Fire Island is a name used by the English house music duo, Pete Heller and Terry Farley, and in 1998, they recorded a version of The Style Council‘s hit single from 1984, Shout To The Top, and brought in the veteran American singer Loleatta Holloway to provide the vocal.
Musically it’s reasonably true in many ways to the original, but the vocal, as was so often the case when Ms Holloway got involved, quite sensational.
Loleatta Holloway died in 2011 at the age of 64, and sadly she wasn’t around to ever hear the amazing remix job delivered by Hifi Sean in 2021.
Seemingly there were no musical parts on the tape which landed in Sean’s hands, just the vocal, and so he went about rewriting the arrangement and, in the words of the record label which released the 12″ single “brings this beauty into the present day with three versions that include a soulful string laden soul groover, a late-night gospel house jam and a swooning orchestral reprise.
mp3: Fire Island (feat. Loleatta Holloway) – Shout To The Top (Hifi Sean Mix)
mp3: Fire Island (feat. Loleatta Holloway) – Shout To The Top (Hifi Sean House Mix)
mp3: Fire Island (feat. Loleatta Holloway) – Shout To The Top (Hifi Sean Reprise)
There has been many a day when I’ve thought this might just about the most joyous piece of plastic you’ll find in Villain Towers. Oh, and one of my proudest moments came when I sneaked the mix into a pre-match playlist for a Raith Rovers game during the few years when I was stadium announcer.
Happy Monday, everyone.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 