Tom Moulton on the first mixtape, remixing and the industry
INTERVIEW / DOCUMENTARY / LECTURE
Legends of the Music Industry Series
Tom Moulton is the producer famed for his mixes of Gloria Gaynor’s “Never Can Say Goodbye,” MFSB’s “Love Is the Message” and hundreds of other disco and soul songs, beginning with B.T. Express’s 1974 hit “Do It (’Til You’re Satisfied).” He’s credited with a remarkable series of innovations, which he says all happened by accident, including the 12" single and the continuous disco mix.
Dubbed “the father of the disco mix,” Tom Moulton has contributed more to the evolution of dance music culture than most other producers. Born in New York in 1940, Moulton worked as a model and behind the scenes in the music industry before turning his hand to studio work. In the late 1960s, he created an “overlapping music tape” for Fire Island bar and restaurant the Sandpiper, and his innovative approach to producing and mixing disco songs first became apparent in 1975, when he turned the first side of Gloria Gaynor’s Never Can Say Goodbye album into a nonstop, 19-minute suite.
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Ten City (derived from intensity) was a Chicago, Illinois-based R&B and house-music act that enjoyed a number of club hits and Urban radio hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was one of the first exponents of deep house. Formerly known as Ragtyme, the group comprised vocalist Byron Stingily, guitarist Herb Lawson and keyboardist Byron Burke and were augmented by producer Marshall Jefferson. The group was signed by Atlantic Records and released the album Foundation in 1989, which became the group's only album to cross over, peaking at No. 49 on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Ten City is best known for the singles "Right Back to You" and "That's the Way Love Is," which hit No. 1 on the US dance chart and No. 8 on the UK Top 40 in 1989. Stingily, who left the group and became a successful solo artist, re-recorded the song and brought it back to No. 1 on the US dance chart in 1999.