It was a good day today. Met up with a couple of friends, one of whom was Larry, co-administrator here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" who's back here in Toronto for a vacation. We had lunch at our favourite izakaya, Kingyo and then a lot of chat. Hopefully, we'll have at least one more opportunity for a meal together although there is that threatened transit strike looming at 12:01 am Friday. And indeed, for those commuters who depend on the TTC, I feel for you.
Today is Thursday which means we've got Reminiscings of Youth where I post a song from the classic MTV era of my teenage and university years. And sure enough, I have "I Feel For You" by Chaka Khan from October 1984. Seeing that famous video and hearing that funkster of a song, I really get those nostalgic feelings; the 80s were a fun time. My brother and I also had a laugh at trying to sing Grandmaster Melle Mel's "Cha-cha-cha-Chaka Khan?" that starts things off. And in yet another case of a pop culture example of a mistake being made into an asset, the inadvertent scatting of the singer's name was just an error by the producer who decided to keep it in there to great effect.
"I Feel For You" is a great tune and just to see all those 80s breakdancers and a very happy Khan in the video again brought some nice memories of back then. Not that I actually got into breakdancing, though. The only thing I would have broken there was physics. But getting back to the song, look at the folks who were involved in it...alongside Khan was songwriter Prince, the aforementioned Melle Mel from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and the legendary Stevie Wonder on harmonica.
Of course, we gotta have the 12" remix like I used to hear on the Saturday-night radio remix broadcasts. In Canada, "I Feel For You" hit No. 2 while in America, it hit No. 3 on Billboard. It did reach the top spot in the UK and Ireland.
Once again, it was to my surprise on finding out that Chaka Khan's splendid song was actually a cover version of the original by Prince who released "I Feel For You" in October 1979 as a part of his self-titled album. I literally listened to it for the first time last night, and I've been struck at not just the funk but also the smooth and mellow grooviness to it. It almost takes things into the AOR genre and it feels like one happy walk in the morning. One reason that I posted the song here tonight was that, as I'd mentioned back in GWINKO's "GET ON" a couple of days ago, Prince's birthday is on June 7th so I would like to wish all the fans a Happy Birthday for him, who would have turned 65.
So, which songs were on the Top 3 of Oricon in October 1984?
1. Kyoko Koizumi -- Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge （ヤマトナデシコ七変化）
2. Checkers -- Hoshikuzu no Stage （星屑のステージ）
3. Masahiko Kondo -- Eien ni Himitsu sa（永遠に秘密さ）
To wrap up, you gotta have all three of them here for this performance!
Great song, both Chaka's and Prince's original song. One of the few times where I think of the cover version first before the Prince original(the other one being "Nothing Compares 2 U").
ReplyDeleteBeyond this cover, they also worked together on other songs like "Sticky Wicked(which also features Miles Davis)," "Pain," and then he produced a whole album for her(1998's "Come 2 My House"). She was one of his musical heroes.
Hello there. Yeah, even after discovering the original, I'm always going to think of Chaka Khan's version first since it's so danceably good.
DeleteBack in the 80's I did hear Chaka's version on the radio but this was the first time I heard the original by Prince. Good to hear Checkers again! And, I think I saw Akina in Kondo's video.
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