My groovy 45’s: ‘What’ by Judy Street

Very few singles from my days as ‘Funky Genghis’ survive, but some did – and still sound great today!

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YES… this is the 1968 song that Soft Cell recorded in 1982!

This song was recorded in Hollywood in 1968 and the version you see pictured here is the 1982 re-release. I used to play a 1970’s release that was popular amongst Northern Soul DJ’s, but lost that single at an LSE Ents gig.

Most people will know the radically different synth cover version by Soft Cell, which was a huge hit in Britain in 1982 and almost reached No.1 in the charts. I had the 12” single version (obviously!) and played it to death at disco’s, but I always made a point of first playing this – the original. The looks on people’s faces! They had no idea it was a 60’s soul classic!!

I was working at Our Price Records at the time so able to source this original version when it was re-released to coincide with the success of Soft Cell.