#John Jellybean Benitez

[jedivoodoochile]

Here is Jeff Beck, Diana Ross, Nile Rodgers, Madonna and John 'Jellybean' Benitez, May 16 1984 at Keith Haring's birthday party at the Paradise Garage Nightclub in NYC.

[c-40]

A-T-3 080 James Ingram - Yah Mo B There (John "Jellybean" Benitez 12'' Remix)

Picking up from where I left my short history of reissue labels in the age of Record Shop Day (which are all reissues in some form or other) and back catalogues (legacy records) making up 75% of all US album sales

In 1990 CBS brought back it’s Legacy label, CBS was acquired by Sony the following year and Legacy serves as the reissue label for Sony and all its labels

1991 Beechwood music launched it’s highly successful Mastercuts series, their promise “Mastercuts will cover all areas of music and endeavour to provide a higher standard of track listings, quality music and packaging. Conceived and compiled with love by Ian Dewhirst.” The first three in the Mastercuts series were:

Classic Mix Mastercuts volume 1

Classic Jazz-Funk Mastercuts volume 1

Classic Mellow Mastercuts volume 1

They were all compiled by northern soul dj Ian Dewhirst but as the catalogue grew other djs were brought in, Greg Wilson did Classic Electro, Dave Lee Classic Disco, Paul "Trouble" Anderson Classic House Volume 2, Dez Parkes Classic Rare Groove Volume 2, and on and on. The selections crossed over with Street Sounds, especially the Street Sounds Anthems series but the sleeve notes were a little better and they were spread over 2xLP, this was reflected in the price. I remember Mastercuts being more expensive compilations. With the success of Mastercuts, Beechwood would reissue Street Sounds Anthems series in the mid 1990s. Beechwood acted as distributed for BBE and Ian Dewhirst would become a record exec working for reissue labels S12, Suss’d, and Harmless

Blue Note’s Blue Break Beat series began in 1992, the quality of the package had improved with extensive sleeve notes thanks to being compiled by Dean Rudland and Eddie Piller of Acid Jazz Records and coming from mind of Giles Peterson (BGP, Acid Jazz, Talkin’ Loud) The popularity of the compilations led to reissues of the Blue Note street funk albums by Donald Byrd, Grant Green, Richard "Groove" Holmes, Jimmy McGriff et al

Polydor parent PolyGram (Polydor and Phonogram) launch its Chronicles series in 1992 to issue anthologies and expanded reissues like Yes We Can ...And Then Some by Lee Dorsey. Funk Essentials was an offshoot of Chronicles, the Parliament, Kool And The Gang, Barry White, Gap Band anthologies are all excellent as they often included rarer, funkier tracks and extended and instrumental mixes. Chronicles would become a label in its own right handling reissues for all labels under the Universal Music umbrella, like Motown Deluxe Editions

1992 also saw the record shop Sounds Of The Universe reissue 1974 soul-jazz album Fresh Out by Eddie Russ on their new label Soul Jazz. Soul Jazz would go above and beyond when it came to sleeve notes, sometimes this would extend to a book and film, they set the standard

The following year Blood & Fire would launch their reissue and anthology label. Blood & Fire was loved for it’s high quality releases, great packaging, great sleeve notes, and great selections. Each Blood & Fire released was a premium product

James Ingram - Yah Mo B There (John "Jellybean" Benitez 12'' Remix) is track 1 on the first Mastercuts compilation, Classic Mix. This classic mix is by John "Jellybean" Benitez (A-T-2 123 A-T-2 283 A-T-3 039) and Yah Mo B There was written by Rod Temperton, Quincy Jones, Michael McDonald, and James Ingram, with Quincy Jones producing

[twixnmix]

DJ Jellybean Benitez and Demi Moore at Nell’s in New York City on November 8, 1986.

Photos by Andy Warhol 

[elliscraddock]

Here's my #8thRocksShuffle #8thRocks dance video w/song called Jingo by #JellybeanBenitez #JohnBenitez.

