D'Angelo - Always in My Hair (Scream 2 Promo) (1998)

Buena Vista International (UK) Ltd. ‎– MOVM17/6/98

A quick and dirty post for you my Soulistas: D'Angelo with a rare, full length version of his cover of Prince's Always In My Hair.

This is a four track promo CD for the movie Scream 2, multimedia section not included. I've never seen the film and I can't even remember exactly where I got this promo CD from now. It says Total Film in the album title - I expect I saw D'Angelo on there at random and impulse purchased it.

There's an okay Jon Spencer Blues Explosion track if you fancy going off-piste, but tracks 3 & 4 are... not for me. Yuck. :D

The first track, however, is D'Angelo at his Voodoo era best, rocking it out with the dopest Prince cover I've ever heard. It sounds like it really belongs on Voodoo and I can imagine it being one of the tracks that didn't quite make the cut. This DL is essential for this one track, even if you delete the rest.

Here's the Discogs entry https://www.discogs.com/Various-Multimedia-And-Audio-CD-Scream-2/release/6538608

Enjoy!

Tracklist

1. D'Angelo - She's Always In My Hair
2. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Right Place Wrong Time
3. Everclear - The Swing
4. Less Than Jake - I Think I Love You

Download: Scream 2 Multimedia & Audio Promo.7z | Filesize: 31.3MB

D'Angelo - Cruisin' - (1996)

Cooltempo Records CDCOOL 316

Kym's note: Not my post originally, but I have the CDS so I'm re-upping in 320. 

I loved Smokey Robinson's original and while ordinarilly I'd consider a cover as blasphemy, D'Angelo absolutely bodies this track. Truly classy and a worthwhile cover.

Dedicated to DJ Filthy Rich who requested this for the Beatminerz Brown Sugar remix like years ago. Sorry Rich! Over to you, Mick...

---

D'Angelo's 1995 debut album Brown Sugar gave us this gem, along with the single Brown Sugar, revisited here by the Beatminerz to good effect. Not preferable over the original mixes but definately different. Prior to Brown Sugar's release, the nu soul movement was yet to be defined by a major release, being dominated by British artists such as Omar. D'Angelo ushered in a new sound, blending classic soul with R&B beats.

While the title song, Brown Sugar, is a thinly-veiled ode to marijuana, Cruisin' is a Smokey Robinson penned cover from his 1979 Tamla album Where There's Smoke, conventional in the classic sense. The Dallas Austin Remix enhances the Album Version for the RnB crew but the Wet Mix is pure class, a lil' piece of soul heaven.

Tracklist

1. Cruisin' (Album Version) 
2. Cruisin' (Dallas Austin Remix) 
3. Cruisin' (Wet Mix) 
4. Brown Sugar (Beatminerz Remix) 

Download: D-C.7z Filesize: 52.491MB

Cruisin' 

(W. Robinson & M. Tarplin)

Baby let's cruise, Away from here
Don't be confused, baby
The way is clear
And if you want it you got it forever
Oh, this is not a one night stand
Let the music take your mind
And just release and you will find

We're going to fly away
Glad you're going my way
I love it when we're cruisin together
Music was made for love
Cruisin' is made for love
I love it when we're cruisin' together

Baby, tonight belongs to us
Everything's right
Do what you must
And inch by inch we get closer and closer
Every little part of each other
Ooh, baby, baby
Let the music take your mind
Just release and you will find

We're going to fly away
Glad you're going my way
I love it when we're cruisin' together
Music was made for love
Cruisin' is made for love
I love you when we're cruisin' together
(repeat)

Baby let's cruise
Let's fly away
Let's glide
Ooh, Ooh, Let's open up and go inside
And if you want it you got it forever
I can stay there inside you and love you, baby
Let the music take your mind
Just release and you will find

We're going to fly away
Glad you're going my way
I love it when we're cruisin' together
Music was made for love
Cruisin' is made for love
I love you when we're cruisin' together
(repeat)

D'Angelo - Lady CD1 & CD2 (1996)

Cooltempo Records 7243 8 82914 2

Kym's note: This was my first ever contribution to this site back in the day, although the boss man did the post. It's now in full 320 for your audio pleasure. My D'Angelo CDs are in storage right now so I can't redo the artwork. I'll re scan them and add to these D'Angelo posts as soon as I am able but for now we're stuck with the images rescued from our old file hosting platform. Back over to Mick...

