John Benitez, aka, Jellybean, was one of the hottest producers in the 80's and 90's, working with the likes of Madonna, Debbie Harry, Whitney Houston and Pointer Sisters, just to name a few. While he spent most of his time in the background, Jellybean did branch out on his own to release a few albums. However, the interesting aspect of said albums was that Benitez himself didn't sing on them. Instead, he utilized the talent of some of the era's hottest musicians as his mouthpiece. This instant notoriety of the hand selected artists led to several top ten hits.
In the late 70's, Benitez mostly filled his pocket by working as a DJ, while putting himself through college. It wouldn't be until a meeting with Madonna, where she introduced him to her first single, "Everybody", that a relationship (and romance) would begin. Madonna would ask him to remix her debut album, and as Jellybean would say of the opportunity, "While I was launching her career, I was launching my career as a producer." The relationship proved to be mutually beneficial.
Jellybean's discography is relatively short, with only five albums
released from 1984 to 2010. However, he makes up for this in spades via
his writing and producing credits. He would also go on to dabble in a few television themes. As of this writing, he was working as the executive producer for the SeriusXM station, Studio 54.
However, for that one moment in time, Jellybean was an 80's artist, if not directly at least in name, releasing the albums "Wotupski!?! (1984), Just Visiting This Planet (1987), and Jellybean Rocks The House (1988). This would be followed by 1991's Spillin' The Beans, and 2010's A Celebration In Sound (Jellybean Soul).
Today, I'm whipping out his debut album, Wotupski!?!, to give it a good old Retro Spin. I waited a long time to get this one on CD. Not only is this album out of print, but it is also expensive. While it may well have changed since I originally went looking for it, there were none on ebay at the time. Discogs had one copy available, but it was from the Russian Federation, which takes forever to get in the USA. Not only that, but their CD's are notorious for being bootlegs, and the time involved with resolving the matter is even longer than it took to receive.
Finally, in late December of 2021, another copy of the CD popped up on Discogs. Believe it or not, a seller that was literally just down the road from me. I reviewed everything, and clicked the buy button, paying immediately, only to then sit and wait. Eight days later, nothing. No CD. Not even marked as shipped. I reached out to the seller, and got no response.
So began the process of filing a claim with Discogs, and then PayPal. Here's where their site stands out among the crowd of ebay and Amazon. Once a buyer files a claim of an unresponsive seller, they have four days to reply, or their account is suspended indefinitely. Not an ideal solution, but at least they take the matter seriously. Lo and behold on the very last day the seller had to respond, they finally did, and shipped the thing. While the wait and process was excruciating, ultimately I got the better resolution, which was the CD.
Without further ado, let's talk about it.
As I mentioned above, Jellybean doesn't sing on the albums himself. Instead, he utilizes other talent in the industry. This is how you get an album which comprises of Madonna (no introduction necessary), Catharine Buchanan (aka Catt Buchanan) Vernon Jeffrey Smith (saxophone player and producer), Audrey Wheeler (Unlimited Touch), and Jennie Haan (Babe Ruth Band).
Of the five tracks on the album (not including remixes of these songs which are added as bonuses), I really dug three of them. Sidewalk Talk (Catharine Buchanan and Madonna), Dancing On The Fire (Audrey Wheeler), and The Mexican (Jennie Haan). Overall, the sound was heavy synthpop oriented, and that to me is good 80's music.
While the main album may only consist of five tracks, with a run time of six to nine minutes each, you're still getting over half an hour of music, which is a decent run time. Throw in the remixes, and it's over an hour.
Of them, I think The Mexican is my favorite. I dug it so much that I not
only listened to it several times, but then went and checked out the
original 1972 Babe Ruth version.
In looking further into the artists associated with the album, it was sad to see that Catharine Buchanan would end up being a singer who never got any form of musical contract. Her work on Sidewalk Talk was followed by a lone single, Love Is (1988). She seems to have disappeared from all forms of the spotlight, and Google searches yield minimal results.
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