending Story)".  "Mission Of Love", which was in the eurohouse vein, was released as a single and saw some success in clubs.  An album followed the next year, with Toby again producing and the sound again incorporating world music. "Boat On The River" was released as the only other single. Jackie and Toby also formed the group Love You that year, and released three singles. including "Countdown For The Summer". The two then moved to New York and started working together for other artists, writing and producing pop songs for artists like Enrique Iglesias, Taylor Dayne, PYT, Sita and K-Otic.   They also released a song, "Free As A Bird", as Qute in 1999. After they separated in 2000, Jackie moved back to Germany and sang with the band Rubbersoul, and later moved to London, where she continues to write, produce and record. A pretty full career, I'd say, especially for someone I'd never heard of before!

Video for Accillelao

Live performance of It Feels Good To Be Loved

Download Creole Dance

1 Accillelao
2 Creole Dance
3 Aloha Mahe
4 Bajo
5 Tale About Freedom
6 It Feels Good To Be Loved
7 Around The World
8 Blood Of The Kings
9 Merry Go Round
10 Wheels On Fire


Video for Mission Of Love

Live Performance of Aloha Wahine

Download Mission Of Love

1 Mission Of Love
2 Aloha Wahine
3 Boat On The River
4 Angelina
5 Fire Of Love
6 Why?
7 Shine On
8 Le Le Kasbah
9 What If?
10 For The Children
11 Dream On - The Neverending Story III
12 Mission Of Love (Classic Version)

Connie - Connie (1986), No Tears (1995), The Best Of Connie (2002) & Party Time 1 (2015) QUADRUPLE POST!!!!

So, I guess I have left you guys waiting for a new post for a very long time.  It has been an extremely difficult year, as you can imagine, and I thank you all for your words of sympathy and support. I am in a better state of mind, rest assured. Recently I was thinking about Connie's rare album No Tears for some reason and wanted to hear it again.  After an extensive search in my messy collection, I located it and, after realizing how good it was, I felt that I needed to share it.  My partner Mark was very supportive of my blogs (and loved Connie), and with that in mind, I thought I'd come back with a quadruple post to make up for lost time. :) I originally fell in love with Connie in 1986 after hearing her song "Experience" on the radio.  This was when freestyle music was beginning to explode, and I was addicted! I managed to track the single down, and on the other side was "Funky Little Beat", which would become her biggest hit. After that, however, I never heard anything more from Connie. She had a lower profile that some of her contemporaries, and it wasn't until I found her self-titled album many years later that I could indulge in more of her fab music. Born Consuelo Piriz on July 30, 1964, in Miami, Florida, Connie dreamed of performing as a child, and in her early 20s was introduced to music producer Henry Stone. Stone was the co-owner and president of R&B and disco label TK Records, and he executive produced Connie’s debut single “Funky Little Beat”, which became an instant club hit and almost hit the Billboard Dance top 40.  Amos Larkins II produced the self-titled album that followed, and the singles "Experience“, “I Can’t Stop”, and “Rock Me” followed, though not to the same level of success.  They were instant classics in freestyle clubs, however.  While touring, Connie managed to record three more singles - a remake of KC & The Sunshine Band's "Get Down Tonight" in 1987 (included here on her first album), and "Tonight's The Night" in 1988 and "Rockin, Rollin Weekend" in 1989, both produced by Amos Larkins II. After touring for several years, Connie got married and decided to focus on family. It wasn't until 1995 that she would release her next album, No Tears, along with the same-titled single, on obscure label Black Olive, this time with different producers. Though the sound was still very much freestyle and Connie, both the single and album failed to have any impact, as freestyle was past its prime. Nothing was heard from Connie for 7 more years, when Thump Records released The Best Of Connie in 2002. Produced once again by Amos Larkins II, it wasn't a true "Best Of" since it contained remakes of four past songs, as well as remixes of "Funky Little Beat", three new tracks, and remakes of Trinere's freestyle hits "How Can We Be Wrong" and "All Night", and Debbie Deb's "When I Hear Music" and "Look Out Weekend" (also originally produced by Amos Larkins II). While mostly a freestyle album, the three new tracks were decidedly euro-house. By then freestyle was no longer in vogue, except for in retro clubs. Luckily, the internet would soon change that, and the demand for retro music grew rapidly as the internet did.  As with several other artists featured on this site, the demand for Connie grew as well. In 2006 she recorded the Latin reggaeton album Let's Party (Estilo Reggaeton) (no, I do not have it as I am not a fan of reggaeton, sorry!) and also released The Best Of Connie - Funky Little Beat (which is basically just a remastered version of her first album). After this, Connie toured in retro freestyle shows with other legends.  Finally, in 2015, she released another album, Party Time 1, again working with Amos Larkins II and returning to the freestyle sound that she was known and loved for.  Clearly Connie is on a roll once again, touring extensively, and we can only hope she releases new music again soon.