(w/heavy rain sound effects/high tone version). I don't own this song but enjoy. This tap dance video is to celebrate his early 67th Birthday. Happy Birthday, sir. This is for you. #PuertoRico 🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷

[mediaacestar]

Madonna's Summer Song -- Holiday

An artist’s first hit!  For some it’s also their last hit.  For some talented artists, it’s the first of many.  But, there’s a lot that the first hit often tells you about the artist.  Consider Madonna’s first hit “Holiday”.  Madonna was living in New York and frequented nightclubs to get disc jockeys to play her demo songs.  Mark Kamins a DJ at Danceteria (and friend of Madonna) arranged a meeting for her with Seymour Stein of Sire Records (part of Warner Brothers). He gave her a three single deal, with an option for an album.  Her singles cracked the top 10 in Billboard’s “Hot Dance Club Songs” chart. With that success, Warner Brothers hired a producer and they began to cobble together the album that would become her first, the self-titled “Madonna”.  

Madonna was unhappy with the way the album was progressing and the way the songs were moving away from the sparser beat-based form of the original demos. This is the fork in the road where things changed. As a New York dance club aficionado Madonna asked John Benitez the DJ from The Fun House to do some remixing of the tracks.  The Fun House was a 26th Street Manhattan dance club, with a decidedly anti-Studio 54 club vibe, full of younger less affluent clientele.  Benitez knew the pulse of the city’s youth. Nicknamed “Jellybean” because of his initials, he remixed her singles “Burning Up”, “Borderline” and “Lucky Star”. They needed one more song for the album and “Jellybean” knew of the song “Holiday” written by Curtis Hudson and Lisa Stevens-Crowder for their own musical act Pure Energy. They refused at first, but agreed after meeting with Madonna.  Again, another game changing moment. Benitez then produced the track.

Released in August 1983 “Holiday” hit #1 a month later on Billboard’s “Dance Club Songs” chart and then #16 on Billboard’s Top 100.  It also hit #25 on Billboard’s “Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs” chart. By the time of Live Aid on July 13, 1985 Madonna was an international star with a #1 hit song, multiple top 5 songs and the title role in the movie “Desperately Seeking Susan”. But, with all that going for her, she reached back to her first big hit "Holiday" for her set at Live Aid.  The huge crowd and the mood of the song and her “no auto-tune” singing makes it the very best version of a great song.  It’s a great summer song! 

[madonna-trueblue]

Madonna and John "Jellybean" Benitez on August 04, 1984 attend a Michael Jackson concert at Madison Square Garden.

[tapiocalad]

Another very special Beat Electric image simply too hot to be denied. From their post:

This is quite possibly the heaviest electro jam ever recorded. The Jonzun Crew was formed by brothers Maurice Starr, Michael and Soni Johnson in Boston in 1981. This track came on the seminal 1983 Tommy Boy release Lost In Space. This track doesn't share the sparse production that is featured in many electro tracks from the era. The sound is thick and dark with killer vocoders and synths. It is as much at home on a disco dancefloor as it is on a breakdancer's cardboard. The mix was done by John "Jellybean" Benitez. Michael Jonzun and Maurice Star would go on to produce New Edition and New Kids on the Block.

[mymelodic-chapel]

Madonna- Madonna (Dance-Pop, Synthpop) Released: July 27, 1983 [Sire Records] Producer(s): Reggie Lucas, John "Jellybean" Benitez, Mark Kamins

[kizdemond176]

Madonna

Released: July 27, 1983 Genre: Dance-pop ∙ post-disco ∙ electropop Label: Sire ∙ Warner Bros. Producer: Reggie Lucas ∙ John “Jellybean” Benitez ∙ Mark Kamins ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Madonna is truly one of the greatest artists of her generation. When I was in my senior seminar class in College, I wrote a paper about the significance Madonna has had on pop culture..and how her legacy will forever be…

