Tag: 1984

February 12, 2026

King – Won’t You Hold My Hand Now (Heavy Times Mix) (US 12″) (1984)

Burning The Ground Exclusive

Before Love & Pride became a defining pop moment of 1985, King were already refining their bright, brassy brand of new wave soul. One of the key stepping stones in that ascent was “Won’t You Hold My Hand Now,” the third single lifted from their debut LP Steps In Time.

Originally released in 1984, the single failed to ignite immediately, reaching only #112 on the UK Singles Chart. At that point, King were still carving out their identity in a crowded mid-’80s pop landscape. Stylish? Absolutely. Catchy? Undeniably. But they hadn’t yet broken through.

Everything changed with the explosive success of “Love & Pride.” After that breakthrough hit stormed the charts, “Won’t You Hold My Hand Now” was re-released in March 1985 and finally connected with a wider audience, climbing to #24 on the UK Singles Chart. It was proof that sometimes the public just needs a nudge — or a hit — to look back and discover what they missed.

Brass, Bounce, and Romantic Urgency

Musically, the track is quintessential King. Paul King’s distinctive vocal delivery balances urgency and vulnerability, while the band propels the song forward with punchy brass stabs, tight rhythm guitar, and polished keyboard textures. The production straddles late new romantic flair and the emerging sophisti-pop sheen that would define much of 1985’s radio sound.

At its core, the song is simple and relatable — a plea for reassurance, connection, and emotional grounding. Wrapped in vibrant instrumentation, that vulnerability becomes something celebratory rather than desperate.

A Treat for 12″ Collectors

For vinyl enthusiasts, the US 12″ single offers something particularly special. The two remixes featured on the B-side are exclusive to the American 12″ release, making it an essential pickup for serious King collectors. These extended versions stretch the groove beautifully, giving the brass and rhythm section more room to breathe while enhancing the track’s dancefloor appeal — a perfect example of how the 12-inch format could elevate an already strong pop single.

It’s details like these that make collecting so rewarding: alternate mixes, regional exclusives, and subtle production differences that tell their own story.

A Second Chance Well Earned

“Won’t You Hold My Hand Now” may not have exploded out of the gate, but its re-release success solidified King’s brief yet brilliant run in the mid-’80s spotlight. Alongside Love & Pride and the rest of Step In Time, it captures a moment when British pop was colorful, ambitious, and unapologetically stylish.

Sometimes all it takes is one big hit to make the world circle back — and realize what was there all along.

SIDE A:
Won’t You Hold My Hand Now (Heavy Times Mix) 7:49
Producer – Liam Henshall*

SIDE B:
Won’t You Hold My Hand Now (85 Reasons To Hold Hands Mix) 5:07
Producer – Richard James Burgess

Won’t You Hold My Hand Now (Dub Mix) 3:22
Producer – Richard James Burgess

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

Chart Performance – King: *Won’t You Hold My Hand Now* (1984)
Chart	Peak Position	Date
UK Singles Chart	#24	1984
Australia (Kent Music Report)	#86	1984
Belgium (ultrapop)	#14	1984

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Epic – 49 05286
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Single, Stereo, Pitman Pressing
Country: US
Released: 1984
Genre: Electronic
Style: New Wave, Synth-pop

CREDITS:

Photography By – Sheila Rock
Written-By – J. Lantsbery*, M. Roberts*, P. King*, T. Wall*

NOTES:
Also available King “Steps In Time” on Epic Records and Cassettes

Buy the 12″ at DISCOGS

VINYL TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
for BURNING THE GROUND

THE GEAR:
Turntable: Technics SL-1200MK7
Cartridge/Stylus: Ortofon Concorde Music Black
Turntable Isolation Platform: ISO-Tone™ Turntable Isolation Platform
Platter: Pro Spin Acrylic Mat
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck
Phono Pre-amp: Pro-Jec Tube Box DS2
Tubes: Genalex Gold Lion 12AX7 ECC83/B759 Gold Pins Vacuum Tube – Matched Pair
DAC: Alpha Design Labs GT40a USB DAC
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Epson Workforce WF-7610 Professional Printer/Scanner

SOFTWARE:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 25 (Recording)
Down Sampling/Dither: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

**24bit FLAC Only Available For Seven Days!

Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by donating using PayPal. I appreciate your help.

January 23, 2026

Tina B – Nothin’s Gonna Come Easy (Canada 12″) (1984)

Burning The Ground Exclusive

Nothing Is Handed to You: Tina B’s Nothin’s Gonna Come Easy and the Beat Street Era

By 1984, New York City was ground zero for a musical revolution. Dance, electronic, funk, and hip-hop were colliding in clubs, studios, and on the streets, producing a sound that would reshape popular music for decades. Few soundtracks captured that moment as perfectly as Beat Street, and tucked inside its landmark tracklist is a quietly powerful dancefloor gem: “Nothin’s Gonna Come Easy” by Tina B.

