By Matthew Sotlar / The Jambar
For over 40 years, the world has enjoyed the four-on-the-floor, pulsating beat of house music popularized by disco and Hi-NRG. House has been a staple of my listening for the past year and a half. After growing tired of original synth-pop and electronic music, I stopped by the house of house, and I’m here to give you five of the greatest house anthems ever pressed into vinyl.
House music can be traced back to Chicago nightclubs, particularly the Warehouse, where electro body and dance music were most popular among dancers. Many European electronic artists, such as Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder, Liaisons Dangereuses and Kano, were at the forefront. In addition, Americans like Man Parrish, Bobby Orlando, England’s Yazoo and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, provided the essential electro-dance elements that house became famous for.
The first house song ever recorded was Jesse Saunders’s “On and On,” a sinister, hypnotic and almost comical dance that emerged from Chicago in 1984. Recorded on a Roland TB-303, TR-808 and Korg Poly-61 — with sampled basslines from Player One, Donna Summer and Lipps Inc. — this harbinger of house sits handsomely at my No. 5 spot, where it goes on and on forever.
If you’re too far gone, you’ll love the No. 4 spot. Adonis’s “No Way Back” might guide you to the right house. Equally dark and hypnotic, this 1986 Chicago house classic catapulted Michael Adonis Smith into the spotlight of the house-music scene. Its bassy, rapid-fire melody contrasts with Adonis’s whispery vocals in the best way possible.
Saunders, Farley Jackmaster Funk and Darryl Pandy’s 1986 smash-hit “Love Can’t Turn Around” became the first house hit single — only in England, of course — and sits at a comfortable No. 3 on my ranking. Pandy’s commanding, almost operatic vocals, drive the song into a synthesizer-driven TR-808 madhouse masterpiece.
Marshall Jefferson’s “Move Your Body” sits at No. 2. Among the first house records recorded, “Move Your Body” is a piano-driven stomper with Curtis McLain’s simple, efficient vocals and a monster beat. “Move Your Body” has become synonymous with house and is often called “The House Music Anthem.”
Finally, last but certainly not least, is “Your Love,” my No. 1 and a house masterpiece. Written and performed by Jamie Principle and remixed by “The Godfather of House” and Warehouse DJ Frankie Knuckles, “Your Love” is a beautiful, seven-minute Human League like foray into house as a whole.
When Principle gave Knuckles “Your Love,” he likely didn’t expect the track to cement itself in music history. After nearly 40 years, it remains a foundational block in the house of house — it is not a song, but rather an experience.
I could go on for hours about the other housemasters, Steve Hurley and Larry Heard, coming to mind, but these are just some of my favorite tracks. I love all house music equally, and if you give these tracks a try, you might love them too.