Shannon's "Let the Music Play" and the Birth of Freestyle

Greetings and welcome to another episode of Queue Points podcast.

I am DJ Sir Daniel

And my name is Jay Ray, sometimes known by my government

as Johnnie Ray Kornegay III.

And Sir Daniel, we are about to talk about one of my favorite songs of all time

But here's where we're gonna, we're gonna differ a little

bit because even though I love this song as well, I think the follow-up

song was more of a bop to me.

It always has been.

But what we're gonna do, we're gonna take it back.

We're gonna hop on a subway, Jay Ray.

We're gonna hop on a subway to 1983 in New York City.

Just imagine the grit and grime of an 80s New York where boom boxes are on

ruling the street everywhere you go.

Sidebar, I get annoyed when I hear the people with little pillbox speakers today.

Ain't

I can't,

not the

annoys, it's not the same for whatever reason.

Those little speaker bo- peop-

of, was, was like a thing

people that play music on their speakerphone, I hate that.

But you put me on a subway with somebody, um, blasting a,

a, a boombox, and I'm chill.

I'm fine.

But anyway, I digress.

I digress.

We are taking it back to New York City to 1983, where I was a fresh w-

a cl- a f- a, a fresh eight years old.

Hmm.

But this song, this song, Jay Ray, was,… I remember watching, and I

said this many times before on the show, watching video, um, what was the name?

Not Video Music Box.

Friday Night Videos in New York, because we did not have cable,

Yeah

videos were the thing, and they, there was a show

called Friday Night Videos, um, Hot Tracks, as a matter of fact.

And we would get to see, I would get to see the latest videos, and of course,

there were a lot of videos from white superstars like your Madonnas, uh, George

Michaels, Boy George, the whole nine.

But along came this Black woman who was belting what I like to call a

rhythm and romance song, because

Yeah

Let the Music Play is not, it's not just a, a, a, a freestyle, uh,

probably the best freestyle song ever.

It's not just a bop, but it's also a song about romance, and it tells

a story, and it's, it's so deep.

But it, it premiered and released in 1983.

It hit number one on the dance charts, uh, number two on R&B, which

is very important, and number eight on the Hot 100 by February of 1984.

So that song had,… We let our songs cook back then.

Songs were able to percolate for a minute.

But I'm just thinking about that, that feeling of being in, in Mr.

Francis.

His name was Mr. Francis.

He picked us up for school and, and took us home as well.

And I remember I went to a private school.

I went to a Seventh Day Adventist private school,

Yep

Mr. Francis used to turn on the radio, and he would let us

hear all the music that was playing on the secular radio stations.

And Shannon's Let the Music Play was a song that had us in a chokehold for a cool

six months in New York City and beyond, uh, the, the world, as a matter of fact

Yeah.

Um, this song, I said, one of my favorite songs of all time.

Um, literally when I hear Let the Music Play by Shannon, it

transports me back to my youth.

So I was six when this song was released, and, um, music was my world.

Like, I had, um, as a six-year-old, I started with the, um, Fisher-Price

record players, so I remember my little Fisher-Price record player.

I had my own 45s and things back then.

But by the time I got six, I had, like, a mini stereo in my bedroom,

like, 'cause I could have, 'cause I was playing music all the time.

It wasn't fancy, but it was, it was mine.

You know, it was in my room, and I had

Chorus

by then.

so this song really does transport me back to a period of time.

But Sir Daniel, I think the most important thing I want folks listening to this show

to know is that the entire subgenre of freestyle traces back to this one song.

to your earlier point, it's probably the greatest freestyle song ever,

because to this day, you can still hear this song whipping around on

'Cause, you know, the opening is the weep, ta, and it just drops, right?

this song is what then made way for L- Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, uh, the work of

Jelly Bean, all the stuff that Madonna did in, on her first album, Exposé.

And all of these amazing groups that came out of the 1980s, uh, doing

freestyle music really do trace back to, um, Let the Music Play.

So just to give folks a little bit of context for this particular song.

So, uh, Chris Bar- Chris Barbosa, this is a New York

song through and through, right?

So Chris Barbosa is out of the Bronx.

Um, just basically did this demo his bedroom.

