Sweet Dynamite
1976 studio album by Claudja Barry
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Sweet Dynamite is the debut album by Canadian singer Claudja Barry. Barry had briefly been a member of an early line-up of Boney M. but left January 1976 and was replaced by Liz Mitchell. Shortly after, she released her first single on the Lollipop-label, produced by her husband-to-be Jürgen S. Korduletsch, a cover of Jeanne Burton's "Nobody Loves Me Like You Do", backed with the track "Disco Love" (a track similar to Penny MacLean's contemporary hit "Lady Bump"). Later in the year the single "Why Must a Girl Like Me" was released, leading up to the release of the LP entitled "Sweet Dynamite" in November. While most of the material was original compositions by Korduletsch and his partner Jörg Evers, it included a medley of two songs, both entitled "Do It Again", one by George Gershwin and one by Steely Dan.
| Sweet Dynamite | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 1976 (Europe) May 1977 (US) | |||
| Recorded | 1976 | |||
| Genre | Disco, funk | |||
| Length | 43:05 | |||
| Label | Philips/Lollipop | |||
| Producer | Jürgen S. Korduletsch | |||
| Claudja Barry chronology | ||||
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Although the album and its singles went fairly unnoticed in Germany, import copies garnered interest in the US where Salsoul Records picked up the album for a release in May 1977 in a drastically altered version. Tom Moulton had kept only 5 of the original tracks, remixing and extending them and, in the case of "Live a Little Bit", removing Barry's vocals completely. "Sweet Dynamite" became a Top 10 hit on Billboard's Disco Charts.[2]
"Love for the Sake of Love"
Barry's mid-tempo album track "Love for the Sake of Love" garnered recognition 23 years after its release when it was sampled in 1999 on Montell Jordan's "Get It On Tonite" which went No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, selling 800,000 copies in the US alone. It was also a Top 20-hit in several European countries. The track has been sampled by other artists, incl. the late rapper Prodigy and Mobb Deep.[3]
Track listing
1976 European Version
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Sweet Dynamite" |
| 4:06 |
| 2. | "Why Must a Girl Like Me" |
| 4:07 |
| 3. | "Dance, Dance, Dance" |
| 5:34 |
| 4. | "Live a Little Bit" |
| 3:51 |
| 5. | "This Taste of Love" |
| 4:21 |
| 6. | "Love for the Sake of Love" |
| 5:16 |
| 7. | "Ride on My Fire" |
| 4:07 |
| 8. | "Do It Again (Part I & II)" | 8:28 | |
| 9. | "Nobody Loves Me Like You Do Do" | 2:56 |
1977 US Version
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Love for the Sake of Love" |
| 7:53 |
| 2. | "Sweet Dynamite" |
| 7:22 |
| 3. | "Dance, Dance, Dance" |
| 6:43 |
| 4. | "Live a Little Bit" |
| 3:28 |
| 5. | "Why Must a Girl Like Me" |
| 7:21 |
Remix: Tom Moulton
Musicians
Drums: Keith Forsey
Bass: Gary Unwin, Dave King
Keyboards: Thor Baldursson
Guitar: Jörg Evers
Percussion: Jürgen S. Korduletsch, Jörg Evers
Backing Vocals: Roberta Kelly, Claudia Schwartz & Stefan Zauner
Charts
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart positions[4] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot Dance/Disco | |||
| 1977 | "Sweet Dynamite" | 6 | |