One of my top-played old-school house tracks is Jack & Jill's "Work It Girlfriend," originally released on Strictly Rhythm back in 1992. The queen behind the opening a cappella, as well as the track itself, is the almighty Franklin Fuentes (pictured above). A legend of the New York house and ga(y)rage scene, Fuentes also was the impetus behind Junior Vasquez's 1996 Billboard #1, "If Madonna Calls." Seems the ball'rs have been dissing Madonna for being a stealing, unoriginal hag long before DJ Sprinkles manifestoes on the subject ever saw the light of the day. Today, I present both "Work It Girlfriend" and "If Madonna Calls," so get voguing. And work me goddamnit.
Jack & Jill- Work It Girlfriend
Junior Vasquez- If Madonna Calls (Junior's House Mix Radio Edit)
Both of these tracks have classy garage rhythms, fierce vocal clips, and enough jackin' power to make a corpse dance. Do it.
2 comments:
it's hard to imagine today how funny and an inside joke that junior track was at the time. madonna was HUGE, at the top of her game, and still had a lot of street cred with the downtown crowd especially after she'd promoted the vogueing scene and made a lot of them well known (even though she'd really kind of exploited them). i'd go to paradise garage where jr. played and they'd be holding court and recreating their turn in her video. junior of course had his own notoriety as dj. so when he made this song, it was almost like a FU which of course you just DIDN'T DO TO MADONNA. so this track was almost an answer to her - "yeah, you took our dance and tried to claim it but we still own you bitch". junior worked it.
YES!!!
there's even a wikipedia entry on it!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_Madonna_Calls
Crazy!? BUT... the phrase had been used on the 1992 "Work It Girlfriend" single on Strictly Rhythm, too. So it was Fuentes who first coined it, then Vasquez got permission to use it later on.
Insane.
Post a Comment