Video for Funky Little Beat

Download Connie

1 Experience
2 Your Eyes
3 I Can't Stop
4 Fire In My Heart
5 Funky Little Beat
6 Laughter In The Rain
7 I'm In Love With You
8 Rock Me
9 Get Down Tonight

Download No Tears

1 No Tears
2 Dream On
3 Together Forever
4 La La (Means I Love You)
5 I Like It (Street Mix)
6 Round And Round
7 I'll Be Comin' Back
8 Burning Desire
9 I Like It
10 No Tears (Hip House Mix)

Download The Best Of Connie

1 The Power Of Love
2 Spinning
3 Feel The Beat
4 Funky Little Beat
5 How Can We Be Wrong
6 Rock Me
7 Experience
8 All Night
9 When I Hear Music
10 Your Eyes
11 Look Out Weekend
12 Funky Little Beat 2.0 (Club Mix)
13 Funky Little Beat 2.0 (Radio Mix)

Download Party Time 1

1 Call 911
2 Get Up
3 Don't Want You To Go
4 The Night Is Still Young
5 Must Be The Beat
6 No One
7 Rock This Party
8 Romance
9 Don't Be Jealous
10 A Boy And A Girl

Cardenia - Memory (1994)

I was just updating Cardenia's page on Last.fm and thought, why not share their one and only album with ya'll?  It is perfect for the blog, and I haven't featured any good, old-fashioned euro-house in some time.  Surprisingly, in this day and age, there is little info on the group online.  But it was one of many one-off side projects of the German production duo behind Masterboy, one of euro-house's biggest successes, so I guess there isn't much to tell anyway.  The vocalist for the group was Viola Engler (not entirely sure that she's the lady on the cover, however), who was assisted by rapper Wayne Dallaway.  The name of the album was perfect, as it was almost exclusively filled with remakes of popular HiNRG and synth-pop classics, thus great memories, though the first single, "Toccata", was based on the Bach composition. This was followed by single releases of remakes of  "Living On Video" by Trans-X (the vocals on this are different and are rumoured to be by Masterboy's vocalist Trixi Delgado), "Passion" by The Flirts and "Happy Station" by Fun Fun.  The rest of the album consisted of remakes of Vangelis' "Pulstar", Roni Griffith's "Desire", Valerie Dore's "The Night", Koto's "Visitors" and Laura Branigan's version of Raf's "Self Control", as well as a couple of originals.  Of course, I love euro-house AND HiNRG, and adore the originals of all of the songs, so this album provided amazing memories for me, and hopefully will for you too, or will at least introduce you to some great old songs.

Download Memory

1	Intro
2	Living On Video
3	Passion
4	Pulstar
5	Happy Station
6	Visitors
7	Desire
8	The Night
9	Self Control
10	Passion (Ragga Remix)
11	Living On Video (Hyper Space Mix)
12	Outro
13	Toccata
14	Let The Bass Control Your Mind
15	Trigger Baby

Nicole McCloud - What About Me? (1985), Rock The House (1988/89), Love Town (1998) & So What? (2002) QUADRUPLE POST!!!!