Produced by Arthur Baker and John Robie, the track embodies the raw optimism and grit of mid-’80s NYC dance music. Built on pulsing electro rhythms and a driving groove, “Nothin’s Gonna Come Easy” feels both urgent and uplifting—music made for dancers who knew that survival, success, and self-expression all required work. The message hits hard: nothing is handed to you, but perseverance moves mountains.

The song resonated on the dancefloor, reaching #18 on the U.S. Billboard Dance Chart in December 1984, a solid showing amid a fiercely competitive era for club music. Its inclusion on the Beat Street soundtrack placed Tina B alongside some of the most influential artists and producers shaping the sound of the decade.

Tina B is one of those essential voices of the era whose impact runs deeper than chart positions alone. A vocalist and songwriter featured on gold and platinum records, her work helped define a musical movement that still echoes today. Her versatility made her a go-to supporting vocalist, contributing her unmistakable voice to recordings by Madonna, New Order, Al Green, Freeze, U2, Carly Simon, and Bruce Springsteen—a staggering cross-section of pop, rock, soul, and dance royalty.

She was also married to Arthur Baker, one of the architects of electro, freestyle, and early hip-hop crossover records, and together their creative orbit helped shape the sound of 1980s club culture. While Baker and Robie provided the framework, it’s Tina B’s vocal presence that gives “Nothin’s Gonna Come Easy” its emotional core—strong, determined, and perfectly in sync with the era’s DIY spirit.

More than four decades later, “Nothin’s Gonna Come Easy” stands as a reminder of a time when dance music wasn’t just about escapism—it was about resilience, ambition, and carving out space in a changing city. A true Beat Street deep cut, and an essential slice of New York’s electrifying 1984 soundscape.

SIDE A:
Nothin’s Gonna Come Easy (Vocal/Long Version) 8:02

SIDE B:
Nothin’s Gonna Come Easy (Dub/Long Version) 6:13
Nothin’s Gonna Come Easy (Vocal/Edit) 4:10

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

Chart Performance — Tina B: *Nothin’s Gonna Come Easy* (1984)
Chart	Peak Position	Date
US Billboard Dance Club Songs	#18	1984

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Atlantic – 78 69180
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Stereo
Country: Canada
Released: 1984
Genre: Electronic, Funk / Soul
Style: Freestyle

CREDITS:

Design – Lynn Dreese Breslin
Engineer [Mix] – John Potoker (tracks: B1)
Executive-Producer – Arthur Baker, Harry Belafonte
Lacquer Cut By – D.K.*
Mixed By – Arthur Baker, John Robie
Producer, Arranged By – Arthur Baker, John Robie
Written-By – Arthur Baker, Tina Baker*

NOTES:
Recorded at Unique Sound Studio & Shakedown Sound Studio, NYC.
A, B2. Mixed at Greene Street Recording
B1. Mixed at Sigma Sound, NYC

Tina B appears courtesy of Elektra/Asylum Records
Version of Atlantic LP 80158 – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack “Beat Street™ Volume 2”

Buy the 12″ at DISCOGS

VINYL TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
for BURNING THE GROUND

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

**24bit FLAC Only Available For Seven Days!

Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by donating using PayPal. I appreciate your help.

January 22, 2026

Cindy Mizelle – This Could Be The Night (US 12″ Promo) (1984)

Burning The Ground Exclusive

Before freestyle took over the clubs, Cindy Mizelle delivered this emotional floor-filler on the Beat Street soundtrack.

Released in 1984, “This Could Be The Night” stands as an early freestyle dance landmark and a key contribution to the influential Beat Street soundtrack. While the film is often cited for helping bring hip-hop and breakdance culture into the mainstream, its soundtrack also documented the parallel rise of freestyle—romantic, melodic, and rooted in the clubs of New York and New Jersey. Cindy Mizelle’s single captured that sound at a formative moment, pairing emotional urgency with dancefloor precision.

Born in Englewood, New Jersey, Cindy Mizelle began singing at a very young age. Raised in the church, she attended First Baptist Church in Englewood with her grandmother and eventually joined the choir, an experience that helped shape her powerful sense of phrasing and control. She attended Dwight Morrow High School and cites the Mizell Brothers—her cousins—and Cissy Houston as key musical influences, grounding her style in gospel discipline and classic soul tradition.

By the age of 17, Mizelle was already working professionally as a touring singer. Her early recording credits include vocals on Lemelle’s 1982 single “You Got Something Special,” followed by the 1983 album Pump the Nation with her band Attitude. In 1984, she stepped into the spotlight with “This Could Be The Night,” a freestyle track that aligned her with a genre just beginning to define itself.

Produced by Arthur Baker, the single reflects a producer at the height of his creative reach. Known for shaping the sound of electro and early hip-hop, Baker here adapts his approach to freestyle’s melodic framework. Driving drum machine patterns, pulsing synth basslines, and dramatic keyboard flourishes provide the foundation for Mizelle’s vocal, which delivers yearning and anticipation with clarity and emotional weight. The result is a song built for late-night dance floors, where romance and rhythm collide.

