Burning The Ground Exclusive 1988
“Under Your Spell” is the second single released by Canadian pop band Candi & The Backbeat (initially named Candi) fronted by lead vocalist Candita “Candi” Pennella. Band members included Nino (Big Papa) Milazzo (bass and background vocals), Paul (Baldy) Russo (drums and percussion), and Rich Imbrogno (keyboards). “Under Your Spell” was nominated for Single of the Year, and Best Dance Recording at the 1990 Juno Awards.
“Under Your Spell” reached #1 on the Canadian Dance Chart, and #21 on the singles chart. In the United States, the song debuted on the Billboard Dance chart on February 11, 1989, peaking at #39 after spending six weeks on the survey.
SIDE A:
Under Your Spell (Club Mix) 5:09
SIDE B:
Under Your Spell (LP Version) 3:50
Under Your Spell (Trance Dub Mix) 6:23
VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
U.S. CHART HISTORY:
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Under Your Spell | U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play | #39 |
RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: I.R.S. Records – IRS-23929
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Maxi-Single
Country: US
Released: 1988
Genre: Electronic
Style: Synth-pop
CREDITS:
- Co-producer, Mixed By – John Morales & Sergio Munzibai
- Producer – David Shaw (12)
NOTES:
Co-produced and mixed for Another M&M Production Inc.
From the LP “CANDI”
Buy the 12″ at DISCOGS
VINYL TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net
THE GEAR:
Turntable: Technics SL-1200MK7
Cartridge/Stylus: Ortofon 2M Black PnP MkII
Turntable Isolation Platform: ISO-Tone™ Turntable Isolation Platform
Platter: Pro Spin Acrylic Mat
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck
Phono Pre-amp: Pro-Jec Tube Box DS2
Tubes: Genalex Gold Lion 12AX7 ECC83/B759 Gold Pins Vacuum Tube – Matched Pair
DAC: Alpha Design Labs GT40a USB DAC
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Epson Workforce WF-7610 Professional Printer/Scanner
SOFTWARE:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling/Dither: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator
RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi
**24bit FLAC Only Available For Seven Days!
Password: burningtheground
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This is new one to these ears, i agree she definitely had a similar style to the artists mentioned.
Looking forward to hearing more from this artist.
Cheers Paul 🙂
Hi Paul, I’m so glad that this got included in your “Closet 80s” list of songs. Seeing this in my email got me excited as I am a big fan of Candi and I didn’t even know that a 12″ was released of this song. I consider her like Keedy who had one album but had quite a good number of good pop songs.
Candi is a little different than Billy Idol, Lol. It must have gotten radio airplay, it has that distinctive late 80’s sound. Fitting in perfectly with Debbie Gibson, Tiffany and yes, Martika. Thank you for putting the spotlight back on them!!
OK, Paul, you have my curiosity with this one. I’ll admit, I saw the front cover and I immediately started longing for those cool 80s fashion trends. But I’m not ashamed to admit my guilty sins 🙂
Yes, I admit every bit of my shopping sprees fondness for sweaters. I confess that I was a very macho, hetero-yet-Metro-sexual clothes horse back in the day! I wore custom suits and I was crazy about cool shoes, too!
I’m just full of surprises, like that.
And all this came about from that Candi LP cover! Damn you, Candi!
A Toronto based band headed by Candita Pennella with 80s classics such as “Dancing Under A Latin Moon”, “Love Makes No Promises”, “The World Just Keeps On Turning” and “Under Your Spell” Hopefully you have more to share from this band…. Thanks for this one 🙂
Pure early MADONNA!!! Never heard it before, but I love it!!! This could have easily been a major global hit, had it been released 3 years earlier (the same applies to the first two singles by Anything Box)!! Thank you for another amazing introduction!
Her previous single a freestyle track titled “Dancing Under A Latin Moon” sort of suffered the same fate although it did manage to enter the Billboard Hot 100 reaching #68 and was also a dance hit reaching #46. I plan to feature it as well.
That would be amazing, Paul! I love her already! Can’t wait to hear her Freestyle hit!
Never heared it before in my life, but a nice dance tune. Dunno why, but it reminds me A LOT of some early Madonna hits…(especially her voice)
I agree very Madonna/Debbie Gibson/Tiffany.
I love it, Paul!! Not knowing the song at all, but watching the clip, it had me smiling and wanting to dance. I am so surprised this didn’t get US airplay, or if it did, then why wasn’t it more popular? It’s a frothy dance-pop confection. I will never know what makes certain songs popular and others not so much. Thanks for such a fun and escapist song, Paul! I see this was on the Telegenics video label. This company produced great clips for club use.
Jeff
Thank you, Jeff. This is a very infectious pop song very much in keeping with the likes of Debbie Gibson. I was a bit surprised it did not do better in the USA.
I think the timing was off on this amazing song. It sounds like Madonna 3-4 years earlier, while Madonna already moved on to the “Vogue” sound. Had it been released a couple years earlier, it would have probably been a hit, but around the time it was released, it probably just sounded dated. Too bad!
You are sooo right! It’s a twin of “Borderline” (Lol!)-especially the album version 🙂 It’s also interesting that the term “trance” had a VERY different meaning than the music-term of today (Listen to the dub named “trance” and you’ll know what I mean)
lol … I was thinking the same thing when I saw Trance Dub Mix! Certainly doesn’t fit that genre at all.But you’re also spot on with Borderline!
Dare I say it but I think her vocals are a bit better than Madonna’s. Like many female artists of the time you can tell she was influenced by Madonna. According to Wikipedia Candi was pretty popular in her home country of Canada.
But of course they are! Looking forward to her freestyle track, I would definitely like to hear more of her – thank you for itroducing her to us, as it would be almost impossible for me to have discovered this artist without your post 🙂
Totally agree! Madonna’s vocals definitely improved over time, but I don’t think she became famous for her vocal skills at first… lol! Also, I find it really weird how an artist could be so famous in Canada at the time, but not in the neighboring US.