[radiomax]

Saturday 1/14/23 6pm ET: Feature LP: Breakfast Club (Debut) (1987)

Saturday 1/14/23 6pm ET: Feature LP: Breakfast Club (Debut) (1987)

Breakfast Club was an American musical group. Their biggest hit single was “Right on Track”, which peaked at no. 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song was remixed for a commercial release in a 12″ version for dance and club play by John “Jellybean” Benitez and became a top 10 hit on the Billboard Magazine Hot Dance Club Play chart. The group was formed in New York City in 1979 and went…

[coloursteelsexappeal]

Madonna - Gambler [John "Jellybean" Benitez Instrumental Remix] (1985)

[c-40]

A-T-4 013 Talking Heads - Making Flippy Floppy (Remix Version)

We went to see the remastered version of Stop Making Sense on the cinema on a wet Saturday afternoon, it was kinda perfect

Stop Making Sense comes out in 1984 but that needs no introduction. If Talking Heads release their first record in 1977 and disband in 1991 with Lifetime Piling Up as their final single as a band they're in the middle of their career. Talking Heads involvement in New York's downtown art scene goes all the way back to their performances at The Kitchen at the behest of Arthur Russell in 1976, Talking Heads were first band he booked to play after becoming it's musical director. The Kitchen was founded by Steina and Woody Vasulka in 1971 as a place for video artists to show there work but they also wanted a musical program so they made Rhys Chatham their musical director. Even Though the Vasulkas and Chatham moved on after 1973 the cross pollination of media art, performance, fashion and music continued. Talking Heads really benefitted from this and when Arthur Russell began taking an interest in disco and popular music they benefitted from that too. David Byrne played guitar of Arthur Russell's first disco record Kiss Me Again as Dinosaur made with legendary NY DJ Nicky Siano in 1978 (and released by Sire.) Watching Stop Making Sense again brought home New York's downtown art scene of the 1970s and early 80s

With Madonna getting a deal with Sire Records and John Jellybean Benitez's involvement with the success of Holiday, Benitez is asked to remix the Talking Heads in collaboration with David Byrne. Slippery People and Making Floppy Floppy are remixed and they are released on 12" in North America and Europe, in the UK they come out as a free 12" packaged withThis Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)

Does it improve on the album version? yes

In art collages there were murmurs of 'remix culture'

[itsallmadonnasfault]

Four decades ago, an effervescent dance–pop single titled “Holiday” hit the airwaves and the clubs. Not only did it earn Madonna her first top 20 Billboard Hot 100 hit and signal the ascendance of her globe-conquering career, but it marked the commercial breakthrough of a DJ/producer who would help define the sound of dance music in the mid ’80s: John “Jellybean” Benitez

“I can be in a restaurant and someone is singing the lyrics,” Benitez tells Billboard of what happens when he’s in public and “Holiday” comes on these days. “I’m looking at them like, ‘They have no idea.’”’

Not only was “Holiday” Madonna’s first Dance Club Songs No. 1 (as part of a double A-side with “Lucky Star”), but it marked a historic first: “the only record produced by a current club DJ to hit Billboard’s Hot 100,” according to the Nov. 26, 1983, Billboard. Just a week earlier, the Hot 100 (dated Nov. 19, 1983) included not only “Holiday” but a whopping 12 entries that were aided by Jellybean remixes.

[themichaeljacksonhistorian]

Advert for Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson’s “Say Say Say” single from the October 13, 1983 in Smash Hits magazine

[elliscraddock]

Here's my #8thRocksShuffle #8thRocks dance video w/song called Jingo by #JellybeanBenitez #JohnBenitez(w/heavy rain sound effects/high tone version) on YouTube to celebrate his 67th Birthday. Also click the like, share, subscribe, & hit a notification button on my YouTube channel. Happy Birthday, sir. This is for you. #PuertoRico 🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