8. Chaka KhanI Feel For You

Unofficially the first record I ever heard. There’s video of me dancing in my diapers to ‘This Is My Night’. So there’s a strong sentimental value to this one. It’s a pretty bent pop record, even with the soaring, David Foster ballad that is ‘Through The Fire’. You can hear a lot of Herbie Hancock’s Future Shock on this one. I still gravitate to those Yamaha DX7/Roland D-50 synth sounds, the fake guitar and marimba tones. ‘My Love Is Alive’ is pretty out there, production-wise. Early club funk! It still holds up. I’ll always play ‘I Feel For You’ in a DJ set, it’s still remarkable fresh. A good friend of mine texted me about the track a few years ago. He said, "I’ve figured it out. It’s all about the hats!" Probably a fair amount of cocaine, too.