The latest offering in Centaur's popular Party Groove series highlights Gay Days in Orlando. Randy Bettis mixes a blend of non-stop, hands-in-the-air tea-dance anthems and will make you feel like you are dancing poolside at the Reunion parties.
The compilation covers the gamut of tracks ranging from a cover of the circuit classic "High" by Lighthouse to one of last year's biggest hits, "Real Love" by Deborah Cooper. The intro of the disc starts off with vocals from "High" and from there mixes into Michelle Weeks' take on the Donna Summer classic "Heaven Knows." This remake is the perfect set-up for the disc's highest note and subsequent track, Junior's Arena Anthem of Donna Summer & Bruce Roberts' "Whenever There is Love." The riff is just spine-tingling and it is one of those songs that you can never get tired of, even eight years after its release. It is definitely a great, albeit surprising inclusion on the disc. It's a shame, however, that after kicking the disc into high gear, Bettis takes the disc into a tea dance direction by mixing in soulful and heavy piano-laden tracks like Boy George's "When Will You Learn" and Simply Red's "Fake."
Now don't get me wrong, these tracks are quite gorgeous on their own, but seem out of place and belong more at the end of the disc.
The disc kicks into high gear again, but not until more than halfway through the disc, when we get served a double dose of Rosabel with Deborah Cooper's "Real Love" and Colton Ford & Pepper Mashay's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered." Now we have the energy up and the vocals going full speed ahead and they continue on from there with Kevin Aviance's "Alive" and Daphne Rubin-Vega's "Rocketman," although I shudder listening to the latter because of the overwhelming cheese factor. Some songs should just not be remade, and "Rocketman" is clearly one of them.
Closing out the disc, Bettis brings the energy back to the tea dance level by featuring a disco-infused remix of "You Make Me Feel Good" by Pat Hodges. The combination of the whirling, horn-entrenched build-up and Hodges's fierce vocals just turns me and makes me feel like matching sass for sass with Hodges while dancing my feet off. The final track brings the disc full circle by ending with the way it started off, with "High" by Lighthouse. If there was ever one song to encapsulate the spirit of gay tea dances, this would be it…hands down. Since the disc plays off like a best of tea dance, past and present, this track is the perfect ending. Unfortunately since it is not the original Lighthouse Family record, there is a distancing effect between the listener and whatever dancefloor dreams and/or memories they may have had with the original track.
This compilation excels in showcasing some of the greatest gay anthems for the past eight years, however, it doesn't offer much more. There are no brand new tracks. There is no substance. There is just track after track of circuit classics, and chances are you probably already own the majority of them. However, if you are new to the scene and haven't heard many of these tunes, or if you've been in the scene and just want to take a stroll down memory lane, this disc could be quite fun to listen to.