OK Family, major props to the lovely Kymba who has provided not only both parts of this 2 CD release but also, all of the artwork, scanned full size so all the dodgy small print can be read. Great work Honey, looking forward to the YD 12".

The Brown Sugar album finally got some recognition when Lady made the charts a year later in 1996. Although Cruisin' and Brown Sugar were superb releases, Lady was always lauded as a great album track, way before it's single release.

The first CD features a superb Live rendition which proves that D'Angelo is no studio creation. The musicians and backing are all top notch (assuming the band is live too, of course). Track 3 is subtitled Just Tha Beat Mix and features a rap from AZ. It is a straight up street mix. For a short while in the early 90's, this sparse production style was referred to as Drum & Bass, anyone else remember that?

The last track on this CD is what the fuss is about really, Carl McIntosh, no relation to CJ, provides his own remix of Cruisin' and a great job he makes of it. This would have been an essential track had the Wet Mix wasn't already perfect. It doesn't matter though because, what the Wet Mix does in the bedroom, this will do on the dancefloor. Try not to get arrested guys.

Tracklist

1. Lady (CJ Mackintosh Radio Edit)
2. Lady (Live Version)
3. Lady (Just Tha Beat Mix)
4. Cruisin' (Carl McIntosh Mix) 

Cooltempo Records 7243 8 82913 2 3

The second part of the single release features the full length CJ Mackintosh Mix but also has the Radio Edit which always annoys me. Why put the edit on both releases? For those who are unaware of the UK's ridiculous guidelines, a single release was only allowed to have a certain amount of minutes on it otherwise it would not be counted for chart inclusion. To further complicate matters the release was only allowed to be made in three (I think?) formats. This was a serious problem for awhile (pre-CD ghettoblasters) because, the emergence of CD Single made the format choice awkward. The 7", the 12", the Cassette Single & the CDS were all important for a few years. The missing format could affect sales and kill a release. By the mid 90's though, it was all a marketing ploy to enable the record companies to bleed the record buying public dry.

The Clean Street Version is remixed by DJ Premier and features a rap from AZ. Premier is not credited on the Just Tha Beat Mix which is strange because that's what this is, with a bit of extra production. I think maybe he laid a bit of extra atmosphere over it and they added him to the credits, his name pulled in extra sales. The mix works though, so who cares.

Track 3 is remixed by 2B3 who had a quirky style that was popular for a couple of years. Anybody know what happened to them? The Shake Dat Ass Mix works for me but it takes a bit of getting used to.

CD2 Tracklist

1. Lady (CJ Mackintosh Radio Edit)
2. Lady (Clean Street Version)
3. Lady (2B3 Shake Dat Ass Mix)
4. Lady (Album Version)
5. Lady (CJ Mackintosh Mix)

Download: D-L.7z Filesize: 107.113MB

Lady

(Wiggins, Rapael, Archer & Michael)
You're my lady, You're my lady, You're my lady, You're my lady,
Don't think I don't see them looking at ya, All of them wishing they could have ya, And as a matter of fact, uh A bunch of them are itchin'for you to scratch'em, I'm tired of hiding what we feel, I'm trying to get with the real, And I'm-a gonna make it known', Cause I want them to know

[CHORUS]
You're my little baby, my darling baby, I swear you're the talk of the town, And everybody wants to know what's going down, Babe, I know they've seen us before, Maybe at the liquor store, or maybe at the health food stand, They don't know that I'm your man 

[CHORUS]
I can tell they're looking at us, I pick you up everyday from your job,
And every guy in the parking lot wants to rob me of my girl, And my heart and soul, and everybody wants to treat me so cold, But I know I love you and you love me, There's no other lover for you or me, You're my lady

[BRIDGE (AD LIB)]
You're my lady, My divine lady, You're my lady, Such a wonderful lady, I can tell they're looking at us.

