Purchased some years ago from a Dj situated in New York, I`d like to present the holy grail of my personal recordcollection, and reconstruct its origin and history.

2002 or 2003 I came across this Acetate (an acetate is a pre- pressing of a final record ), while I was searching for the “Sunshine Sound” acetates from the disco-era. learn more about acetates

Back then the seller didn`t even know what song he intended to sell, but within some days it became clear that it was the rare Tom Moulton remix of Little Sister`s “You`re the one” originally released as 7inch in 1970. The seller claimed, this Acetate belonged to Larry Levan, and was personally given to him by Tom Moulton for play at the legendary Paradise Garage.

It was part of a bunch of Larry`s personal records left in an apartment in NYC. This thesis is not far-fatched due to the personal words written on the label: “Larry, see if you like this version! TM” After some conversation about the history of the record, I realized that this record is definitely original and something very special for collectors like me.

Pointless to introduce all these names behind that record, but to keep it short and for the understanding of further coherencies:

Little Sister

Little Sister was an American all female vocal group, which served primarily as the background vocalists for the influential rock/funk band Sly the Family Stone in concert and on record. Originally a gospel music group called The Heavenly Tones, Little Sister was composed of Vet Stone (Family Stone frontman Sly Stone), Mary McCreary, and Elva Mouton, and became a recording act of its own for a brief period in 1970/1971. During the interim period between the releases of the Family Stone albums Stand! and “There’s a Riot Goin’ On”, Sly Stone negotiated a production deal with Atlantic Records, resulting in his own imprint, Stone Flower. Stone Flower released four singles, including one by R&B artist Joe Hicks, one by 6IX, and two by Little Sister: “You’re The One” and “Somebody’s Watching You”.

Both Little Sister 45s reached the Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 and the Billboard R&B Top 10 (“You’re the One” made it to #4, and “Somebody’s Watching You” made it to #8), but for unclear reasons Sly ceased production of further Little Sister recordings, and Little Sister were relegated to background vocal work for the rest of its existence. (source: Wikipedia)

Tom Moulton

Tom Moulton (born 1940) is an American record producer and originator of the remix, the breakdown section, and the 12-inch single vinyl format. He has humbly maintained that the last two innovations were pure accidents.

Tom Moulton’s innovative work was honored at the 2004 Dance Music Hall of Fame ceremony in New York City when he was inducted for his achievements as a Remixer. (source: Wikipedia)

Larry Levan

Larry Levan is considered one of the most influential and important Dj`s ever, he was resident at the legendary Paradise Garage:

With Larry at the helm, the Garage embodied all that was beautiful about disco: glamour, unpretentiousness, excitement, hedonism, epiphany through music, black/white and gay/straight harmony, and the general concept of the dancefloor as family. Celebrities like Grace Jones, Keith Haring, Nile Rogers, Chaka Khan and Madonna hung out and danced the night away along with thousands more of Larry’s dedicated flock. As a remixer, Larry applied his inimitable touch to countless all-time club classics, including “Got My Mind Made Up”/Instant Funk, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”/Inner Life, “Can’t Play Around”/Lace, “Heartbeat”/Taana Gardner and many many more. Larry’s legacy is more than just a legendary nightclub and a fistful of club classics. Larry Levan was the ultimate DJ: he didn’t just excel at his job, he reinvented the concept of the DJ, blurring the boundaries of music, race, sex, sexuality, and changing thousands of people’s perception of music, sound and the world around them.
To come back to the record: As a personal fan of Tom Moulton`s remixes (I am willing to admit I didn`t know the song) I kept the record in mind, and finally bought it for a retrospecitve low price. I asked the seller to write down some additional info about this (in my mind) piece of history and received it some days later. I immediately realized that the song was huge, a long accapella intro overflowing in a funky bad ass dancefloortune.

(source: West End Records Website)

But to come back to the record:

Since then I just played it a handful of times for recording and for a local radio show hosted by the Deephousemafia on Play Fm;

On my research about this rare find, I found out that Danny Krivit used this acetate verion for his Grass Roots Compilation: Danny Krivit “Musical Influences & Inspirations”. Seems that he owns a second copy. Francis Grasso denominated the track as one of his peak records, and even Tom Moulton mentioned this special remix on an interview for djhistory.com, saying that he remixed the original mono single in stereo for a compilation called Disco Trek. (source: Read the full interview )

Matter of fact, this acetate is one of just a handful of copies still in existence, and it doubtlessly belonged to Larry Levan, which makes it a true gem, and worth a feature on subdialectic. Audio files of the original acetate will follow within the next days.

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