Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"There's not a problem that I can't fix, 'coz I can do it in the mix."--"Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life" (1982) by Indeep |
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"Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life" is a song written by Michael Cleveland for R&B–New Wave–dance group Indeep. It features vocals from Reggie and Rose Marie Ramsey, and its protagonists recall how they were bored to death until a DJ played a hot song and saved their lives by giving new energy to the night. The song was released as a single in 1982 and became the most popular and successful hit released by its record label, Sound of New York/Becket Records. In the U.S. "Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life" reached number ten on the R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart and number two on the Club Singles chart, and it peaked at number thirteen in the United Kingdom. The track appears as the third track of the namesake album released in 1983.
Rolling Stone magazine declared the song "one of the greatest songs ever written about being a girl, listening to the radio, or any combination of the two," and, in 2005, editors of Blender magazine placed it at number 406 on its 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born list. The song also provided the inspiration of the title of the book Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey (2000). Because of the limited success of Indeep's later releases, the group's first single was its only major hit and placed it into the one-hit wonder category of artists. In 2004, UK house/trance music producer Seamus Haji made several popular remixes of the song through his own label, Big Love Records, and released them on a 12" single titled "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (ATFC mixes)." This version reached number thirteen on the UK Singles Chart and number one on the UK Dance chart in 2006.
The song is sampled during Madonna's performance of her song "Music" on her Sticky & Sweet Tour. The song is featured in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on one of the in-game radio stations which are accessed while driving. It plays on the station called "Fever 105".