Why not start the new year with our first QUADRUPLE post? I have been a fan of Nicole McCloud from the moment she emerged in 1985 with her breakout dance hit "Don't You Want My Love".  But not much was heard from her since her last album was released in 2002.  So imagine my surprise when I was switching through channels on TV late last year and saw a familiar face, looking almost as youthful as she did in 1985. She was on The X Factor US, and the voice was also familiar and amazing.  I waited to see her name, which was Lillie McCloud.  I was sure that it must be Nicole's daughter, but soon discovered after a second of searching online that it was indeed Nicole herself (Lillie is her real first name, while Nicole is one of her middle names)!  I was shocked that an artist who I followed and admired through much of her recording career was being presented as a new artist.  But I soon realized that, although she had a long career, she still remained unknown to the general public, and this was the best forum to bring her front and center and let the public experience what I already enjoyed about the lady.  Unfortunately she was eliminated on The X Factor in the fifth week, but not before she gained the admiration of the judges and an adoring new fan base.  While her heart is now in gospel music, she did eventually acknowledge her dance diva past after it was uncovered on the internet and created controversy.  Her past is now well-documented on the internet as a result, but I will give a bio anyway. ;) She was born in Rochester, New York, and after performing locally for years, finally got her big break in her 20s after meeting producer Lou Pace (who would go on to produce all of her albums).  Her amazing voice and looks got her a deal with Epic sublabel Portrait Records, who released her first single, a remake of Heatwave's ballad "Always And Forever," in 1985.  It was a minor R&B hit, but it was her next single, the upbeat "Don't You Want My Love," that would become her best known hit, reaching the top ten on the Billboard Dance charts and pop top 40 charts worldwide.  It helped that the song was featured on the soundtrack to the hit movie Ruthless People. (The song was also recorded by Isle postee Chantal Condor.)  It's success led to her debut album which, along with the previous singles, were released under the name 'Nicole' in most markets, though some releases used her last name as well.  Her next three singles, the Timmy Thomas duet "New York Eyes," "What About Me" and "Housecalls," were also minor R&B hits.  This led to her second album on Epic in 1988, Jam Packed.  The first single, "Jam Packed (At The Wall)," was again a minor R&B hit and the house remix brought Nicole back to the dance chart as well.  The next single "Rock The House" became an even bigger hit on both charts.  It's success led to Lou Pace re-releasing the album on his own label Oceana the following year under the title Rock The House, with different artwork and a reordered tracklisting.  The song re-entered the dance chart that year.  Despite the minor chart success, Nicole was dropped from Epic.  She wouldn't be heard from again until 1992, when she was featured on The Source's successful rave remake of "Rock The House".  The following year she appeared on three tracks on U.S.U.R.A.'s album Open Your Mind, including the single "Drive Me Crazy" (I had the album and always thought it sounded like her, but couldn't verify it was her at the time).  These collaborations led to the single "Runnin' Away," released in 1994, which became her biggest hit on the Billboard Dance chart thanks to the E-Smoove house mixes, reaching #3.  It would be re-released in many versions over the next four years, charting in the UK pop charts at #69 in 1996.  That same year she signed to Aureus Records and released a house version of the Doobie Brothers' "Long Train Running," and it hit the lower end of the top 40 on the Billboard Dance charts. An album, Love Town, followed in 1998 (finally using her last name) and it was much more dance oriented than her previous albums.  It included "Runnin Away," "Long Train Runnin' (Without Love)" and "Rock The House", as well as "Stay In Love", which Isle postee Mona Q would have a Billboard Hot 100 hit with three years later.  Though two promo singles were released - "Missing You" and "I Ain't Crazy" - neither was a hit and the album went unnoticed.  Nicole kept at it, however, and joined Angel Williams and Simone Böhlhoff to form vocal trio Voices Of Freedom, who featured on dance singles such as "Lift Your Hands Up" in 1999.  In 2001, Nicole released "One Good Reason" on an indie Florida label, this time as Nicole J McCloud.  The song again hit the lower end of top 40 of the Billboard Dance chart.  An album, So What?, was released the following year and included remakes of some of her previous songs, as well as a version of "Tell Me Where It Hurts," previously a single by Isle postees Try 'N' Be.  The next single, "Search'n," brought Nicole back to the Billboard Dance chart top 10.  But she became discouraged with her music career, as she never wanted to be pigeon-holed as a dance diva, and it was not paying off financially.  Nicole left the industry in 2004 to raise her kids and moved to Slovakia with her partner.  Though she continued to perform and record occasionally, it wasn't until 2010, when she recorded the theme song for the Slovak version of Simon Cowell's Got Talent TV series, that she considered re-entering the music business full-time.  She moved back to the US and auditioned for the X Factor, and the rest is history (on an interesting side-note, another successful 80s based, Lou Pace produced diva, Donna Allen, competed on rival show The Voice the same year).  Now Lillie (she claims Simon Cowell called her by her first name after seeing it on her legal documents, so she continued to use it) is pursuing gospel music, and though that is not necessarily my fave genre, I am thrilled to have this versatile, underrated and amazing singer back in the spotlight where she has always rightfully belonged.

