John Morales (born April 14, 1954) – Barely Breaking Even (1982) (Demo Mix)

The boogie disco classic was intended for Logg's debut album until Salsoul balked at the cost, so producer Greg Carmichael stole the tapes and released it anyway.

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John Morales is a pioneering disco DJ and remixer who got his start mixing classics for Patrick Adams, then together with Sergio Munzibai founded M+M Mix Productions which became the most prolific remixing partnership of the 1980s.

John Morales was born in the Bronx in New York City. At age 12 he convinced the owner of his neighborhood record store to let him work there part-time, paid in 45’s. As a teenager, his large record collection helped him get one of his first DJ gigs at the Bronx’s Stardust Ballroom. Eventually he was invited to play guest slots at various Manhattan discos in the mid-70s like Pippin’s, located on East 54th Street, and 1018, which later became The Roxy.

He first started remixing in order to extend the songs he was playing on 45’s. As he explained years later:

“Back in 1975, after being a DJ for a few years in local clubs in the Bronx, I realized that I wanted to make some of the records I liked to play - records in the 3-4 minute range - last longer in time. I first started to do my edits using the pause button on a Teac Cassette Deck.

After many hours of self education I graduated and I purchased a Sony ¼” reel-to-reel and learned to edit. It was hard work and long hours editing and putting all the little pieces of tape together and making something creative happen...(but) by the time I got in a real studio I was virtually a whiz at editing tape much to the amazement of some of the engineers I worked with.”

Morales next began mixing different tracks together to create extended medleys. He pressed them onto acetates at Sunshine Sound, the Manhattan studio and cutting facility owned by Frank Trimarco. His Sunshine Acetate Medleys got him noticed by Patrick Adams and Greg Carmichael, who were just beginning to collaborate as disco producers.

They brought Morales on board as a mixer, and he immediately mixed a dancefloor classic, “Dance and Shake Your Tambourine” (1977) by The Universal Robot Band. He also mixed Musique’s “In The Bush” (1978), a #1 disco hit. But he remained uncredited on these and several of his other earliest mixes. His first official credit was for another classic, “I’m Caught Up (In A One Night Love Affair)” (1979) by Inner Life.

Morales crossed paths with Cuban-born Sergio Munzibai at a time when the latter was working as the musical director for WBLS-FM. “We partnered in 1982,” recalled Morales, “when we met at a New York studio called Blank Tapes where I had worked for many years with Bob Blank.”

The two formed a remix partnership called M+M Mix Productions and became the most prolific dancefloor remixers of the eighties, with over 650 remixes to their name. Sometimes they would remix 10 or more records a month.

One legendary track they lent their magic touch to was Class Action’s “Weekend” (1983), the remake of an underground disco anthem from 1978 by Phreek, co-written by Leroy Burgess and James Calloway and originally produced by Patrick Adams. The remake featured original vocalist Christine Wiltshire reprising her vocals, who was also the voice behind the Alphonse Mouzon-produced group Poussez! and Adams’ disco studio group Musique (and later Adams’ life partner). The original “Weekend” by Phreek never charted, but the 12” remake, produced by Bob and Lola Blank and mixed by M+M (which also featured Larry Levan’s remix on the flip) was a #9 dance hit and reached #49 on the UK pop charts.

The following year in 1984, they also notably remixed Jocelyn Brown’s #2 R&B hit “Somebody Else’s Guy,” and the powerful unity anthem “We All Are One” by Curtis Hairston, whose lyrics inspire us to keep working towards a world where someday racism will be a thing of the past.

In 1981, right before the dawn of M+M Productions, Morales and producer Greg Carmichael co-mixed Adams’ disco studio group Logg’s only album, featuring Leroy Burgess on lead vocals. The boogie disco masterpiece “Barely Breaking Even” was co-written by Burgess, his “Weekend” co-writer Calloway, and Burgess’ cousin Sonny T. Davenport. It was originally intended to be the six-cut LP’s seventh and final track.

But according to what Burgess and Morales told DJ Gilles Peterson in a November, 2017 interview on his Brownswood Basement Show on WorldwideFM.net, when Carmichael asked Salsoul for more money to complete the album, they said no. So he stole the tapes of “Barely Breaking Even” and released it anyway on Moonglow Records, a sub-label of Sunshine Sound’s label Sunshine Records. It was only distributed in the UK so Salsoul wouldn’t be the wiser.

In 2019, Burgess, Adams, and Louie Vega collaborated on a remake of “Barely Breaking Even.”

Morales’ original demo mix for the track was released in 2009 on the compilation The M&M Mixes: NYC Underground Disco Anthems + Previously Un-Released Exclusive Salsoul Mixes. It was only available on the 3XLP vinyl set, and not included on the CD release.

More info:

“John Morales - The M+M Mixes,” BBE Music, 2009

“The Making of Barely Breaking Even with Louie Vega, Leroy Burgess & Patrick Adams,” BBE TV, September 10, 2019

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