What is the best classic 12" dance tune on Ben Liebrand's "Grand 12-Inches 3" compilation?

holy shit

Previous polls:
Grand 12-Inches 1
Grand 12-Inches 2

don't know all of these but voting for "contact"

Torn between Rose Royce "R.R. Express" and Herbie Hancock "Tell Everybody", both of which I've played out a few times this year. But Herbie gets the better reaction, so him.

herbie hancock track rules, used to play that one out a lot.

maybe i’ll have time to listen through the tracks i don’t know and be able to cast an informed vote

This series is fucking fantastic. 12 volumes right?

I like these polls, tho doing all 50 volumes of I Love Disco Diamonds is probably overkill.

Volume 16 came out earlier this year: http://www.liebrand.nl/grand12/16.html

Baffled by the inclusion of 'Salva Mea', great though it is, on this when everything else (afaik) is pre-90s.

'Love Is the Message' for the 70s, 'Precious Little Diamond' for the 80s.

This series has always gone up to circa 1993, although the main objective of Liebrand was to obtain/clean up/remaster old analogue masters, that’s not so much an issue in the digital age.

Yeah, the first two comps have some 90s house and Eurodance too, these comps are mostly disco/boogie/R&B, but Liebrand pretty much puts anything he likes on them.

Have to say tho, even though I still buy every yearly comp in this series, it's running out of steam a bit at this point. There's still gems in all of them, but the original point, which was to compile 12 inch mixes that are not so easily available in digital format, doesn't seem to work that much anymore... The last few entries in the series have included a lot album versions and extended mixes that are pretty easy to find on other comps and reissue CDs, and some of the classic 12 inches still missing from it, such as anything by Prince, he clearly hasn't managed to acquire the rights for, as otherwise they would've appeared on the comps ages ago.

So at this point the series is mostly just Liebrand compiling his favourite dance tracks he can license... Which of course is still nice, since he has a good taste.

There are indeed others that do this well, last years The Men In The Glass Booth was great.

I don't know how much it applies to more recent volumes but apart from the selection and sometimes exclusive edits the key thing is the tracks are from the 'best' masters he could source. That means ideally (but not always) from original tapes and in particular not tarnished by the various excesses modern remastering.

Baffled by the inclusion of 'Salva Mea', great though it is, on this when everything else (afaik) is pre-90s.

Yeah, that stuck out for me too.

First glance would see me choosing between Fern Kinney, Chaz Jankel, Janis Ian, Talk Talk or Colonel Abrams but lots of other great tracks too.

Everyone who hasn't heard it yet should listen to "Madman's Discotheque", it's ridiculously awesome!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru0IMV-A2W0

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I think today it's between -

Rose Royce - R.R. Express 12:02
The Reddings - The Awakening (Part 1 & Part 2) 3:33
MFSB featuring The Three Degrees - Love Is the Message 11:34

Honourable mentions -

Chaz Jankel - Glad to Know You (12" version) 6:40
Fern Kinney - Groove Me (long version) 8:55
André Cymone - The Dance Electric (long version) 5:36

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

these compilations are so great. i feel like i've only scratched the surface with them though.

I'm really hoping, now that Prince's estate has finally approved the release of rarities and reissues from his vaults, that Liebrand would get the rights for some of the rarer 12 inch mixes. For example, the extended versions of "America" and "La La La Hee Hee Hee" have never been released in digital format, AFAIK. It'd be nice to get a proper release of Liebrand's own unofficial remix of "Sign o' the Times" too, it's dope.

What is the best classic 12" dance tune on Ben Liebrand's "Grand 12-Inches 4" compilation?