UPDATE:  Amazingly, Miss McCloud herself wrote me in praise of this post and more!!  Here is her message.  So VERY honoured! :) 

"Hello cool Angel,  Thank you for you kind words and your overview of my career...You have certainly did your research on my career quite thoroughly.  I would like to speak more about my recordings and experiences in Slovakia such as The TV Show (Show Dance and the song or recording Show Dance) and the TV Show (Slovakias Got Talent) and the song Slovakias Got Talent ) which I wrote the lyrics and melody along with partners who wrote the music. I also sang the lead vocals and background vocals. At the time of these recordings I had no knowledge about The X Factor. Such shows were not of interest  to me. I want to make it clear that I've never collaborated with Simon Cowell or the X Factor in any way prior to season 3. This was one of the rumors along with a few others which did bother me a bit but ofcourse not any more. 

I'm very proud of both  recordings in Slovakia and television shows. 

All the best to you my friend. 

Lillie McCloud

AKA Nicole J McCloud"

Live performance of Don't You Want My Love

Live performance of New York Eyes

 Download What About Me?

1		Don't You Want My Love
2		New York Eyes
3		Housecalls
4		What About Me
5		Always And Forever
6		Why You Take My Love
7		Ordinary Girl
8		Shy Boy
9		It Happens Every Night

 
 Download Rock The House

1		Rock The House
2		Desire
3		Let's Talk About Love
4		So Lost Without Your Love
5		Jam Packed (At The Wall)
6		Two Hearts Are Better Than One
7		Everlasting Love
8		Throwdown
9		He's So Romeo

 Download Love Town

1		Stay In Love
2		Runnin Away
3		Missing You
4		Love Town
5		Thinkin' About You
6		Live Your Life
7		I Ain't Crazy
8		Rock The House
9		Maybe Next Time
10		Try My Love
11		Dreamin'
12		Pray For Love
13		Long Train Runnin' (Without Love)
14		Missing You (R&B Mix)

 
Download So What?

1		One Good Reason
2		Search'n
3		Get Your Hands Off My Man
4		This House Is Not A Home
5		Lessons Of Love
6		Get The Hell Out Of Here
7		Why Should I
8		Tell Me Where It Hurts
9		Missing You
10		Stay In Love
11		Your Love Is King To Me
12		If You Come To Me
13		One Good Reason (Megamix)
14		Damn I'm Pretty
15		Don't You Want My Love 2002
16		Search'n (Remix)

Ann Lee - Dreams (1999) & So Alive (2007) DOUBLE POST!!

