Johnny Davis Life's A Party / Expand Your Mind

Double-sider from Johnny Davis and producer Reg Hudson (Hudson People) featuring the previously unreleased funk jam ‘Life’s A Party’, coupled with ’Expand Your Mind’, an in-demand mid-80s soul cut recorded in Bavaria.

“I had a friend, Manfred Radtke, who had a small studio in Kitzingen, Germany. He offered me the chance to work in his studio and there I began to write songs in the style that I really liked, that came out of my soul and heart. One of my favourite bands was Zapp and they often worked with the voice box. At the time, music was very electronic and groups like Parliament were doing a mixture of smooth funk and electronics, and so I mixed them together to create my tracks.” (Johnny Davis, 2006)

One of the real voices behind Milli Vanilli, Davis was from South Carolina and had lived much of his life in Germany after first being stationed there with the U.S. Army in the 1970s. When Reg Hudson moved to Germany in the early 80s, Davis had become a sought-after session player writing songs and laying down bass and vocals for multiple commercial projects. In 1984, they co-produced the album, Shake It Make It Loose! under the moniker J.D. (Puma) Lewis. Part-financed by Puma, the album was recorded at Class A recording studio, Hartmann Digital in the southeast of Germany, and released by Metrovynil who were cashing in on the electro fever. Various songs didn’t make the final cut, including ‘Life’s A Party’ which was “not considered electro enough by the label owners”. Reg Hudson explains the backdrop to the tracks. “Me and Johnny Davis were best friends in Germany, we wrote many songs together before he hooked up with Frank Farrian and Milli Vanilli. I was the artist promotions manager for Puma Sports at the time, and we did an album for the company. Jörg Dassler, son of Puma founder Rudolf Dassler, gave me the money to produce it, hence songs like ‘Puma The Cat’. I hired Johnny to do the vocals and play guitar and bass, the rest was just drum machines with me on keys.”

During the same period, the duo had been working at PAS Recording Studio, a smaller outfit in Mönchsondheim that was more local to them. "We made ’Expand Your Mind’ in Manfred Radtke studio", says Reg: "That’s why that track has a rawer sound. We were there three or four times a week for many years just recording music and making demos.”