Finding the Rhythm

I was very pleased today to receive a nice e-mail from singer Sally Jaxx. Sally, who hails from the UK, is the vocalist behind the dance cover of the Dolly Parton song 9 to 5 that I’ve blogged about before here and here.

Sally’s clearly a class act, because she took my criticisms of the song in stride, addressing some of the issues I’d brought-up in my blog posts in the process.

And as I told her in my e-mail reply, cover songs are tricky. If you stay faithful to the original, as she did in her version with Fabulous DJs, you create interest and immediate identification among people who know the original version. If you stray too far from the mark, you risk people having reactions like, “You ruined my favorite song!!” So I fully appreciate the challenge that Sally Jaxx and others are faced with.

You also have record labels and producers telling you what they want, and artists don’t always have the sort of influence on direction that you think they would.

I also told Sally that despite my initial feelings about the song, it’s been very well received by my audiences, and I continue to make it a part of my sets. This proves once again that these things are subjective, and that what matters is what the people on the dance floor respond to. (I also want to note for the record that I’ve since warmed-up to the track!)

Sally also set me right on a few items. For starters, her last name is “Jaxx” not “Jacks” as the song was credited on my promotional copy.

Secondly, in one of my blog posts, I was confused about the song credits for 9 to 5. As it turns out, Sally originally recorded the song with New Emotion, targeting the gay dance audience primarily. When it was picked-up by a small UK label, they had a reasonable amount of success with it, and took it as far as they could. Ministry of Sound and Sporting Riff Raff Records out of the UK decided they’d like to take the track a bit farther, going back into the studio with Sally to cut another version, which was done under the name “Fabulous DJs” as I’d mentioned before.

So, that explains the artist ID confusion; there are two separate versions, both of which feature Sally’s vocals.

Sally also let me know that Fabulous DJs (I stand by my comment that they could have come-up with a more compelling name!) are the production team of Daz Sampson and Paul Keenan. (Daz is also 1/2 of the Riff Raff Records label.) The pair is also known together as Uniting Nations, and have had a fair amount of success in the dance music scene, individually, together, and as part of other creative teams. As someone who likes to know the people behind the sometimes goofy artist names, it was good to uncover the guys who put this track together.

A public “thank you” to Sally Jaxx for taking the time to get me up to speed. I look forward to hearing more from her in the future.

Crank-up the volume… Wes.