80's dance music Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Madonna “Finally Enough Love”

sfilzen — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 18:04:39 +0000

Madonna “Finally Enough Love” 2022 on clear vinyl. This past weekend was the Queen of Pop’s birthday (b. 1958) so I’m putting on this abridged vinyl release of her 2022 Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones remix compilation that celebrated the milestone of her having 50 number one tracks on the Billboard dance club songs chart. The 50-track release would be kinda cool but I honestly don’t even have time for a double LP (which this is) so I’m pretty ok with this 16-track version. The songs range from the early 80’s (the lead track is “Everybody (You Can Dance Remix edit)” from 1982 (on her first demo tape and then on her ’83 debut LP Madonna) all the way to the 2020 single “I Don’t Search I Find (Honey Dijon Radio Mix).” For many reasons the earlier material on the comp is my favorite: “Into the Groove (You Can Dance Remix Edit)” will always be one of my top 80’s tracks of all-time ever (1985’s Desperately Seeking Susan was my everything for a minute that year). “Vogue (single version)” is another one – it’s from 1990 but in my head it is still 80’s as I associate it with going to dance clubs in the Fox Valley (probably The Option in Green Bay, long gone) most likely on break from freshman year at college. There’s a few songs from the 90’s that I don’t really know at all but then we get into the early 2000’s: “Music (Deep Dish Dot Com Radio Edit)” and “Hung Up (SDP Extended Vocal Edit)” from 2005 which samples most excellently ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” After that I’m lost again – I think I know the early 2000 material because we finally got cable around that time and I was watching a good deal of VH1 for a minute, until VH1 went the stupid direction that MTV did and no longer played videos. Anyway, I don’t know the songs from the 2010’s either. All are very Madonna and are obviously highly danceable, in a very #1 kind of way.

The post Madonna “Finally Enough Love” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.

Madonna “Madonna”

sfilzen — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 17:41:25 +0000

Madonna “Madonna” released 40 years ago today (!!), July 27th, 1983. Madonna’s debut LP was sometimes panned and often reviled (i.e. this review from Blender: “quacking synths, overperky bass and state-of-the-art mechanical disco, with Madonna strapped to the wing rather than holding the controls. It’s a breathless, subtlety-free debut.” or “almost entirely helium, a gas-filled, lighter-than-air creation of MTV and other sinister media packagers”), but Madonna was instrumental in moving dance music out of club-exclusivity and into the popular mainstream with this top-selling LP which peaked at #8 in the US and #6 in the UK. Madonna is over- processed and over-polished (which basically sums up most of the 80′s) but it’s also infectiously glorious. Rolling Stone called it “an irresistible invitation to the dance” and it’s now recognized as an 80’s icon – one of the best album’s from the era – as is Madonna herself.

Madonna certainly blew my 12-year old mind in ’83. I distinctly remember hearing “Holiday” (the third single from Madonna; it went to #16 on the Hot 100, #1 on the Dance charts) that Fall and immediately dancing around my bedroom, infected by the post-disco grooves. And then I saw the video for “Lucky Star” (#4 US, #14 UK) and a thousand black rubber bangles and beauty marks were launched. I think I spent the next year scrutinizing her dance moves and practicing them with friends at sleepovers. Also iconic and still excellent are the singles “Holiday” (#16 US, #2 UK), two singles released prior to the LP’s launch which both charted only on the dance charts: “Everybody” and “Burning Up.” The remaining 40% of the record is somewhat unremarkable post-disco dance pop but with the strength of the singles, the record was, and remains, an 80’s gem.

The post Madonna “Madonna” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.

Information Society “What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy)”

sfilzen — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 19:10:25 +0000

Information Society “What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy)” 1988. Tommy Boy Records. Two days ago, September 7th, was the 50th anniversary of Star Trek and I just realized I had a way to celebrate! Information Society’s infectiously dance-tastic synth pop one-hit wonder (it spent 25 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100, hitting #3 in October ‘88) derives its subtitle and relentless sample from Leonard Nimoy’s Spock in the Star Trek episode “Return to Tomorrow.” Bones (DeForest Kelley) also gets a sample, his contribution from the episode “I, Mudd,” on the single’s intro “it’s worked so far, but we’re not out yet.”

I did a lot of dancing to this song in the fall of ‘88 but always thought that Information Society was British. But! They are Midwesterners from Minneapolis who got together in a dorm room at Macalester College in the early 80s, noodling around with experimental electronic music (how very very 80′s liberal arts collegey). Information Society managed to get permission from Paramount Pictures to use the Star Trek samples on their single because Adam Nimoy, Leonard’s son, was a fan of the band.

The post Information Society “What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy)” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.