A collaboration of Emilio Sanchez IV and Jimmy Jazz, Sanjazz was responsible for two remixes released commercially on Kim Wilde records. The first was a Sanjazz mix of Never Trust a Stranger, released on 12″ in 1988, the second was the Sanjazz Megamix, a medley of well-known Kim Wilde songs, in 1990.
Nile Gregory Rodgers (born 19 September 1952, in New York) began his career as a sessions guitarist in New York, playing with the Sesame Street band in his teens, and then working in the house band at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, backing artists like Aretha Franklin, Ben E. King, Nancy Wilson, and Parliament Funkadelic.
He met bassist Bernard Edwards in 1970. They formed a rock band called The Boys (later the Big Apple Band) and played numerous gigs around New York City, but despite interest in their demos, they could not get a record contract when the music companies discovered they were black; the discrimination of the day said black artists couldn’t play “rock”. These experiences, in addition to activist tenor of the times, led to Rodgers’ active involvement in the Black Panther Party in New York.
Not wanting to give up on their musical dreams, in 1977 Rodgers and Edwards joined forces with drummer Tony Thompson to form the funk/disco band Chic, and went on to score numerous top 10 hits and helped propel disco to new levels of popularity. Their songs “Everybody Dance”, “Le Freak” and “Good Times” remain among the most sampled songs of the disco era. Chic dissolved in 1983.
As Chic’s sound became more popular and sought-after, Rodgers began doing record production. He produced, wrote, and performed with the band Sister Sledge. He also produced records for Diana Ross, Deborah Harry, David Bowie and Duran Duran. It was at this time in the early 1980’s when he created the remix for the 12″ version of Dancing in the Dark for Kim Wilde.
He worked with members John Taylor and Andy Taylor on their side project Power Station in 1985, which produced two hit singles.
He formed the short-lived band Outloud in 1987; they released a single self-titled album.
After a 1992 birthday party where Rodgers, Edwards, Paul Schaffer and Anton Fig played old Chic hits to rapturous response, Rodgers and Edwards organized the reunion of the old band. They recorded new material and played live all over the world, to great audience and critical acclaim.
In 1996 Rodgers was honored as the “Top Producer In the World” in Billboard Magazine, and was named a JT Super Producer.
Rodgers has received a Lifetime Achievement Award and a Heroes Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. On 19 September 2005 Nile was honored at the Dance Music Hall of Fame ceremony in New York when he was inducted for his many outstanding achievements as a producer, along with former fellow band mate Bernard Edwards, who had died in 1996.
Born 10 July 1959, Shep Pettibone started his career as an employer in a record shop, working nights as a DJ. In this capacity he started experimenting, building his own Mastermixer in the late 1970’s (the first digital sampling keyboard ‘The New Emulator’ was only made in 1983!). In the early 1980’s he started working on the New York radiostation 98.7 Kiss FM (WKRS), broadcasting his ‘Mastermix Danceparty’ on Saturday evening in prime time, introducing a new methodology by segueing records to build “sequences”, almost like movements in classical music.
It was a parallel development to hip hop’s scratching and DJ innovations, which were undoubtedly an ongoing influence. Afterwards he moved into a musical area which is probably best described as disco, reviving the sounds of Loletta Holloway to great success, ensuring his status as an in-demand mixer for large budget studio sessions.
His big breakthrough came in 1986 when he remixed the Pet Shop Boys’ song ‘West End Girls’. Shortly after that he produced Madonna’s remix album ‘You Can Dance’. In 1988, he remixed Kim Wilde’s You Came, released on 12″ in Europe and on 7″ in Canada and the United States.
Amazingly, Pettibone stepped away from the music business in the late 1990s. “I’d kind of had enough of music at that point,” he said. “I’d been doing it for 15 years.” He currently owns The Empress Hotel and Paradise Night Club in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
Paul Oakenfold was born on 30 August 1963 in Greenhithe, Kent (UK). His music career started in the late Seventies, when he started playing soul music in a Covent Garden wine bar. In 1984 he spent several months in New York City, where he got acquainted with hip hop music.
In 1985 he celebrated his birthday by going to Ibiza for a week. Trevor Fung, Nicky Holloway, Ian Saint Paul, Danny Rampling and Johnny Walker accompanied him and it was during this time when playing at Amnesia that Oakenfold demonstrated the balearic trance sound that he would later become known for. By the end of the Eighties, Oakenfold had started Perfecto Records and had gotten into remixing tracks for Massive Attack and the Happy Mondays.
His biggest success came in 1992, when he remixed U2’s ‘Even Better Than the Real Thing’. This dance version of the track reached the chart in several countries. His career as a DJ and remixer has been very successful ever since.
In 2006, Oakenfold remixed Cambodia (based on new vocals sung by Kim) for her album Never Say Never.
Swedish remix team who made a reggae-style mix of Kids in America 1994. It was released on a promotional cassette in Scandinavia, but never made available commercially.
Remixer and DJ alias of Limahl and Guy Phethean. They met when Guy was keyboard player for a rock band called Angels of Hope. They initially worked on some demos for Limahl, but a year later they took on the name Jupiter and recorded a track with Sylvia Mason James called ‘Destiny’. They then started to remix tracks for Peter Andre, Livin’ Joy and Kim Wilde’s cover of Shame.
In 1999 the duo ceased to work together under the Jupiter moniker.