Songoftheday 5/30/13 - We started dancing and love put us in to a groove as soon as we started to move...

Shannon - "Let The Music Play"
from the album Let The Music Play (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12

Today's Song of the Day is by the Washington DC singer Shannon (Greene), who after being discovered by producers Mark Liggett and Chris Barbosa, had the first big "freestyle" dance hit in 1984 with "Let The Music Play", written by Barbosa with Ed Chisholm. The record was notable for finally breaking the disco backlash of the early 80s and brought dance music back to radio in a big way...

"Let The Music Play" not only went top-10 on the pop chart, but also topped Billboard's Club Play dance chart, as stopped at #2 on the R&B format list. In Britain, where dance music wasn't as ostracized as was marginalized by ska and new wave, still managed to peak at #14. Shannon's eight-track album even made the top-40 on the albums chart, not bad for a dance record.

It would be Shannon's only top-40 pop hit, although she continued to have three more #1s on the dance chart, with the classics "Give Me Tonight", "Do You Wanna Get Away", and "It's Over Love". She also scored on the UK chart, making the top-10 as late at 1999 with "Move Mania" with the group Sash!.

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In 1991, another freestyle artist, Tiana, covered the track....