Mutual... physical... attraction

Eve John - Mutual Physical Attraction (1980, Foreign Exchange/London)
Eve John - Good Love, Bad Love (1980, Foreign Exchange/London)

Updated and re-uploaded 1/15/09, and 2/8/13

I've had my sound card for some ten months now, and believe it or not, it was only few days ago that I finally learned to rip my vinyl properly.. Some of you may have noticed, but whenever I'd rip from vinyl there would be this incessant crackling that went way beyond the usual vinyl surface noise. I'd try to remove the crackling manually with a noise reduction program, but the results were decidedly mixed since removing the noise often ended up distorting the music itself.. Anyway, with a little fiddling on some of the hardware profiles, I've finally managed to solve that problem, so my new rips should sound a little less muddy than before..

On to the music..

This is one of the many 12" singles I acquired during my little vinyl shopping spree at the beginning of October. Definitely one of my best finds, "Mutual Physical Attraction" is one delightful disco sleeper from 1980; a sort of sexy, slightly sleazy euro-style hybrid of a pulsing electronic beat and an infectious horn arrangement.. To be sure singer Eve John has a voice that, while seemingly limited (with the background singers handling most of the heavy lifting), completely belies her anglo stage-name (she also recorded under the slightly more Francophone sounding moniker, Evelyne John largely, but not exclusively in French). In this case, her French-Canadian/Quebecois accent is really half of the charm of this record. As far as the production goes, the best part, in my opinion, is that amazing horn arrangement - the backbone of the song and the most obvious hook on the record.

Update (February 2012): Not sure which came first, however thanks to YouTube, I just found out Eve John had recorded a French version of this song - "Obsessions," also from 1980.


Eve John - Obsessions (1980, Quatre Saisons) (Mutual Physical Attraction)
Uploaded by rpmcanada1971
The B-side "Good Love, Bad Love," is a more conventional disco production.. The lyrics are hokey at best "whether it's a good love, a bad love, I need your love" and her vocal limitations are even more apparent; still, it's a pleasant tune saved by a string arrangement which is, quite appropriately, right up front in the mix.

The production on both sides is credited to Blue Jeans Records, but I'm assuming that's just a guise for Carlyle Miller, who both wrote and arranged the song (and is fully credited on the French version).. I guess it's no surprise that the horn arrangements are so great on the A-side, since Miller was known primarily as a horn player and arranger on some prominent disco records from Canada, most notably Gino Soccio's "Outline" (1979, Célébration), Karen Silver's "Hold On I'm Comin' " (1979, Quality/Arista) and Patsy Gallant's "Are You Ready For Love" (1976, Attic) and "Besoin d' amour" (1976, Attic) albums. He was also a Juno award nominee in 1976 for best songwriter on Patsy Gallant's hit "Sugar Daddy." Despite all that, I haven't yet found anything else he's been involved in on the production side, and according to the All Music Guide, his credits pretty much fall off after 1984 or so..

A full Can-Con production, it's kind of ironic that the record was released on the Foreign Exchange label, who true to their name, seem best known for licensing foreign productions for Canadian distribution, most prominently Santa Esmeralda's albums. Though, I have to say, their distributors, London Records (one of the most prominent purveyors of disco in Canada), had one of my favourite company disco sleeves

Update (January 2009): At the time of the original post, while doing a bit of research, I had actually come across a pressing with the original picture sleeve on eBay. The seller was from Italy, so I thought maybe the single got an Italian release with the pic sleeve. It was only recently that I realized that pic sleeve should have been for the Canadian release. I only found this out while diving through some records at my favourite record haunt (the same place I got this one), where I had found the original sleeve with the wrong record inside. I guess someone had shuffled it out at some point.. Nonetheless, I'm happy to finally have the proper sleeve (pictured above) in all it's big haired, over-painted, tiger printed glory..

PREVIOUS RELATED ENTRIES:
DISCO DELIVERY #9: KAREN SILVER - HOLD ON I'M COMIN' (1979, QUALITY/ARISTA) (FRIDAY MARCH 03, 2006)

LINKS:
DISCOGS: EVE JOHN - MUTUAL PHYSICAL ATTRACTION/GOOD LOVE, BAD LOVE 12"
DISCOGS: EVELYNE JOHN
DISCOGS: CARLYLE MILLER
ALL MUSIC GUIDE: CARLYLE MILLER (AS CARLISLE MILLER)
DISCOSAVVY - 1980 DISCO

CATEGORIES: CAN-CON DISCO, MINI DELIVERIES