A great post and maximum respect to Kymba for making it possible.

D'Angelo - Brown Sugar CD Single (1996)

1996, Cooltempo, CDCOOL 307

Special request!

Mick has already posted the 12" here but after a request the other day about six years ago(!) I thought I'd put up the CD single in 320kbps.

So there is little I can say that Mick hasn't already beaten me to. D'Angelo was the standard-bearer for the fledgling Neo Soul movement, whether willing or not.

Brown Sugar is one of, if not THE, best D'Angelo tune outside of the Voodoo album (Voodoo, how I love thee), a sublime cut with D'Angelo killing it on the vocals and smoky, sensual production courtesy of Ali Shaheed Muhammed of A Tribe Called Quest. Quite frankly, it's an amazing track.

The UK CD single then brings us an edited, Radio version, that is the original with 20 seconds shaved off. Stick with the album cut for a deeper experience, I say. 

However, the real highlights here are the Carl McIintosh (of Loose Ends fame) produced Dollar Bag Mix, and Dodge's Soul Inside Mix. Avid readers will be all too aware of how much I love Dodge, and that funky bassline he brings is tight as hell, but the smoothed out vibes of  Carl's mix can't be praised enough. Though not quite as classic as the original, I can't decide between either, they are the highlights of this CD single.

The album cut When We Get By also gets an airing which a brilliant cut, and, on a lesser album, could well have been a single in its own right.

- Kymba :)

Tracklist

1. Brown Sugar (Radio Version) 
2. Brown Sugar (Dollar Bag Mix) 
3. Brown Sugar (Soul Inside 808 Mix) 
4. When We Get By 

Download: D-BS.7z Filesize: 41.782MB

D'Angelo - Me And Those Dreamin' Eyes Of Mine (US import) - 1996

EMI Records, E2-58570

“Wiz zeese Seee-Deees you are really spoilink us!”

That’s right, my strange accented friend, as a lot of my fellow Brits might not have been able to get their paws on this particular release. It’s an imported US CD Single of a track I’m pretty sure never got released over here in the UK.

There’s not a lot I need to say about D’Angelo, really – you all know him already. If you don’t, and you consider yourself a fan of soul music, you should be ashamed. Besides, the Boss-Man Mr P has already written about our Neo-Soul hero in previous posts (search out Brown Sugar, or Lady, or Cruisin’). However, I’ll summarise for you: blah blah D’Angelo, blah awesome, blah sexy, blah Brown Sugar blah blah Voodoo blah where the hell has he been? Blah drugs blah new album out in 2010. I Can't wait!!

Now you’re up to speed, I better tell you about this particular release.

Me And Those Dreamin’ Eyes Of Mine was a standout track among a bunch of standout tracks on a standout album. No, really, the Brown Sugar LP was really that good.

Understated production, great keyboard/organ work and D’Angelo at his falsetto high-note hitting best, this track slinks along at a walking pace, aided by a beautifully sung chorus and, trademark D’Angelo fashion amazing harmonies.

There are no fancy remixes, alas. No instrumental. No acapella. Just a radio edit, and an album version. The real highlight of this particular CD single, however, are two live tracks, both excellent; Me And Those Dreamin’ Eyes Of Mine and one non album track, Can’t Hide Love, which is my fave of the two. Recorded right here in London at our pride and joy, the Jazz Café.

Mmmmm!

• Radio Version
• Album Version
• Live Version
• Can't Hide Love

The Download Link is here: Download
Filename: Me and Those Dreamin' Eyes Of Mine.zip Filesize: 21.9MB