You can actually listen to the demo, uh, on YouTube now.

It's called Fire and Ice.

and was just a, a, a, a beat A melody.

and really so the, as the story goes, so there's a great Red Bull, uh, conversation

with Shannon and Chris which kind of traced the history of Let the Music Play.

But he had, like, a bunch of gear that his grandmom basically helped him pay for.

Nice

to make music up in his bedroom, and the gr- you know, Grandmom is like,

"Yeah, do that." And so he had all these really, all of these synthesizers,

and was basically utilizing, uh, those synthesizers and created this beat.

He was inspired by, though, this is interesting, um, uh,

Looking for the Perfect Beat.

So Arthur Baker had done this work with, uh, Afrika Bambaataa, and he was

listening to that and was really inspired by that idea, and wanted to create

something, like, really similar from it.

But particular song, um, not only, uh, really did spearhead kind of,

uh, uh, freestyle as, as a sub-genre, but also, uh, straddled the line.

So up until this point, um, Black music had always had electronic

elements, but there was always, like, a- a, uh, uh, acoustic foundation.

I'll, I'll use that as more of a phrase, where there were live

instruments that were kind of part of the entire production.

particular song takes all of the elements of an R&B song and layers in, uh, a

little bit of what, what hip-hop sounds were doing, as well as electronic sounds,

and then created this new kind of sound.

So at the time that this joint came out, it was unique, 'cause there was nothing

else that sounded like it on the radio.

And when you listen to it today, you know what?

That's interesting.

Let the Music Play, I would argue that that song still sounds like the future

You know, I would agree with that.

Um, it's so funny while you were, um, giving the background on Chris Barbosa

building the beat in his bedroom, it made me… I- I just had the most random

thought, but I have always wondered why in Janet Jackson's "All For You," you know

the, the infamous, um, dance breakdown where she samples several, um, like, uh,

at least three or four different records?

One of them is "Let the Music Play,"

Mm-hmm.

but I always wondered why they used "Let the Music Play" instead

of… They used all of her old beats.

Like, they used,

of

P- "Pleasure Principle," they use, um, uh, uh, "We Go Deep." There's

a couple very specific Janet beats that were used in that, um, in that breakdown,

but they used "Let the Music Play," and I always wondered why they did that.

That was just something that has always came… You know, just sat on my brain.

I was like, "That's Shannon, not Janet." But I mean, it fits, it works,

and it w- it's indicative of the sound, um, of which Janet came up in.

Yeah

And I also think it's so important that you did highlight

that, um, a lot freestyle is, is almo- is birthed out of hip hop.

Yeah.

Freestyle music is birthed out of hip hop, and how

dancing is at the basis of everything.

Community and dancing, because all of these st- all of these stars, like

you mentioned Jellybean Benitez, who was like a s- a, a, a major DJ back

in the day, and you hear his name synonymous was put with, um, clubs like

the Fun House, where he met Madonna, and of course we know that history.

Um, but what also stands out to me is when we think about Shannon, and a lot of

artists that made it big in her day, they weren't really pursuing music careers.

Like, she was a full-time college student

Yeah.

if you can't think of the most pedestrian job to do to go from

that to be- to wearing hot pants and sequined blouses, singing, you know,

singing your r- your number one rhythm and romance song on different s-

various stages and television shows.

Yeah

and juxtapose that to today.

Everybody wants to be a star today.

That's all they… Everybody is, is seeking fame and stardom, but here she

is, she's like, "Okay, can I get the spreadsheets?" And back then they…

Remember, the spreadsheets were on those, um, those dotted and perforated papers.

They didn't have, like, regular paper.

It was those dotted and perforated for those people who were… These

are ancient times compared to now

Yeah, you know, it's, it's interesting.

So Sh- Shannon's musical outlet was singing.

Um, she actually got discovered randomly singing, with like a jazz ensemble, Mark

Liggett was like, "Hey, you, you'd be interesting on this song." And, um, just

like that kind of invited Shannon in to demo this song that ultimately becomes

Let the Music Play, that really is it.

Like, she is just kind of brought in as a session vocalist to,

uh, to be the lead on this song.

Chris Barbosa I don't think was there, uh, the day that even

Shannon kind of auditioned for it.

