The problem with writing about great music is, you often don’t know anything more about a killer track than how it works on the dance floor.   Part of the fun of being a DJ is uncovering rare gems, and If a track is rare, it’s also usually a bit obscure.  But sometimes, even when a song is well-known, it can still surprise you.  That’s the case with Cherrelle’s Didn’t Mean to Turn You On.  The song was a decent sized hit, (charting in the top ten), even before Robert Palmer rerecorded it a year later for a whiter audience.  Produced by the legendary Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the original mix is fun and funky enough, but the “Special Mix” is something else entirely.  I discovered it during an intense digging session and was wowed by the stripped down sections of mostly vocals and the machine gun echoing snare rolls.   About 4/5ths of the track tease listeners with isolated elements of the song before finally delivering one big chorus with all the toppings.  Yep, one chorus, that’s it.  When DJing, I like to mix it in under another track, do a long blend and then cut over to the original version.  I’m not sure what other possible purpose there could be for an edit like this.  Props to Jam and Lewis for being forward thinking enough to release a mix like this way back in the 80s.

-Dope Werewolf