Club House - Do It Again / Billie Jean (12" Extended Version)

Club House - Do It Again / Billie Jean (Extended Version) / 12 Inch Extended Remix (HQ Audio)

In 1983, the term mashup didn’t exist, but that didn’t stop Italian disco project Club House from taking this track into the upper reaches of the British, Irish, Belgian, and Dutch charts.

In fact, it was the first mashup to make the UK top 40.

Early '80s medleys, such as Stars On 45, featured short snippets of multiple songs, but this was the first to blend two tracks into a full new recording.

Writing credits are shared between Michael Jackson (who wrote Billie Jean) and Steely Dan’s Walter Becker and Donald Fagen (who wrote Do It Again).

The track is a full re-recording, with vocals by Silvio Pozzoli, who later had a string of hits of his own across continental Europe, and who featured on several other Club House records.

It was arranged by Italian songwriter, producer and record company owner Luca Orioli (who now runs a yacht dealership in Sicily) and produced by Italian disco producers Luca Orioli, Carmelo La Bionda, and Stefano Scalera.

Beyond its European success, the track also reached the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 75.

In the US, the blend of Do It Again and Billie Jean had proved popular enough on dancefloors that Detroit dance band Slingshot released a cover version that went to #1 on the Billboard Dance chart.

1983 was quite the year for Michael Jackson, with the two versions of the mashup doing the rounds in the US, two singles from the album Thriller in the Hot 100, and the album itself, which contains Billie Jean, riding high too.

Club House attempted to replicate their mashup success by merging Stevie Wonder’s Superstition with Chic’s Good Times, but the follow-up failed to achieve significant commercial impact.

Do It Again / Billie Jean was released in the UK in July 1983, entering the chart at No. 29 before climbing to No. 11, spending a total of five weeks in the top 40.

Featured here is the extended version from the UK 12", clocking in at just over seven minutes.

The b-side is a shorter instrumental, that is around two-minutes shorter.

A long lost one-hit wonder then, notable for being the first of its kind - and very much part of the sound of the summer of 1983 in the UK and US.

Year: 1983 Label: Island Cat no: 12IS 132