#80s dance

"Love Me" by Jang Deok, from her 1988 first press version of "After You Left Me". It was also released on Hyuni and Deoki's albums

Ralphi Rosario - “You Used To Hold Me” Best of Hot Mix 5 ‘88 1988 House

Folks, I got what you might consider to be a rare one today. Now, you could find this particular mix of Chicago legend Ralphi Rosario's all-time house classic, "You Used to Hold Me," pretty easily if you just bought the comp it appeared on, Best Of Hot Mix 5 '88, for literally a few bucks. So this isn't at all rare in that regard. BUT, this particular mix is also, headscratchingly, nowhere to be found on either Spotify or YouTube, so I guess it is kinda rare since two of the largest publicly available music libraries don't have it.

Anyway, from critic John Bush:

He became a famed mainstream/house producer and remixer by the 1990s, but Ralphi Rosario will forever be known as the author of house's most infectious hit, "You Used to Hold Me," as well as his status as a member of the illustrious Hot Mix 5 radio team that consistently lit up Chicago's WBMX during the 1980s with the best house tracks of the day.

Ralphi Rosario hasn’t let up off the gas ever since he started DJing with disco, soul, and pop records as a kid back in 1979. When he was just a freshman in high school, an hourlong mix he made was sent to Chicago radio station WBMX and played on the air. And before long, Rosario would become the youngest member of house music’s most iconic DJ collective, the Hot Mix 5.

Since then, Rosario has remixed countless artists, ranging from Matchbox Twenty(!) to just about every vocal pop diva imaginable (Donna Summer, Cher, Madonna, Rihanna, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Celine Dion, Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Estefan, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Kelly Clarkson, Mariah Carey, the Spice Girls, and Katy Perry, to name just some). And unlike his peers, he’s probably the only house pioneer who’s been able to consistently keep up, adapt, and stay relevant. As one half of remixing duo Rosabel, Rosario has earned a Grammy nom, and since 2000, has racked up seven #1 hits on Billboard’s dance chart. No single house artist has had the steadfastness and appeal that Ralphi Rosario continues to possess.

And yet, despite his strong career of divine house jams, his most famous accolade, as well as his first, is still to this day his 1987 dancefloor burner, “You Used to Hold Me,” featuring Xaviera Gold on vocals. A little word to the wise: if you’re making a playlist or mix of house classics and that song ain’t on it, then you fucked up; simple as that. “You Used to Hold Me” is the first song that really showcased what Rosario was capable of as a house artist, and also what he could do with a diva’s vocals. There’s no doubt that it's the track that put him on a path towards his decades-long tradition of remixing female superstars. Xaviera Gold wasn’t a star by any means, but she damn well had the confidence and gravitas of one.

And the irony of it all is that, originally, Rosario wasn’t even feeling his own track. From a translated interview in Voce Spettacolo:

Everyone in Chicago was doing tracks like ‘Jack this’ or Jack that’.. I decided to take a semi-serious approach. I was up recording & putting the final touches on ‘You used to hold me’ and after it was done, I doubted myself severly [sic]. I thought it was a fluke ; and that it was too serious for the tracks that graced the dancefloors. I really didn’t think much of it. But I soon learned that it was not MY decision to make. The responses were extreme, and I didn’t see the success it reeled overseas & the impact that it made. Like I do now, I just moved onward and forgot about it. It was interesting to see how it was imbraced [sic]. It was a song in the making ; and just like my past years of dance music, it had staying power. Staying power and the ability to become ‘Classic’ on the dancefloors is rare and not to be found these days.

So here's this "rare" remix off the Best Of Hot Mix 5 '88 LP, which has some very noticeable differences compared to the original version that came out the year prior. See, while the original version can be split into two parts—the Xaviera Gold singing-and-monolgue part, followed by Rosario dazzling clubgoers with sampled, chopped-up, and sprinkled bits of those same singing-and-monolgue pieces—this remix isn't nearly as linear. Gold’s regular vocals are instead sandwiched between samples and chop-ups. And those samples and chops, as well as Gold's vocals, are different from the original! She has a section in the first third where she sounds much calmer, almost resigned to the fact that her guy doesn't seem to love her anymore. More than that, a lot of the drums on this track are totally different from the original and there's even a segment that has some squelching and zippering TB-303 acid in it, which you can't find in the original version at all either!