Tag: Chris Porter

May 16, 2024

Robbie Nevil – Somebody Like You (US 12″)

Burning The Ground Exclusive 1989

“Somebody Like You” was the second single taken from American pop singer, songwriter, and record producer Robbie Nevil’s second studio LP “A Place Like This” (1988). At this point, Nevil had garnered four Billboard top 40 hits including his songs “C’est la Vie” (#2, 1986), “Dominoes” (#14, 1987), “Wot’s It to Ya” (#10, 1987), and “Back on Holiday” (#34, 1988).

“Somebody Like You” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on March 18, 1989, peaking at #68 on April 8, 1989, spending eleven weeks on the survey ending Nevil’s string of four consecutive Top 40 singles.

SIDE A:
Somebody Like You (TJ Mix) 6:34
Somebody Like You (Radio Dance Mix) 4:28

SIDE B:
Somebody Like You (Yu Yu Mix) 7:35
Somebody Like You (Where’s The Band Mix) 2:49

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1989	Somebody Like You	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	#68

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: EMI-Manhattan Records – V-56125, EMI-Manhattan Records – MIC 11193
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM
Country: US
Released: 1989
Genre: Electronic
Style: House, Synth-pop

CREDITS:

Edited By – Luis Rivera
Producer – Chris Porter
Producer, Composed By – Robbie Nevil
Remix, Producer [Additional Production] – David Cole, Robert Clivilles*
Written-By – Jeff Pescetto, Richard Feldman, Robbie Nevil

NOTES:
Additional Production & Remix David Cole & Robert Clivilles for Done Properly Productions
Edited by Luis Rivera for Quickleaf Productions

Printed in U.S.A.

From the LP “A Place Like This”

Buy the 12″ at DISCOGS

VINYL TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

THE GEAR:
Turntable: Technics SL-1200MK7
Cartridge/Stylus: Ortofon 2M Black PnP MkII
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 3.0 (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.

February 14, 2024

George Michael – I Want Your Sex (US 12″)

Burning The Ground Exclusive 1987

Happy Valentine’s Day 

“I Want Your Sex” is a song by the English singer and songwriter George Michael. Released as a single on 18 May 1987 (US) and 1 June 1987 (UK), it was the third hit from the soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop II and the first single from Michael’s debut solo album Faith. It peaked at number two in the U.S. and number three in the UK, and was a top-five single in many other countries.

The single was certified platinum by the RIAA for sales in excess of two million in the United States. It was also the recipient for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song. The song’s radio airplay on the BBC was restricted to post-watershed hours due to concerns that it might promote promiscuity and could be counterproductive to contemporary campaigns about AIDS awareness.

Although it was one of Michael’s biggest hits, the singer ignored the song following its release; he never performed it after the Faith Tour and although the Rhythm Two version appears on Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael, it does not appear on the 2006 retrospective Twenty Five; furthermore, the “Monogamy Mix” does not appear on the 2011 remastered release of Faith. In an interview with Mark Goodier, included in the large-format book released with the 2011 remaster, Michael said that he still likes the second “Rhythm” but not the first, and that he distanced himself from the song because its production sounded too much like Prince; indeed, “Rhythm 1”, as well as a few other tracks on the Faith album (such as “Hard Day”), features Michael simulating female vocals by artificially pitching up and altering his own voice, much the same way as Prince was doing at the time with his pseudo-female alter ego Camille. In the interview, Michael admits that he was “deeply enamoured” with Prince, and adds that he thought it was very bad for him to be infatuated with a colleague of his. Rolling Stone editor David Fricke described this song as ‘a new bump-and-grind original that sounds more like Prince’s stark, sexy “Kiss” than anything in the Wham! catalog’. In 2016, after Michael’s death, Andrew Unterberger of Billboard ranked the song number eight on his list of Michael’s 15 greatest songs.

The music video, directed by Andy Morahan, featured Michael and his then-girlfriend Kathy Jeung to emphasize that he was in a monogamous relationship; at one point, he is shown using lipstick to write the words “explore” and “monogamy” on her back, which is photographed and retouched at the end of the video to reveal the phrase “explore monogamy”. A Spanish model was also used for naked scenes in a way that allowed the audience to assume they were the same woman; these shots are interspersed with intentionally blurred footage of George Michael dancing and singing the song.

In a 2004 interview with Adam Mattera for UK magazine Attitude, Michael reflected: “It was totally real. Kathy was in love with me but she knew that I was in love with a guy at that point in time. I was still saying I was bisexual…She was the only female that I ever brought into my professional life. I put her in a video. Of course she looked like a beard. It was all such a mess, really. My own confusion and then on top of that what I was prepared to let the public think.”

The video generated controversy over its sexual themes. In 2002, MTV2’s countdown of MTV’s Most Controversial Videos Ever to Air on MTV included the video for “I Want Your Sex” at number 3. The original video cut appears on the Twenty Five compilation 2-DVD set.

SIDE A:
I Want Your Sex (Monogamy Mix) 13:13
-Rhythm 1 Lust
-Rhythm 2 Brass In Love
-Rhythm 3 A Last Request

SIDE B:
Hard Day 4:53

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1987	I want Your Sex	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	#2
1987	I want Your Sex	U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play	#2
1987	I want Your Sex	U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop	#43

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Columbia – 44 06814, Columbia – 44-06814, Columbia – Lust T 1
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Stereo
Country: US
Released: 1987
Genre: Electronic, Funk / Soul
Style: Downtempo, Synth-pop

CREDITS:

Engineer [Engineered By] – Chris Porter
Mastered By – VLADO*
Photography By – James Wedge
Written-By, Producer [Produced By], Arranged By – George Michael

NOTES:
This record is dedicated to my hopeless conquest.