Though “This Could Be The Night” did not dominate the charts, its inclusion on the Beat Street soundtrack gave it lasting visibility and historical significance. In hindsight, the track feels like a bridge—connecting gospel-trained vocalists, club culture, and emerging freestyle into a sound that would soon explode in popularity with artists such as Shannon, Exposé, and Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam.

Beyond her solo work, Cindy Mizelle went on to become one of the most in-demand backing vocalists in popular music. Her résumé reads like a modern music history textbook, with performances alongside Billy Ocean, Chaka Khan, Evelyn King, Mariah Carey, Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, The Rolling Stones, Steely Dan, Dave Matthews Band, and Alicia Keys. She also wrote music for Aretha Franklin and toured with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band—an extraordinary range that speaks to her versatility and professionalism.

Today, “This Could Be The Night” remains a compelling snapshot of 1984 freestyle culture: emotional, dance-driven, and full of promise. It also marks an important early chapter in the career of a singer whose voice would go on to shape countless recordings behind the scenes, even as this single continues to glow as a standout moment in her own spotlight.

SIDE A:
This Could Be The Night (Vocal/Extended Version) 6:56

SIDE B:
This Could Be The Night (Instrumental/Dub Mix) 5:18

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Atlantic – DMD 769
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Maxi-Single, Promo, SP (Specialty Records Corporation Pressing)
Country: US
Released: 1984
Genre: Electronic
Style: Freestyle

CREDITS:

Arranged By [Co-Arranged] – Carl Sturken, Evan Rogers
Edited By [Edits By] – Albert Cabrera, The Latin Rascals, Tony Moran
Engineer [Mix] – Andy Wallace, Chris Lord-Alge
Producer, Arranged By, Mixed By – Arthur Baker
Written-By – Arthur Baker, Carl Sturken, Chris Lord-Alge, Evan Rogers, Tina B

NOTES:
PROMOTIONAL COPY
NOT FOR SALE

Version of Atlantic LP 80154 – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack “BEAT STREET”.

Artist name is not printed on B side label.

Housed inside company “12 Inch Maxi Single III” die-cut sleeve.

Buy the 12″ at DISCOGS

VINYL TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
for BURNING THE GROUND

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

**24bit FLAC Only Available For Seven Days!

Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by donating using PayPal. I appreciate your help.

January 21, 2026

Arthur Baker – Breaker’s Revenge (Italy 12″) (1984)

Burning The Ground Exclusive

NEW 2026 Transfer!
NEW Meticulous Audio Restoration!

Original post date: September 30, 2014

Arthur Baker’s “Breaker’s Revenge”: Electro on the Big Screen

Released in 1984, “Breaker’s Revenge” stands as one of Arthur Baker’s most culturally anchored recordings—an electro track inseparable from the moment when hip-hop broke into the mainstream. The single was lifted from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Beat Street, the landmark film that brought breakdancing, DJ culture, and graffiti art to audiences far beyond the streets where they were born.

True to its title, “Breaker’s Revenge” plays like a challenge record. Driven by crisp drum machine programming and stark, percussive synth lines, the track favors rhythm and attitude over melody, making it ideal battle music for the dance floor. Adding a human edge to the electronics are vocals by Gavin Christopher, whose soulful delivery contrasts sharply—and effectively—with the track’s cold, mechanized pulse. Christopher’s involvement also links the record to a broader dance lineage; he was the brother of house music diva Shawn Christopher, further underscoring how interconnected the emerging dance scenes were in the mid-’80s.

Commercially, “Breaker’s Revenge” made a solid impact on club culture. The single debuted on the US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart on August 18, 1984, remaining on the survey for nine weeks and reaching a peak position of #19. While not a crossover pop hit, its chart performance reflected strong DJ support and heavy rotation in clubs aligned with electro, freestyle, and early hip-hop.

Today, “Breaker’s Revenge” endures less as a standalone single and more as a cultural document—one that captures Arthur Baker at the intersection of music, film, and street culture. It remains a sharp snapshot of electro’s golden era, when records weren’t just played in clubs, but used as weapons in dance battles and symbols of a rapidly evolving movement.

SIDE A:
Breaker’s Revenge (Extended Vocal Version) 7:27
Vocals [Featuring] – Galvin Christopher*

SIDE B:
Breaker’s Revenge (Dub Mix / Vocal) 6:53
Jazzy Breakdown (Instrumental) 5:04

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

Chart Performance – Arthur Baker: *Breaker’s Revenge* (1984)
Chart	Peak Position	Date
US Billboard Dance Club Songs	#19	1984

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Atlantic – 78 6931-0
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM
Country: Italy
Released: 1984
Genre: Electronic
Style: Electro

CREDITS:

Edited By – The Latin Rascals
Engineer – Andy Wallace
Mixed By, Producer, Written-By, Arranged By – Arthur Baker
Mixed At – Shakedown Sound Studios,

NOTES:
Featured in the movie “Beat Street”

Buy the 12″ at DISCOGS

VINYL TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
for BURNING THE GROUND

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

**24bit FLAC Only Available For Seven Days!

Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by donating using PayPal. I appreciate your help.