Friday, October 22, 2010

Naked Eyes - Promises Promises (808's Cup of Tea Mix)

This is a very special mix! This version utilizes no less than five different versions of the song: The Tony Mansfield 12" mix (which is mostly like the original 7" version except longer), the US 7" mix, a UK album mix (which has a different second verse), a mix by Jellybean (which has a spoken word bit by Madonna) and an instrumental version.

A bit of background on this song will help: The song was recored in two different versions originally. In the UK, the second verse has different lyrics, including "You keep saying you and me are not your style, your cup of tea". Record execs in the USA thought American listeners might not catch the reference, so Naked Eyes recorded a different second verse for that release. In this mix, I have presented the rarely heard UK verse as the song's third verse, changing the first line from "second time around" to "this time around", as it seemed to make more sense in the context of the song.

When disco producer Jellybean was remixing this song for the 12" release, he was dating an up and coming singer at the time called Madonna. He was trying to expose her as much as possible, so he got her to do some spoken word bits on his mix, during the instrumental break. You will hear her saying phrases like "I'll always love you, now and forever. You can trust in me, it's going to be alright."

What I have done, is use the instrumental mix, inverted it and used it to source acapellas for all three versions (including the UK second verse and the Madonna spoken word bits), and overlay them on the instrumental mix. I've also included bits from the two 12" mixes, and added some rapid fire edits (using the intro of the US 7" version at one point) and airplane flanging at strategic points throughout the song, especially during the guitar solo. And for good measure I added the acapella for the chorus over the opening instrumental bit too.

The mix clocks in at 7 minutes 48 seconds.

Listen to this track on legitmix.com

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