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FREESTYLE: GREATEST BEATS - THE COMPLETE COLLECTION VOL.3

By the summer of 1987, WQHT (Hot 103) was on top of the ratings in New York, and it was their heavy emphasis on Dance music, especially Freestyle, that got them there. The sucess of Hot 103 broke down the walls for Freestyle at the mainstream station WHTZ (Z-100) in New York, which was one of the most influential Top 40 stations in the country at the time. When Z-100 started playing the biggest Freestyle happening on Hot 103, other mainstream stations around the country followed. Power 96 in Miami, whose playlist was loaded with the latest Freestyle tracks, rose to the top of the ratings in Miami, as did Power 106 in Los Angeles, following the same formula. Soon after, another city - Chicago - came on board. Through the exposure of club D.J.'s and a college station WCRX at Columbia college, Freestyle began making noise in the Windy City. Clubs like the riviera and venues like the Navy Pier Ballroom began throwing Freestyle jams with performances by Sa-Fire, TKA, and the Cover Girls. In June on 1987, TKA released thier third straight hit single, "Scars Of Love," the title track from their first album. The album would go on to become a Freestyle classic, spawing six hit singles. The fourth single, "Tears May Fall," also included here on volume 3, was played as an instrumental on a bootleg tape in clubs for over a year before it was released in November 1987. This streak of hit singles earned them thier title "Kings Of Freestyle." The fight for the title of "Queens of Freestyle" was more competitive. The Cover Girls' third single was the ballad "Promise Me," another hit for them. "Inside Outside," their fourth and final single from the hugely sucessful "Show Me" album brought them back to the clubs in a big way and continued their hit streak. But the abundance of female artists in Freestyle as well as the fact that the Cover Girls would be taking time off to record thier second album, left the door wide open for someone to step in and swipe their title. India, whose real name is Linda Bell Caballero, made brief appearances with TKA in their early shows. Although she never sang on any of their singles, she did record a version of "Dancing on the Fire" with TKA and performed it at a few of their shows. When India decided to record on her own, she took the idea to remake Jellybean's "Dancing on the Fire" with her. Jellybean reproduced the track (without TKA) and released it as her first single. Nayobe, along with India, was one of the most gifted female vocalists in Freestyle. She proved this with her slamming performance on her fourth single, "Second Chance for Love." Corina began her successful career in Freestyle with the song "Out of Conrol," which was also the first hit for producer Carlos Berrios. Tina B., then the wife of producer Arthur Baker, returned to the music scene with "January February." Tina had a big hit a couple of years earlier with "Honey to a Bee," an electro-hip-hop classic. Debbie Harry, formerly of the 70's and 80's new wave band Blondie, who is probably as far from a Freestyle artist as you can get, came up with one of the biggest cult-classic Freestyle records ever with "In Love With Love," thanks to the additional production and remix by two also unlikely Freestylers, Justin Strauss and Murray Elias. They took an otherwise tired pop dance record and turned it into a moody yet slammin' Freestyle club jam. Another big Freestyle club record that came from an unlikely source was "Arabian Nights" by the Latin Rascals. The track was taken from the "Bach to the Future" album, an album of classical pieces set to dance music. The song was originally an instrumental, but when the track received extensive club play, the Latin Rascals recorded the song with vocals and released it, making it the first song recorded by the Latin Rascals as artists. They had already made a name for themselves as one of the busiest producers and remixing teams in Freestyle, producing cuts for the Cover Girls, Sa-Fire and TKA among others. This period in Freestyle saw many artists developing their own style and sound, although most of the hits were being produced and performed by the same handful of people who originated the sound of Freestyle. The floodgates, however, would open in the coming year, as many artists and labels jumped on the Freestyle bandwagon.