Uh, his partner Mark Liggett was the person that kinda found

Shannon, but found that her voice was like perfect for the song.

But you're right in that there was no plan for Shannon to be like a

mega star, you know what I mean?

She was just in New York in college working as a bookkeeper, but also

kind of moonlighting doing some singing as part of a jazz ensemble,

and just randomly got discovered.

And if I could underscore that, which I think is something really important

and I don't want people to forget, is why gi- this is why not being too big

for your britches is important and you gigging is really, really key.

Because it was the fact that Shannon was out there rehearsing and

gigging that she got heard, right?

So I think we live in this society now that rewards, uh, we have to have brands,

and we're on social media, and everything is really curated, and all of this.

Just work.

Like, just get out there and work, 'cause that's what Shannon was

doing when, uh, when Mark saw her.

Everything was so much more organic and just, just happened.

Mm-hmm.

the fact that auditions were being held, that was just,

that was the normal thing back in, in the '80s, '70s through the '80s.

Like, we're holding auditions.

You can open up a newspaper and see we're holding auditions for female

singers, and we're holding auditions for session singers in the newspaper.

Nowadays, not so much.

But, um, I think that the foundation of Let the Music Play, like I said,

uh, I call it rhythm and romance because there's an ongoing theme in not

just this song, but I also mentioned the follow-up song, Give Me Tonight.

There's this ongoing theme about these torrid romances that are happening

in these songs, and there's a lot of conflict, but resolution and love and,

and just yearning, and you don't get that without a really greatly written song

Mm-hmm.

and lyrics to go with it.

And so… But I think that there was a conflict, or not even a conflict, but

there's a s- a story behind the story of the lyrics to Let the Music Play

Yeah.

Oh my God, there's two great stories about this particular song, so

I wanna highlight both of them.

First one, let's start with the lyrics since you mentioned that.

So As far as we knew, uh, a lyricist by the name of Ed Chisolm was the

person who's credited as being the lyricist for Let the Music Play.

Shannon, like I said, was part of this great conversation with Chris on Red Bull.

We'll make sure that the link is in the description.

And Shannon was like, "Actually, actually, the writer of the song is a

woman by the name of Ann Godwin, who is the sister of Ed Chisolm." So Ann

Godwin, um, was, you know, it's- it's a c- it's a creative collective, right?

They're all working together.

People are intermingling.

Ann somehow got looped in to this track for, that ultimately becomes Let

the Music Play, and writes this song.

There's a problem though.

Ann Godwin was signed to Jobete Music, and we know, Sir Daniel, but for those

listening who may not know, Jobete was Motown's publishing company.

Ann Godwin could not put her name on this song.

If we know anything about Motown, that is a walled, at

that time it was a walled garden.

You wrote, if you were signed over here, you were working

with Motown artists, right?

So Ann wrote the lyrics, uh, to this song and gave the credit to

her brother because she couldn't take credit for writing the song.

So Ed Chisolm actually didn't write Let the Music Play at all.

His sister, Ann, uh, Ann Godwin did, and he, she just gave him credit because

she couldn't take credit for the song.

So that's the first great story.

True

about this is Let the Music Play has a great hook.

can all sing it.

We know the hook.

is not Shannon singing the hook.

Say what?

that i- Shannon's nowhere near the hook.

It's actually a guy, Jimi Tunnell is his name, is the guitar player,

he, they added him in as a layer on singing just the let the music play

part thought it was interesting.

And so what they asked Shannon to do was ad lib around it.

So what we hear in the song today is Shannon is, "Let it play." She's doing

all of these things because she's not actually singing let the music play.

Somebody else is doing that, and her instruction was just ad lib around that.

You know what I mean?

So the Let the Music Play song you hear was, one, not written by the person

that it said it was written by, and two- Features a vocal f- that is not Shannon

on the hook, and Shannon's just kind of singing around that vocal, and that's a

Again, another very '80s fact around some of your favorite hit songs.

It's like you can hear, um, we, we think it might be the person who's

the face of the song, but there are demos that are created and

producers are like, "You know what?

I'm not… That ain't broken.

Let's not fix it.

We're just gonna layer some ad libs on top of that."

