Day 24: The Blackout Allstars – I Like It Like That

 

Today’s disc is a 1994 remix of a song from a movie (also from 1994). That remix was one of our most often played end-of-set tunes as DJs in the mid 1990s. This is the mix we played:

 

I know we bought this record new (and full price) but can’t remember where (it might even have been at Fourth Wave in Huddersfield, a shop I mentioned yesterday). Having studied Spanish and lived in Spain I had a real weakness for Latin house (and Latin music) in general so this appealed to me straight away. We didn’t play a lot of the obvious big party tracks of the time (the resident DJs at the clubs we played at played a lot of those) so we had to find our own favourites (and wanted to in a lot of cases). This mix (remixed by Bobby D’Ambrosio) worked well for us as a big-finish and, even better, I really liked it. Nobody ever complained about it so I imagine the people on the dancefloor liked it too.

 

I’ve never seen the film this version was recorded for (the film is also called I Like It Like That) but it was about young Puerto Ricans living in New York. Looking it up now I see that it stars, amongst others, the legend that is Rita Moreno and also Jon Seda, who is in one of my favourite TV shows ever (Treme, set in New Orleans and featuring loads of great music, he plays Nelson Hidalgo). The artist for the soundtrack (The Blackout Allstars) was a one-off supergroup featuring Ray Barretto, Sheila E., Tito Puente, Tito Nieves, Paquito D'Rivera, Dave Valentin, Grover Washington Jr., and Tony Pabon. Here is their unremixed version of the track (not that different to the first video but better pics):

 

This in turn was a cover of a 1967 track by Pete Rodríguez (pianist and bandleader, now 91 years old). It was written by Tony Pabon and Manny Rodriguez, vocals on the song by Pabon. It has been sampled more recently by people who mean more to our daughter than to me (Cardi B confuses me, artist or outfit?). Let’s hear that 1967 original now – it’s brilliant (and if I were to DJ now I’d probably play this version – boogaloo has lasted well):

 

Back tomorrow with a house favourite.

For the first intro post to this series go here.