Guys,

Just to let you know on 9 November between 5 and 6 pm GMT on Jazz FM Radio the Johnny Mathis single "I Love My Lady" is to be played by DJ Ralph Tee as a special favour to me. He's actually got the whole album but because of legal reasons is unable to play it or let anyone else hear it.

For now atleast we've got one track that we can listen to. Enjoy!

What an incredible info !
It is a UK radio ? Is it also a webradio ?

Hi, Simon !!!
Wonderful piece of news ... Almost impossible ...
Hope you can save it in some way.
Is it a radio station we can listen to through the web ??? CIAO and thanks for the great tip.

Here is the weblink :
http://jazzstream.tlrc.net/jazzfmplayer/?region=1

Be carefull with english time that is not the same all over Europe

FANTSTIC NEWS!!! I can't wait to hear this! Always knew there were bootlegs/acetates kicking about. I'd still love to know why Sony/Columbia/Legacy are so reluctant to release it though. Still, excellent news. Thank you, Simon for organising it.

INCREDIBLE GOOD SONG!! Can't understand why they decided not to bring out the album. On Jazz FM they said it might be included along with two extra unreleased songs on the CHIC box to be released next year??

Thanks Simon for making this happen- it was so great to finally hear a track off of this legendary album and judging from the quality of the song, I simply cannot understand why Clumbia/Sony have never released the album.

Still, the best news is that according to Ralph Tee, this track will be on the upcoming Chic box set along with two other tracks from the album! Yeah!

Hmm, I wonder if Ralph can be persuaded to play more tracks off the album...

This made my week!!!

As everyone else has said-fantastic! It was just as I hoped it would sound when I was an expectant 17 year old fan waiting for it's release. Shame I've had to wait till I'm 45! As everyone else has already noted-I can't for the life of me understand what possessed the execs at CBS/Columbia, back in their 1980s boardroom at the time, to bury it.
Were they dismissing the project because "disco" was supposed to be dead & therefore didn't want Johnny Mathis' career to be associated & washed away down a toilet with such a maligned genre? When I established a dialogue with Sony/Legacy they'd just released a Johnny Mathis album of re-recorded standards. The original Johnny Mathis fans would've loved what we heard tonight & would surely have preferred to buy something original rather than yet another version of a classic 40s standard.
Whatever the reasons there's gonna be an even bigger clamour for the WHOLE album to be released now. The tune could end up being promoted on Youtube for instance. Can't wait for that box set...
But back to the tune. What a song! You'll agree I'm not overstating it when I say "Classic Chic arrangement". One of their best. The "OOOH-WOAH" backing vocals add ambience & complement Johnny's vocal of the track. Just as Tony Thompson said in an 80s interview (found in Glen's Hoard on the site) "He grooves his ass off!" He really does, people! The restrained Chic Strings come in halfway of the song to add to the urgent chorus call, "I Love My Lady!" You really can tell they had fun on this project and were in inspired form.
In the their day Nile & 'Nard were generally considered 5 years ahead of their time. They were 30 years ahead on this evidence. It sounds so current. It was that good. This song has left me in a daze for the last 45mins! I think I'd better calm down! Happy days...what a tune.

...nearly forgot to thank you Simon. Totally indebted to you for making this happen. Peace

Ditto to all the above comments I didn't think it would get airplay, but I'm so glad it has. Time to once again pester Sony/Columbia into releasing the whole album!, lol. xx.

You're more than welcome guys. I've messaged Ralph Tee to thank him and have tried, once again, to see if I can get him to play any other tracks but I think the legalities of it are too much to conquer unfortunately but I'll keep trying.

OK to the song. I've got to admit I have a problem with the lyrics to the chorus. I think they're really weak but hopefully in time I'll get used to them. That on first listen made it difficult for me to like the track on . It's growing on me more and more now and although I think it's far more unchic than I thought maybe that's not a bad thing. Great track all in all although Nile said a track called "Go With The Flow" was the outstanding track so fingers crossed we get to hear that and the rest very soon.

Just to add. I never understood how Johnny's record company feared his album with The CHIC Organization would alienate his fanbase, when he'd already released his disco hit "Gone Gone Gone" in 1979! - dumb excuse Columbia!

Ditto to ClooneyClone's comment to pester Sony again. I mailed famed broacaster Paul Gambaccini who'd just broadcast a Johnny Mathis radio documentary for advice & he advised the same thing. Just need to keep pestering the label.