Buy the 12″ at DISCOGS

VINYL TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

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 making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.

July 11, 2023

George Michael – A Different Corner (Japan 12″)

Burning The Ground Exclusive 1986

NEW 2023 Transfer
NEW Meticulous Audio Restoration

Originally posted September 25, 2013

AN 80S AUDITORY ICON

“A Different Corner” is a song written and performed by George Michael that was released on Epic Records (Columbia Records in the US) in 1986.

“A Different Corner” was written by Michael while Wham! were at their peak as a duo, and during a low point in his life:

“I felt like shit. I went in and recorded exactly the way I felt, and that’s the way it sounds. It was partly Wham! and partly the end of a relationship. It was the farthest I’d ever fallen and in a very short period of time. I had to get rid of it somehow, I had to write about it. That’s a really perverse side that I’m sure a lot of writers have—’I feel like shit, but maybe I’ll get a good song out of it.'”

Michael admitted that “A Different Corner” was the “most honest” and personal song he had ever done. He elaborated further on the song’s meaning:

“That was about a very quick relationship, a here today gone tomorrow one. It’s amazing how emotional you can get in a short period of time and how long it can last. Someone can really shake you up and it takes you a long time to get yourself back on your feet; that was what that was about.”

According to Michael, the song took roughly 14 hours to write and record from beginning to end. The synthesizer textures were created with a Roland Juno-60 synthesizer.

At the time of its release in March 1986, Michael was still a member of pop duo Wham! (the song is included on Wham!’s album Music from the Edge of Heaven only released in Japan and North America, as well as their compilation album The Final, released worldwide), though he and partner Andrew Ridgeley had announced that they would split in the summer after a farewell single, album and concert. Michael had already enjoyed a solo number one on the UK Singles Chart in 1984 with “Careless Whisper”, which was credited as Wham! featuring George Michael in the US.

After radio DJ Simon Bates first aired “A Different Corner” on Radio 1, he rated the song so highly that he immediately played it again from the beginning. Michael went back to the top of the UK chart with “A Different Corner”, becoming the first solo act in the history of the UK chart to reach number one with his first two releases, although he was hardly an unknown or new act on either occasion due to his previous hits with Wham!. The song reached number 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100, thus becoming the first single credited solely to Michael to become an American top-ten hit which was enough to make American executives at Epic Records confident that Michael would be viable as a solo artist and helped get the gears in motion for his solo album debut Faith. It was the first song to reach number one in the UK charts to be written, performed and produced by the same person.

The song was also remixed for his compilation Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael. This version omitted the guitar and Michael’s background vocals during the instrumental break.

SIDE A:
A Different Corner (Single Edit) 3:57

SIDE B:
A Different Corner (Instrumental) 4:13

BONUS TRACK:
A Different Corner (Full-Length Version) 4:30

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
ONI: Near Mint
Insert: Near Mint

CHART HISTORY:

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1986	A Different Corner	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	#7
1986	A Different Corner	U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary	#6

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Epic – 12-3P-740
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM
Country: Japan
Released: May 21, 1986
Genre: Electronic, Pop
Style: Downtempo, Synth-pop

CREDITS:

Engineer – Chris Porter
Performer [All Instruments By] – George Michael
Written-By, Lyrics By, Producer, Arranged By – George Michael

NOTES:
Comes with OBI Strip, and Gatefold Lyric Insert.

“This record is dedicated to a memory”

Buy the 12″ at DISCOGS

VINYL TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

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 making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.

December 22, 2021

Wham! – Last Christmas (UK 7″)

Burning The Ground Exclusive 1984

NEW 2021 Transfer!
NEW Meticulous Restoration!
NEW First time in 24bit Flac!

Originally posted December 3, 2018

For those that may have missed this one the first time around I have given this record a fresh new transfer. Since I originally recorded this record in 2018 I have made many upgrades to my gear, and wanted to give the record the best possible transfer that I could. This recording is also being presented in 24bit FLAC Hi-Res Audio for the first time.

In addition I have also newly scanned the artwork.

“Last Christmas” is a song by English pop duo Wham!, released on Epic Records in December 1984, on a double A-side with “Everything She Wants”. It was written and produced by George Michael.

The song reached number one in Slovenia and Sweden and number two in seven countries including Belgium, Netherlands, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway and United Kingdom. Wham! donated all of their royalties to the Ethiopian famine.

**This U.K. 7″ pressing contains The early mix and vocal of “Last Christmas” recorded in August 1984, which has never been released on CD or digitally. Everything She Wants (Album Version) is the B side according to the record label. However, Last Christmas has been mis-pressed on both sides. Track time is listed as 4:24 on the record label the actual duration is 4:32.

SIDE A:
Last Christmas (Early Mix) 4:32

SIDE B:
Last Christmas (Early Mix) 4:32

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Epic ‎– GA 4949, Epic ‎– GA4949
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, Single, Mispress, Misprint, Gatefold
Country: UK
Released: 1984
Genre: Pop
Style: Synth-pop

CREDITS:
Producer, Arranged By, Words By, Music By – George Michael
Recorded By – Chris Porter

NOTES:
Issued in a gatefold sleeve.
Made in England.

Everything She Wants (Album Version) is the B side according to the record label. However, Last Christmas has been mis-pressed on both sides of the record.

Find the 7″ at DISCOGS

VINYL RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

THE GEAR:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut Carbon (DC)
Cartridge/Stylus: Ortofon 2M Black
Turntable Isolation Platform: ISO-Tone™ Turntable Isolation Platform
Platter: Pro-Ject Acryl-It platter
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck
Phono Pre-amp: Pro-Jec Tube Box DS2
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

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

Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.