It is 1990. Americans Deee-Lite are huge, so marketing dictates that England needs its own version. This turns out to be Alison Moira Clarkson to play the role of Betty Boo, replete with high-pitch yank twang, comic-style shenanigans, and a rhyming dictionary absolutely full to the brim with nonsense like:
"Oh why has he disappeared, this feeling is really weird. You're precious and you're dear, can you feel the weight of these tears?" Nonsense. To her credit, she was only 20 years old at the time.
Unfortunately, after her first, very successful single "Doin' The Do", the comic value of Betty Boo wore very thin, very fast. However, her undeniable success - essentially the carbon copy of an American blueprint - made it imperative to... export her sound back to America! And so it was that Shep Pettibone came to work on "Where Are You Baby", toning down the saccharine side of the 'song', stealing a bit of Salt 'n' Pepa bassline for extra cred and finishing up with a half decent version, altogether darker with the majority of the track devoid of Boo's oh-so-amusing rap. The sleeve of the single was toned down too, with less comic-strip posing and more sultry pouting (and extra flesh).
Funnily enough though, the passing of the years has helped me reevaluate the Pettibone mixes, and I can now appreciate them as extremely well programmed, with a lot of extra punch (rather than the original, deliberate soft waddle they had in the UK versions). Have a listen!
The US CD-single is not so easy to get hold of now, so hopefully some people will appreciate finding the Pettibone vocal and dub in good quality from a CD rip (I couldn't find anyone else offering it on the web). I'm including the other US-specific mixes in the package too.
Once again (and I say it so often I don't even know why I bother any more), these mixes are now unavailable to buy. Anyway, enjoy.
I missed this one the first time round, then came across it on a blog and really liked the sultry feel of the Shep Pettibone mixes. For some reason, Shep doesn't seem to be getting us much blog love as he should, despite having played a pivotal role in disco and then house. Some of his remixes are legendary and I reckon it's only a matter of time before his classic stuff gets remembered (a compilation would be a good start).
Anyway, the versions I had downloaded weren't very good quality, so I snapped up the CD-single second hand on the web and cut up two of the mixes to make my own version. It now runs for over 10 minutes with a long dubby beginning that finally runs smoothly into the vocal version. The production is excellent and I never tire of listening to it. That woman has an amazing voice and the groove is irresistible.
Have a listen here:
There's a discography of all of Shep's remixes on his site, a great resource if you're trying to catch up on some of the harder to find stuff. For info, Shep turned fifty a month ago and now owns the Empress Hotel, which Wikipedia says "is very popular among gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender travellers in New Jersey". Gosh!
You can download Karyn White - Romantic (Candlelight/Sensuous mix Fist fusion) as a high-quality AAC file here (20MB)