We've seen that in several different songs that, that

we've named on this show before.

And but it doesn't take away from the fact that Shannon, to this day, is still

performing Let the Music Play along with her other hits and packs out stadium.

These freestyle shows, and they are billed as freestyle shows, are

when I tell you they are popular specifically on the West Coast.

You got the West Coast, like your, um, Los- LA, Las Vegas, around there.

Then you come over here to the East Coast, it's mostly in Miami and Florida.

And then you have pockets, of course, in the tri-state area of New York, New

Jersey, and, um, the tri-state area at where it's really popular in that pocket

of the, of the United States as well.

And I think that has a lot to do with the, the people creating freestyle

music, um, turned out… Of course, you know, we have a Black woman who is

at the helm of the song, but we know that the song came out of a mixed,

Mm-hmm.

a, a mixed heritage of, of music, which was hip hop,

which included Black and Latino

Mm-hmm.

peoples.

And of course, in South Florida, we know that there's a huge Latino

commun- community down there.

And so they were creating their own brand of, uh, freestyle music.

And it, to this day, it's just a… The only way that I can, that I can

explain it when I think of freestyle music is there's a tropicalness to it.

Like there's a, I- like I, I automatically, if I close my eyes, I see

palm trees and co- and coconuts and water.

But there's also a subway in the background because you know, because it's

got, it's that very soft and tranquil, tranquil, tranquility, tranquilness

to it along with a hard edge beat.

And all of these groups like your, your Lisa Lisas, your Exposés, your Cover

Girls, Stevie B, we can go on and on They still, their music was timeless, Jay Ray.

It is timeless because people are still of all ages still celebrate it.

Um, one of the few rap groups that's celebrated, JJ Fad is a lot, is

also a part of these tours as well.

But take it back to the Shannon sound

Yeah

of really laying the foundation of what

freestyle became and still is.

I mean, the receipts are there.

To your point about the timelessness, I just wanna

pick up on that really quick.

Shannon got a Grammy nomination out of this.

Rolling Stone nominated this song number six for the top 200

greatest dance songs of all time.

I think it absolutely still holds

It deserves, yep

yeah, yeah.

Um, yeah, I think it's really important to remind folks, and for those folks

that didn't know, let you know that in 1983, song hit, and it literally

was like it shook things up and literally made way for an entirely

new subgenre that sold millions of albums throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

There was so much that came out of the freestyle movement, but it truly,

truly started with Chris Barbosa, you know, up in, in, in the bedroom

in the Bronx you know what I mean?

Making

equipment

with some equipment, um, making this track, and then having…

I, I don't wanna lose this, 'cause I know we didn't say it, but I

also think this is important, too.

Having other people pour into him and like, "Wait a minute, that's

something. thing you did there is something. We- Let's figure out

what's the next thing," right?

So you have Mark Liggett, who's hearing it, and was like, There, let's do

something with that." You have Jelly Bean hearing it and like, "Yeah, let me drop

that in my set." You know what I mean?

Before it is what it is, right?

So you have other people that were in that creative circle pouring into

that young man and saying, "Hey, got something on your hands." So, uh,

rest in, in peace to, to, um, to Chris Barbosa, who passed away in 2024.

But that man, uh, co-created an entire subgenre

Mm. Community and collaboration.

Mm-hmm

That, I think that's the, the missing sauce.

Yeah.

The missing sauce to- today.

I think But yeah, so bravo.

I think we, if you didn't know, like Jay Ray said, this is the song that

you need to fire up and you will get a, a reaction, a generational

j- reaction when you hear this song.

I know I still love to play it in a set whenever I get a chance to.

But Jay Ray, um, I think this was dope.

Let's remind the people where they can find more episodes

of Queue Points podcast.

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Thanks for tuning in to the show

Absolutely.

And like I always say, in this life you have a choice.

You can either pick up the needle or you can let the music play.

Hey.

is…

It, it,

I'm

a little

DJ

of

Sir Daniel.

If y'all know, you know.

I'm DJ Sir Daniel,

My name is Jay Ray, y'all

and this is Queue Points podcast, dropping the

needle on Black music history.

We will see you on the next go-round.

Peace, y'all.

Peace, y'all.