Take a Little Time

"Take a little time to get to know me

If you want to know what I am all about..."

When I first heard this track way back in 1999 I thought it was a heartfelt and meticulous tribute to early Madonna. It was only upon inspecting the sleevenotes of 'Darkdancer', the Les Rhythmes Digitales album it's taken from, that I discovered the vocal was by Shannon of 'Let The Music Play' fame. In 1983, Shannon and Madonna were both busy putting out their debut records. You could argue that 'Let The Music Play', which knocked 'Holiday' off the number one spot on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, was providing a harder, blacker flipside to Madge's perfect pop.

Of course, Stuart Price aka Les Rythmes Digitales/Jacques Lu Cont, eventually worked on Madonna's 'Confessions on a Dancefloor' album in 2005, famously co-writing 'Hung Up', with a little help from Benny and Bjorn.

Ten years after 'Take a Little Time', over-exuberant Danish pop stars Alphabeat put out 'The Spell', a song that also draws on the classic Shannon sound, albeit with a little less class than Stuart Price's effort.

I love it it anyway.