Thank's a lot Simon, it was an incredible gift for every CHIC Fan.

The track was very very good, a CHIC "grand cru" as we say in french for top wine !
Johnny Mathis is groovy and I love the brazilian way Nile plays guitar.
As everytime, this CHIC prod. is simple and pure (no need to have more instrument) like diamond.

If the complete LP is good as this track (and Tony Thompson said it was great) it is a completely shame not to have released it.
Johnny Mathis should have had a lot of more fans with this LP.

This song is another way to show the genius of Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards.

DJ Raph Tee had also a word for www.chictribute.com and it was great !

this track is brilliant. i've just been rejuvenated. can't understand how they can release 3 tracks onto the box set and not the whole album!

Fantastico !
Simply irresistible.
Fenomenális.
Gracias, mucho gracias.
Béla

Speechless.

Cette chanson est fantastique. En revanche, Je ne sais pas comment ce DJ a pu se procurer cet enregistrement ?
Cela veut tout simplement dire que l'album est accessible quelque part et non pas enfermé dans un coffre fort ?
Si la maison de disque hésite à presser l'album en CD, elle peut le proposer sur itunes par exemple.
J'ai déjà tous les albums de CHIC, alors si la futur "CHIC BOX" contient l'intégralité de l'album de Mr MATHIS, je veux bien ACHETER l'ensemble !

Translated from Swedish to French by Google:

L'album a DJ Ralph Tee promo est probablement un disque qu'il a reçu. Nous ne savons pas si c'est le mixage final de l'album, il l'a fait. Je suis d'accord avec vous qu'il pourrait facilement libérer sur iTunes. Selon la réputation des "CHIC case seulement trois chansons de Johnny Mathis CHIC projet.

(SORRY FOR MY POOR ENGLISH)
if the Label company sent a promo disc to this DJ, I have only one question : why choose this guy from all over the planet ? lol lol lol
It's a strange story... In my opinion, it's a test !

You know, Donna Summer had exactly the same story with his unreleased album "Rainbow" (1981), released in 1996 (this album contains "Don't cry for me Argentina" and "Romeo" from the original soundtrack of "Flashdance") !

Sure it could be a test, to see if it's enough interest out there. But I'm sure many more got a promo of the album. But remember it's 28 years ago, many may be lost, or stored somewhere. Some who got the promo LP may be dead and their relatives don't know what they've got. Ralph Tee also have the ability to put it on his radio show, how many other who got the promo are still involved in broadcast media today?

As I recall the "I'm A Rainbow" album was not accepted by her (Geffen) record co. at the time so they ordered an entirely new album produced by Quincy Jones.

FROM WIKIPEDIA:

I'm a Rainbow is a double album recorded by Donna Summer in 1981 that remained unreleased until 1996. After making her name as the biggest selling and most important female artist of the disco era in the 1970s, Summer had signed to Geffen Records in 1980 and released the new wave-influenced album The Wanderer and I'm a Rainbow, a dance-orientated double album, was set to be its follow-up (Summer had gained much success during the 1970s with double albums). However Geffen were unhappy with the resultant effort and insisted that Summer part company with Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte who had produced and co-written, and with whom Summer had been working since the early 1970s. She was instead paired up with producer Quincy Jones and begun work on the 1982 self-titled album.

Over the years, certain songs from I'm A Rainbow sneaked out. "Highway Runner" appeared on the soundtrack to Fast Times at Ridgemont High the following year, and "Romeo" appeared on the Flashdance soundtrack (1983). Remixes of two further tracks appeared ten years later on the 1993 compilation album The Donna Summer Anthology - the title track (written by Summer's husband Bruce Sudano), and a version of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from Evita

Bootleg copies of the album circulated among fans for years before the full album was finally released by Mercury Records, a division of Polygram, in 1996. The original album artwork, however, couldn't be located although it's been speculated whether the rainbow themed artwork of her 1982 LP may have been it. While dance-oriented music was a theme throughout the album, this was combined with several different musical styles, making it one of Summer's more diverse albums. Styles explored included 80's Brit synth-pop like Human League and Duran Duran, pop/rock, and ballads. It included a duet with Joe "Bean" Esposito, writing credits from Harold Faltermeyer, Keith Forsey, Sylvester Levay, Summer's husband Bruce Sudano as well as the usual Summer/Moroder/Bellotte team.

