Alphabetical Order: W

Walking on Sunshine ’82 by Rockers Revenge, Streetwise Records. 1982.

 

Written by Eddie Grant and originally released by him in 1978, Walking on Sunshine was already relatively well known when Rockers Revenge reworked the track into a dancefloor classic four years later. Taking the original track and stretching it out to over nine minutes, with dubby percussive breaks, additional boogie synths and the vocals of Donnie Calvin, the Rockers Revenge version improved the original immeasurably. With Arthur Baker and Jellybean Benitez on mixing and production duties, and with the legendary Bob Blank as engineer (the track was mixed at the legendary Blank Tape studios), the track featured such a dream team of studio wizzes that it would have been an utter surprise had it come out anything less than a sonic monster. 

 

There were a number of mixes that appeared on the original 12, including an acappella version, an even spacier dub version (rockin on sunshine which clocks in at over ten minutes) and a short four and a half minute version. The track was a huge instant hit at Paradise Garage and spread out over NY, appealing to disco fans as well as electro and early hip hop heads, before spreading out across the states and eventually the nightclubs of Europe, too. The track received so many re releases, and re works that it almost seems like you never hear the same version twice. FFRR put it out as an obligatory ‘88 mix as the UK house boom took hold, but, as per usual, the versions on the original 12 of 1982 still sound the best. You’ll still hear it out today, it’s aged pretty well and has enough oomph at the bottom end to cut through in 2012. It’s a sunshine anthem, and when heard outside on a crisp sound system it sounds like sunshine itself.