John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez at the Palace de Beaute bar, New York on Sept. 1, 1990. Steve Eichner/Getty Images
Four years earlier, a bubbly dancing–pop solitary labelled “Holiday” struck the airwaves and the clubs. Not just did it gain Madonna her very first leading 20 Billboard Hot 100 hit and signal the ascendance of her globe-conquering occupation, however it noted the business development of a DJ/producer that would certainly aid specify the audio of dancing songs in the mid ’80s: John “Jellybean” Benitez.
“I can be in a restaurant and someone is singing the lyrics,” Benitez informs Billboard of what occurs when he’s in public and “Holiday” begins nowadays. “I’m looking at them like, ‘They have no idea.’”’
Not just was “Holiday” Madonna’s very first Dance Club Songs No. 1 (as component of a dual A-side with “Lucky Star”), however it noted a historical very first: “the only record produced by a current club DJ to hit Billboard’s Hot 100,” according to the Nov. 26, 1983, Billboard. Just a week previously, the Hot 100 (dated Nov. 19, 1983) consisted of not just “Holiday” however a massive 12 entrances that were helped by Jellybean remixes.
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Around that time, the songs sector was simply starting to recognize the audience-boosting power of a formally approved remix, and Benitez – a Bronx-birthed DJ that organized 14-hour collections at Manhattan’s Fun House bar on Saturdays – had a second-nature understanding of what functioned. “I knew what people would dance to, what would get them to cross the floor,” he states of those perspiring, marathon DJ collections.
Although his collections no more go from sundown to dawn, Benitez is still DJing, playing 100-some programs around the world yearly. On Tuesday (Nov. 12), the dancing songs leader is headed back to Manhattan for a various sort of event, one celebrating the 15th wedding anniversary of the Cristian Rivera Foundation. Hosted by SNL cast participant Kenan Thompson and including star Luis Guzmán, MLB gamer Gleyber Torres, star Malik Yoba and a lot more, the gala will certainly increase cash to aid discover a treatment for Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, a kind of deadly mind growth, and assistance family members impacted by it.
“Their overhead is very small, it’s significantly smaller than most foundations,” states Benitez of the not-for-profit, which his good friend John Rivera began after shedding his six-year-old child Cristian in 2009. “You’re dealing with a disease where there’s no cure. And most of these kids that get it are between five and nine and they don’t even know what’s happening. Most of them die within nine months,” he includes, silently. “It was really hard to watch. Even leading up to this [gala], I had a lot of feelings about it.”
Like Benitez, John Rivera was birthed in the Bronx and ended up being an essential component of the New York City songs scene in the ‘80s, functioning as a bar and night life marketer when freestyle and hip-hop were swiftly transforming the music landscape of the city.
“At the time, I thought [hip-hop] could be big,” remembers Benitez. As with his remix savvy, Benitez led the pattern, rotating documents by Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa regardless of several sector experts disregarding rap songs as a trend. “I broke a lot of new music [at Fun House], different hybrids of genres that eventually became genres on their own,” he states delicately, as if we were speaking about his Thanksgiving strategies. “I got to play a lot of music that wasn’t played in clubs at the time.”
Feet on the dancefloor weren’t the only point Benitez had the ability to affect — radio developers from 3 regional New York City terminals were regulars at his Saturday evening Fun House collections. “By that Monday, those songs ended up in rotation. But I only played things I believed in — music that I loved or songs that made the party happen.”
A year after putting 12 remixes all at once on the Hot 100, Benitez was being hailed as a “remix master” by Billboard (Oct. 27, 1984) and advertising his very own EP, Wotupski!?!, which discussed electro, hip-hop, Latin freestyle, synth-pop and included the very first 2 of his ultimate 3 Dance Club Songs No. 1sts, “The Mexican” and “Sidewalk Talk” (the latter, composed by Madonna, likewise struck the leading 20 of the Hot 100).
By 1984, it was generously clear that radio had actually done a full 180 from struck songs in the ‘70s – and a lot of rock musicians really felt left in the cold. As word spread throughout the songs biz regarding his eager ear for audios that gotten in touch with young audiences, Benitez ended up being a best remixer, dealing with every person from David Bowie to ZZ Top to Sting to Fleetwood Mac.
“Billy Joel called me after listening to the remix [of “Tell Her About It”] and claimed, ‘I don’t truly comprehend this, however it’s making me intend to dance.’” Not every person was constantly delighted with his job, nonetheless. Benitez laughes that “Sting hated” his 12-inch rework of “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free” — at the very least up until the remix appeared and “it flew up the charts.”
Benitez states he felt sorry for musicians that challenged his job, however. “Some guy named Jellybean comes along and changes everything? That can be a little scary,” he states. “[David] Bowie was very open to it though, and David Byrne got very involved, came to the session and was turning knobs and having fun.”
While most musicians firmly insisted that Benitez remix their tracks solely making use of songs from the initial recording, Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson provided him full freedom, enabling him to place brand-new percussion on their duet “Say Say Say.”
“They were really taken with what I did and that was incredible to go to Abbey Road and meet George Martin and Paul McCartney,” he states, appearing slightly starstruck for the only time in a meeting that discuss several of the most significant names in songs background. “They were like, ‘Do whatever you want, have fun with it. Make us a dance hit.’ Other artists were like, ‘Do whatever you want — but don’t change anything,’” he shows to a laugh.
The checklist of tracks Benitez has actually remixed is extensive – his Wikipedia discography consists of greater than 100 titles, and he states that isn’t also near his occupation overall. If the Wiki is insufficient, at the very least his very own collection isn’t. Benitez has 3 duplicates of each and every single track he’s remixed: “One for myself and one for each of my daughters. My youngest daughter is a DJ as well.”
Those documents are a slim portion of his whole plastic collection, however, which he approximates in between 70-80 thousand. “Here’s the good thing: It’s all alphabetized and cataloged,” he guarantees me. “I love the sound of vinyl as opposed to the sound of the CD or listening to something on these little speakers in my ear. I’m sort of a perfectionist when it comes to sound.”
That love for plastic encouraged among his most current endeavors, Jellybean’s Funhouse Record Shop, a soon-to-open document shop in Fort Lauderdale offering brand-new and previously owned plastic along with flaunting paying attention areas with premium stereo and a tiny phase for in-store efficiencies. Beyond that, Benitez still scenic tours worldwide, consisting of residencies in Miami, New York and Ibiza (“CAA has done a great job with me,” he states), and aids coach promising, anonymous musicians. He’s likewise on the board of consultants for the ARChive of Contemporary Music, a not-for-profit archive which contains some 90 million tracks.
He states he’s been provided “crazy money” to pen a memoir, and while he doesn’t compose it off totally, he doesn’t appear all that curious about the venture. “It’s just… I’m not sure. I don’t know if it’s something I want to do,” he states. “My first love is playing records and record collecting. I’m really happy DJing around the world and opening my record store.”
If he ever before does, nonetheless, you can wager it’ll deserve the price. In the lining keeps in mind to Wotupski!?!, he many thanks Madonna with the complying with message: “Madonna, for your compassion and love. All I can say is, ‘Goo goo gaa gaa.’” When I ask what that suggests, he stonewalls me for the only time. “Look at the Like a Virgin album credits and see what she wrote,” he states. [The Like a Virgin liners aren’t terribly revelatory – Madonna also says “Goo goo ga ga” when thanking Benitez.] “If and whenever I write a book, I will disclose that.”