Ralph Tee is going to replay "Judy" on JazzFM next sunday, 3rd May!!

http://www.jazzfm.com/shows/expansions/expansions-blog/coming-up-on-3rd-may/

I've been fascinated to hear the Mathis material at last - all those years ago Tony Thompson was raving about the music they made together and here it is. And Mr Thompson, a man of immaculate taste as his playing always demonstrated, was right - it was brilliant, state-of-the-art dance groove of the era and despite the bright and brash 80s sound (oh those DX7s) it still sounds incredible. Thank you for making it available to our ears, and a particular respect to Mr Ralph Tee, still out there doing after all this time.
There was only ever one Chic. Why did they have so many fabulous projects that the record companies nixed?
Keep up the brilliant work.
Sincerely
Ian McCann

And thank you, Ian McCann, without your article, where Tony Thompson, confirms the project, we fans would perhaps not have tried so hard to surface this project.

Maybe Ralph Tee's initial broadcast of "I Love My Lady" last year, has started the ball rolling, and Andy Zax can now pick it up and get the record co's to release the album.

6 songs posted here on CHICtribute.com, and all of them great tracks. 2 more to go (and perhaps a proper version of "Love And Be Loved"), let's hope the full album will be released, or at least announced, before we've posted the remaining tracks.

With 6 tracks we have heard (for 8), it's now ridiculous not te release the album. If Sony has fear about a CD there is now a very simple and cheap solution for the major : to sell the album on a music download website.

Even better, to my mind, would be a limited vinyl release, perhaps at a premium price. That way more DJs might play it and it would have a collectable cachet. In the event it proved a bigger success than expected, a CD could follow later in the usual way.

A great idea Ian. I wouldn't mind buying it on vinyl first. One wonders if there was any cover art made for the album back in '81, perhaps that's laying on some shelf waiting to be discovered too?

I think for Sony (and every major) a vynil is more expensive to release than a CD. Maybe a collector vynil could be relesed but after a CD or a download version with some success. And a lot of people have no more vynil turntable.

I'd go for a Collector's vinyl release followed by a Deluxe Edition cd with a written essay/history of the project and like Pocat suggests, possibly some original cover artwork or pictures of Mathis & Chic in the studio, etc.

I am amazed how strong the songs are and how good they sound too. You really would have to remember how the pop charts and the soul/R&B music scene was at that time in '81. In the UK the pop charts were very varied-Human League, Spandau Ballet, Adam & The Ants, Bucks Fizz(!), New Romantics et al. Kool & The Gang were soul/disco's only act consistently hitting the pop charts. In the US MOR by the likes of Dolly Parton, Christopher Cross, Lionel Richie's duet with Diana-"Endless Love", AOR by Daryl Hall & John Oates, REO Speedwagon ruled the airwaves & charts. Then you have the Johnny Mathis set. Standing on its own as there would have been nothing else out there sounding quite like it. I think Columbia did not have a clue how to begin to market it. It wasn't disco, dance, Hi-energi or even comparable to the pop music of the time. It definitely wasn't middle of the road!

It's apparent to me, that because it didn't fit into a neat category/box they thought it'd be easier just to bury it. This set in hindsight for me would have been groundbreaking if released at the time simply because it would have pre-dated Luther Vandross, Freddie Jackson and others by about 3 years. I just can't get over the sound, the production. Nile & 'Nard were truly excited about this one. For me they pulled out all the stops.

Think about it. Their arrangements and the songs have moved on a lot since "Diana". This would have been such an influential set. Come On Columbia. Music of all forms is now widely popular despite attempts in the past to categorise & market music and artists to seperate audiences. You're sitting on a goldmine here and I think you under-estimate the level of interest out there for this. I gaurantee it would sell better than any other reissues you've got ready to re-release in the next few months. You got cold feet before in 1981. Now, Do The Right Thing and release this. Heck, you could put Mathis & Nile on any chat show-Oprah, Ellen DeGeneres' Show to help promote it. Nile's the most entertaining talker and has so many stories in him. They could probably duet! Nile on guitar and Mathis' voice... It really wouldn't be that hard if you thought about it. Just do a little market research to test audience reaction. The Time Is Now. Do it already.

These songs are ridicuolous -- Sony I will buy 3 copies alone! Release the magic!

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