The Legend of (Paul) Sabu

[Stuffed Animal]

I remember back in 1979 and 1980 visiting the Club 1270 in Boston and going wild for records like "Don't You Want My Love" by Debbie Jacobs, "Love Rush" by Ann-Margret and "Gimme Back My Love Affair" by Sister Power featuring Gwen Jonae. I later discovered that they were produced by a multi-talented rock guitarist named Paul Sabu, reputed to be the son of actor Selar Sabu, the "Jungle Boy" of 1940s adventure flicks. Paul Sabu could write, arrange, produce, engineer, play wicked guitar and sing like a discofied Sammy Hagar! He racked up quite a few disco hits in a very short time. In addition to the aforementioned singles, there was also "Undercover Lover," "High On Your Love" and "Hot, Hot" by Debbie Jacobs, Ann-Margret's "Midnight Message" and "Everybody Needs Somebody," Gwen Jonae's "Destiny" and Sabu's own "Rock And Rollin' Disco King." His ballads, which unfortunately never got airplay, were also outstanding. My favorite slowies are "I Can Never Forget A Friend," off Debbie Jacobs' HIGH ON YOUR LOVE album, and "You're Mine Forever," a wedding song from Sabu's self-titled debut LP. This guy was fantastic, but you hardly ever hear about him anymore in disco circles.

Nowadays, Paul Sabu is a cult figure on the heavy metal circuit, but those early disco things sound every bit as exciting today as they did in 1979. Why hasn't anyone ever compiled Paul Sabu's classic disco tracks onto CD? That'd be one hell of a collectible release!

[SandraDee]

You're right Stuffed (?!), the 'I Can Never Forget a Friend' slow track from Debbie's LP is beautiful. I'd not really paid much attention to it b4 so I just listened to it & was pleasantly surprised.

[Marcio**]

Oh yes, the album "High On Your Love" by Debbie Jacobs (in Brazil, MCA Records, 1979) was composed, arranged and produced by Paul Sabu. He also played the guitars. He has a magical touch. The strings were done by Davida Johnson (Concert Mistress), Sid Page, Don Palmer, William Henderson, Ron Clark and Marilyn Baker. The hit was just "Hot Hot (Give It All You Got)" but all songs from the album are good specially the slow song ( "I Can Never Forget A Friend").


marcio

[K-Bee]

My version of The Debbie Jacobs album "High On Your Love" is from 1980 (MCA 3202) and contains a special remix of "Hot Hot (Give it All You Got)".
Is that the case for all, or are we actually looking at different edition of the album?

[Boogie Child]

"Hot! Hot!" originally appeared on the 1979 Debbie Jacobs' RCA album, "Undercover Lover", with the outstanding hits, "Undercover Lover" and "Don't you Want My Love?".

A remixed version of "Hot! Hot!" appeared on the 1980 RCA album, "High on Your Love" and was the other club hit besides "High on Your Love".

[disco1999]

My all time fav. track from Paul Sabu . . . We're gonna rock
despite the title, it had nothing to do with rock music ;-) just disco music, also "Loose Lucy is on the loose" is worth a mention.

For those who forgot what "We're gonna rock" is ...
http://www.black-music-collectors.co...fonna_rock.mp3

[Boogie Child]

I agree, "Loose Lucy" is sublime.

His work with Ann-Margret was sensational as well - "Love Rush", "Midnight Message", "What I Do To Men", Everybody Needs Somebody Sometimes", "Hold Me, Squeeze Me" (?).

The Debbie Jacobs/Ann-Margret/Sister Power/Sabu tracks need to be on CD!