Review
Strange at it may seem at first glance, this innocuous-looking album from Telstar is the only place to find a number of 7″ versions on CD.
The Dance Chart was released shortly before the summer of 1987 with the vinyl version having a slightly different tracklist – The Gap Band’s Big Fun, Kim Wilde’s You Keep Me Hangin’ On and Midnight Star’s Midas Touch being replaced by Respectable [Mel and Kim], Girl’s Ain’t Nothin’ But Trouble [DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince] and Say I’m Your Number One [Princess] on the CD.
The all-important single edits are:
Freeez – I.O.U. Essential freestyle that got a new lease of life in ’87.
Timex Social Club – Rumors. A glorious slice of weekender funk.
Whistle – Just Buggin’. Silly yet addictive hip hop.
The Concept – Mr DJ. A strange oddity based on a radio show phone-in that’s best listened on headphones late at night. Features the unforgettable Liz.
You also get the 7″ mix of Male Stripper [which can also be found on another Telstar release – The Greatest Hits of 1987 – itself another goldmine of radio hit goodness].
Other memorable moments include house classic Jack The Groove from Raze, Taffy’s Italo anthem I Love My Radio and Grace Jones’ intense Private Life. Throw in some perfect pop from Five Star and Princess with a tightly edited Wham Rap and you’ve got yourself a fine compilation.
Favourite tracks
Timex Social Club – Rumors
Man 2 Man Meets Man Parrish – Male Stripper
Lest we forget
The Concept – Mr DJ
A Pop Fan's Dream 
Quite a spread here – very surprised to see Grace Jones here with a 1980 track!! (I assume Telstar would have never got near her then-recent ZTT stuff!). As I don’t own the CD, I don’t know whether the closing track (‘Wham Rap’) would have been the 1986 remix, but I’m pretty sure it probably is. (As far as I know, the US Remix (the single version that charted in early 1983) has never made it to CD).
Thanks for your comment Paul.
The Grace Jones track is an odd one. Private Life was reissued after the Island Life compilation in late 1985. However they seem to have used the original 1980 7″ here.
Wham Rap is not the 1986 remix [which ran for over six minutes]. What you get here is the 3.30 7″ version from 1982 [that charted in January 1983]. The US remix is listed separately on Discogs with the same track duration [I don’t think I’ve ever heard it]. As far as I know the original 7″ also features on this compilation – http://www.discogs.com/Various-100-Hits-80s/release/1728560
I’ve checked out that version on the 100 Hits 80s compilation and that IS the original 7 inch version which stiffed on release in 1982 (the introduction is very subtly different – it has synth/guitar stabs – the remix doesn’t). It was remixed and re-released (not only with the same length, but with the same catalogue number, confusingly) after the success of ‘Young Guns’ and it was this version that became the hit.
And YouTube (bless it!) has a pretty good copy, so it may be worth your while ‘ripping’ it from here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsyHQgiem8c
Thanks for the clarification Paul. The fact that they’re both the same length was confusing me. There’s quite a few Wham! bits that need to anthologised still.
Just a little bugbear of mine, that one! Seems to confuse a lot of compilers too, as it’s either that orginal, or the rather tiresome LP/12inch version that crops up on Wham’s compilations or ones like these – a little ‘research’ by these people wouldn’t go amiss!
It’s very hard to rely on current compilations to use the correct versions. That’s one of the reasons I sought out all those German and Dutch CD series from the mid/late 1980s. They generally got it right. The studio version of Blue (Armed With Love) is my favourite Wham! track; finally tracked it down on CD on the Japanese 3″ of Club Tropicana.
OK, you’ve convinced me. Just ordered a copy of this from a 1p seller.
Zoverstocks? They’re usually reliable for the penny discs. Hope you like it.
Ordered!
Let us know what you think!
Oops my bad i got mixed up somewhere along the line and ordered ‘The Greatest hits of 1987’ on CD which arrived today although i have now just ordered ‘The dance chart’ now also on CD. Love the rare single mix goodness! So much of it around just been told today that Madonna’s ‘Like a prayer’ has never been released on CD in it’s 7″ form. Of course there’s a number of her tracks that have suffered the same fate. I’m wondering if anyone can elaborate on what rarities ‘The greatest hits of 1987’ holds
Hi Neil. The Greatest Hits Of 1987 is the best one in the series. It was reviewed here in September. It’s a one stop shop for the following four rare 7″ edits:
Jive Talkin’, Can’t Be With You Tonight, House Nation and Once Bitten, Twice Shy.
Have a look at what else I said about it – https://apopfansdream.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/the-greatest-hits-of-1987-telstar-1987/ ……….. As far as I know the 7″ of Like A Prayer ended up on a Sire promo CD. I think this it – crazy money. http://www.discogs.com/Madonna-Like-A-Prayer/release/478917