Isle visitor Agus recently asked for Ann Lee's debut album, and luckily I ran across it yesterday while looking for something else, so I thought I'd share it with everyone!  Annerley Gordon has had a long and varied career in dance music.  She was born and raised in the UK, but in the late 1980s she moved to Italy, right when Italo-disco and Italo-house were exploding worldwide.  Though she never set out to be a singer, a talent scout heard her singing in a club and snatched her up.  Italian producers were drawn to Annerley's sweet, girlish voice, and she was soon snatched up by A.Beat-C. Records.  She released her first single in 1990, "Sexy Boy-Sexy Toy".  The following year she released two similar sounding singles also using her full name, "Donna" and "Hot 'N' Ready", as well as "Bad Love" under the moniker Annalise.  She would release several more singles on the label using both names over the next few years, and also for different labels under the name Charme, most notably on releases by Lee Marrow such as "Try Me Out" (which she co-wrote).  Italian producers were notorious for using the same vocalists on several tracks, but releasing the tracks under different aliases and using models to lip sync and pose for covers (Black Box is perhaps the most famous example), likely to give the illusion of a new artist yet maintain a familiar sound.  Annerley, along with vocalists like Sandy Chambers and Giovanna Bersola, was one of the most sought after.  During the same time she was releasing solo material, her voice was behind tracks by artists such as Ally & Jo, Go Go Girls, Groove Twins and Lolita.  It was also widely rumoured (and fairly evident) that she was the voice behind Whigfield, who had a worldwide smash with "Saturday Night", though Danish beauty Sannie Carlson appeared in the video and on record covers.  Further proof is that Annerley co-wrote Whigfield's next big hit, "Another Day" (Carlson has since taken over vocal duties, however).  An even bigger success for Annerely as a writer at this time was her having co-written the huge 1993 worldwide hit "Rhythm Of The Night" by Corona.  She continued to have huge success as a writer and vocalist throughout the 90's, so it was only natural that she would want to focus on a solo career.  She got together with renowned Italo-disco producer Larry Pignagnoli, who was behind much of the work she had done behind the scenes, and they concocted the eurohouse song "2 Times".  She released it in 1998 under her shortened name, Ann Lee, and it became an instant success in Europe, hitting the top 10 in most European countries, including her native UK, where it hit #2.  It managed to hit the Canadian top 20 singles chart as well.  An album and second single, "Voices", were released soon after, but to lesser success.  Two more singles also failed to hit, a remake of Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell" and "So Deep".  A new single, "No No No", was released in 2003, but Ann then went back behind the scenes until 2007, when she finally released a second album, So Alive, though this time it was on an indie label and only available digitally (except in Mexico, where it saw a CD release).  "Catches Your Love" and an update of "2 Times" were released as singles, but Ann soon disappeared again.  Since then, she has only appeared on former collaborator Benassi Bros.' Pumphonia album on a remix of "No No No", and as a featured vocalist on Favretto's "I Get The Feeling", both in 2009.  But I get the feeling, given her amazing musical history, that we'll see Ann back on the charts soon.

Video for 2 Times

Video for Voices

Video for Ring My Bell

Download Dreams

1		2 Times
2		Smooth & Sweet
3		Voices
4		Ring My Bell
5		In You
6		I Love You So
7		Come To Me
8		So Deep
9		Helpless
10		Looking For
11		Top Of The World
12		2 Times (Snapshot Mix)
13		2 Times (Master Boy Club Version)

Download So Alive

1	Catches Your Love
2	Everyday Everytime
3	She Wants To Be
4	Just An Hour
5	Every Single Day [Slow]
6	This Is What You Need
7	So Alive
8	Moonlight Dancing
9	Stop-Go
10	Hold The Key
11	Every Single Day
12	Hold My Hand Tonight [Bonus Track]
13	2 Times (Ice Bergem Vs. Favretto Radio Edit)

Costanza - Vanishing (1998)

I know, I've been really lax at adding new posts.  But generally I like to do a lot of research for my posts and that takes time, which I don't have much of lately.  But this post requires little time as I covered Costanza in the last post on Boy Girl.  This is Costanza Stocola's only album, and it features three singles: "Changes", "Falling" and "Ritmo Latino".  It also appears to involve production and mixing work from relatives Peter and Tony.  But this being seven years after the Boy Girl album, the sound is very different.  It is mostly a mix of trance and ballads, and a very nice mix at that.  Fans of Isle postee Grace's album should enjoy this most.  There are a few remakes as well, including Jennifer Rush and Celine Dion's "The Power Of Love" and Donna Summer's "I Feel Love".  Once again you have eurodanceboy to thank for this gem, a rarity indeed as it appears to have only been released in Canada and Japan.  Enjoy, and I hope to post again soon. :)

Video for Ritmo Latino

Download Vanishing

1		Don't Want Another Man
2		Sweet Lover
3		Don't Lead On Me
4		Here Comes The Rain
5		The Best Of Me
6		Vanishing
7		Changes
8		Falling
9		Just Another Day
10		I Feel Love
11		Ritmo Latino
12		The Power Of Love