Michael Jackson (August 29, 1958 - June 25, 2009) – Walk Right Now (Special Remix) (1981)
Co-written by Michael, this superb jam from the Jacksons' Triumph LP was remixed by master mixer John Luongo and became a #1 dancefloor hit.
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Michael Jackson rocketed to fame in the early 1970s as the lead singer of the Jackson 5. As a solo artist, he fulfilled his ambition to be the King of Pop, becoming one of the most well-known performers of the twentieth century.
The Jackson 5 quickly became a cultural force after bursting onto the national scene in 1969 with their chart-topping Motown single “I Want You Back.” It featured Michael on lead vocals, who was eleven years old at the time. Their next three singles “ABC,” “The Love You Save,” and “I’ll Be There” were all released in 1970 and similarly topped both the R&B charts and the Billboard Hot 100. They were the first group in history to have their first four singles go to #1, and the first Black male group to score four consecutive #1 pop hits. “I’ll Be There” alone sold over 4 million copies in the U.S. and 6 million worldwide.
For their no frills-titled Third Album, released on September 8, 1970, unsung Motown songwriter Beatrice Verdi penned the psychedelic soul jam “Reach In,” with Michael and Jermaine on lead vocals. It was featured in a mindblowing dayglo sequence of Episode 7 of their animated series, which originally aired October 23, 1971.
The Jackson 5 released a dizzying number of albums during the early to mid-seventies. 1974 saw them back near the top of the charts with the #2 Hot 100 title track to their ninth studio LP, Dancing Machine. Its arguably funkiest moment was the superb disco-funk cut “What You Don’t Know.”
Following the runaway, multi-platinum success of Michael’s fifth solo LP Off The Wall in 1979, produced by Quincy Jones with key songs written by Rod Temperton of Heatwave, the Jacksons put out their fourteenth studio album as a group. Triumph (1980) went platinum, and sold three million copies worldwide during its initial release.
Michael sang lead on and co-wrote the stellar jam “Walk Right Now” with Jackie and Randy Jackson.
It was remixed by DJ and remix pioneer John Luongo on two days notice, the master mixer who helped resurrect the group’s popularity at the height of the disco era with his groundbreaking 1978 remixes of “Blame It On The Boogie” and “Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground).” The latter single went to #7 on the Hot 100, propelling their Destiny LP to platinum status, which allowed Michael to re-launch his career as a solo artist. Luongo’s remixes directly influenced the dancefloor-friendly sound that Quincy and Michael crafted for Off The Wall.
“Walk Right Now” was the fourth and last single released off Triumph, which made it to #1 on the Billboard R&B albums chart. However, the original single version was not a hit in the U.S., stalling out at #50 R&B and #73 on the Hot 100 following its release in June, 1981. The Jacksons were preparing to play a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden in the fall of ‘81, but could not get “Walk Right Now” played on New York’s influential station WBLS. They called Luongo in to “fix it” and gave him a two day deadline, and fix it he did.
As Luongo recalled in a 2017 interview with Brice Najar:
“As I toured the clubs in New York, I noticed that all of them were doing this thing with sirens at the time to get the crowds pumped up as if something special was about to happen. There was not one record in the world that had a siren on it at this particular time.”
So he rented a siren with a hand crank, a giant gong set-up, and “pushed my percussionist Jimmy Maelen to his creative max.” The moment Luongo finished the remix, it was rushed to WBLS on reel-to-reel tape, “and ‘Bam!’ it was on the air before I wrapped up to leave the studio!” The Jacksons and their management were thrilled and asked him to come play the siren on stage.
“But I said, ‘No way ! I’ll come to Madison Square to see you and I’ll be happy to meet with everybody but I’m not the guy that wants to be on stage – I’m the guy who’s behind the scenes.’ Michael Jackson met me and he thanked me for everything.”
With Luongo having worked his magic again, “Walk Right Now” became a #1 U.S. dance hit and reached #7 on the UK pop charts. Reflecting on his mix of the song in 2019, he told Jointz Of The Day that “it’s the greatest personal challenge we each have in this industry, which is to maintain the highest integrity in what we do regardless of the time allocated to do it.”
Remembering the great MJ on what would have been his 65th birthday.
#soul #funk #disco #JohnLuongo #Jacksons #Michael Jackson