I am such a fan of Taana Gardner’s 1981 funky hit record “Heartbeat,” I used it in my TV show “Kingpin.” Put it under a gunfight in a strip club. It was hot.Last week, West End Records digitally reissued Ms. Gardner’s debut album from 1979. I’ve got a FREE MP3 of her first club hit, “Work That Body” (written by Kenton Nix, who would later create “Heartbeat” and another all-time great jam, Gwen McCrae’s “Funky Sensation”).
Click here to hear “Work That Body” on my Vox blog. To download it, click the song title below.
I just learned something I didn’t know about Taana Gardner. There’s a Kid Creole connection!
In ’79, she was recruited to sing with a studio project called Aural Exciters. One song they cut was “Maladie D’Amour,” written by August Darnell and Andy Hernandez... and later recorded by them for the first Kid Creole & the Coconuts LP.
Click here to hear Taana Gardner singing “Maladie D’Amour.”
“Work That Body” (MP3) 
Album available at iTunes Music Store
LOVE this song. I take it with me every time I DJ, no matter what kind of event it is - it's sure to take a party higher.
ReplyDelete^ Cool. I don't remember this track at all. Must've gotten no radio play.
ReplyDelete^It got played on the radio in my neck o' the woods.
ReplyDeleteI like it better than "Heartbeat."
I like it better than "Heartbeat."
ReplyDeleteWow. If you say so, bklyn6.
;^)
For me, when they slowed it down to under 100 beats per minute for "Heartbeat" (and "Funky Sensation"), they took club music to a funky new place.
I listened to your Vox and it still sounds hot.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the DL link.