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Break out your Martika, Menudo, Selena, and Cover Girls records because Denise Lopez is back with the Don't You Wanna Be Mine dance single. As far as I know, I don't think she's actively in the music biz anymore, but a record company called House-Trained is licensing it with brand new remixes, mostly targeted for the DJ and dance clubs crowd. This trend seems more common these days, with the semi-recent dance release of Laura Branigan's Shine Forever: The Ultimate Remix Collection, which collects extended club mixes, etc.
Anyway, Lopez first appeared in the late eighties, signed to A&M Records in the eighties, releasing two albums: Truth In Disguise and Every Dog Has Her Day!!!. The later includes the single "Don't You Wanna Be Mine", with the b-side featuring remixes by Robert Clivillés and David Cole (otherwise known to everyone as C&C Music Factory).
I was kind of disappointed to not see the C&C remix on this new release, but I can understand if getting the license agreement didn't fall through or House Trained wanted more contemporary mixes on their new release.
The new 2008 single is basically 7 different version of "Don't You Wanna Be Mine", featuring a Dennis Christopher dub mix and an instrumental version (these are very useful for DJs for mixing). The Soul Avengerz, Marmot & Fly, and Bimbo Jones are pretty standard dance mix, making excellent usage of the previously unreleased Lopez acapella.
I thought Bimbo Jones Extended Club Remix did the best job in keeping bodies moving and never slowed down in contrast to Marmot & Fly's mix which slowed down towards the end, but keep in mind that their song is a remix, not necessary a house/club mix that requires the song to keep the beat going.
A little trivia about this song, apparently the song was never officially released in the UK, so the 12" had to be imported. You have to remember that this was in the 90s and often competing DJs would tear off the record label's sticker (aka 'white labels') to prevent other DJs from knowing their secret weapon... which apparently for a pretty well-known DJ named Sasha was "Don't You Wanna Be Me".
Since we're on the subject of House-Trained, they also released another single called Work It Out from DJ Disciple, featuring the soulful R&B vocals of Dawn Tallman.
This is a 9 track EP, with various mixes, again for the dance/house music fans. What's nice is it does contain two radio edits (Gilbert Le Funk and Ruff & Tor Meets DJ Disciple), which I think is great for radio and for people to get a taste of the song.... which is exactly why I am using one of the radio edits.
If you're in a dancing mood, I would have to recommend the extended club mixes because they really stretch out the beats for at least nine minutes to give you a good workout. All the mixes are pretty similar, but I would have to admit that the Klaas Mix is the best one with its usage of a male vocal of "(insert city) work it out" and Dawn Tallman's two or three chorus lines.
As many of these dance releases, they are often best appreciated on the dance floor with live mixing by the DJs, but if you can't see them live, dancing alone with these songs blasting on the ghetto blaster is just fine.
Work it Out is available now, while Don't You Wanna Be Mine will be available on June 16th, from House-Trained. Since the record company are based in the UK - the irony for Denis Lopez fans is that you will have to import the single.
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