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10 Greatest Frankie Knuckles Tracks

The DJ/producer is credited with helping to popularize Chicago house in the wake of disco’s greatly exaggerated demise.

10 Greatest Frankie Knuckles Tracks

Though he was born and raised in the Bronx, Frankie Knuckles (née Francis Nicholls) called the Windy City home. Known in dance music circles as the Godfather of House Music, the DJ/producer is credited with helping to popularize Chicago house in the wake of disco’s greatly exaggerated demise, paving the way for the genre’s domination of the pop charts in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Cutting his teeth alongside DJ Larry Levan in the ’70s, Knuckles spun regularly at the Warehouse in Chicago, went on to open his own club, the Power Plant, and remix hits by everyone from Michael Jackson to Inner City.

In 2004, the block where the Warehouse once stood was renamed Honorary Frankie Knuckles Way. And with house music enjoying a renaissance of sorts in recent years, one of the genre’s foremost pioneers has similarly experienced a deserved resurgence, commissioned to remix indie dance act Hercules and Love Affair’s “Blind” in 2008, as well as Whitney Houston’s 2009 comeback single “Million Dollar Bill.” Sadly, news hit yesterday that Knuckles died in his adopted hometown at the age of 59. To celebrate his life and legacy, we’re taking a look back at his biggest, most influential works.


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10. Dbow, “Get Involved (Director’s Cut Classic House Mix)”

Knuckles and French producer Eric Kupper’s nü-disco remix of Dbow’s “Get Involved” showed up in both of Knuckles’s Boiler Room sets last year, and it epitomizes the glossy sheen of his recent “director’s cut” remixes, with basic, well-worn chord progressions he could turn out in his sleep, but that’s sort of the point: house music was part of his DNA.


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9. “The Whistle Song”

Enjoying heavy radio rotation in Chicago and New York in 1991, Knuckles’s aptly titled, feel-good club hit “The Whistle Song” is probably the producer’s most recognizable original track, with his signature keyboard riffs complemented by breezy flute, bouncy bass, and a summer-smooth synth line.


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8. Chaka Khan with Rufus, “Ain’t Nobody (Frankie Knuckles Remix)”

Knuckles helped Chaka Khan hit the top of the dance charts in 1989 with what was essentially a dub remix of her 1983 single “Ain’t Nobody.” Chaka’s original hook makes a cameo, but the real star is Knuckles’s keyboard and bass.

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7. Lisa Stansfield, “Change (Knuckles Mix)”

Knuckles’s mix of Lisa Stansfield’s “Change” only makes some minor tweaks to the low-key original, namely a bigger bottom, but it’s rightfully become the definitive version of the U.K. songstress’s 1991 hit.


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6. Hercules and Love Affair, “Blind (Frankie Knuckles Mix)”

DFA Records’s Jonathan Galkin reportedly thought hiring a veteran like Knuckles to remix the lead single from Hercules and Love Affair’s debut was “a huge risk,” but it was one that certainly paid off.


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5. Michael Jackson, “Rock with You (Frankie’s Favorite Club Mix)”

In the ’90s, Epic Records often commissioned top producers to remix some of Michael Jackson’s classic hits as B-sides to the pop star’s new singles. Judging by the title, Knuckles’s smooth reimagining of 1980’s “Rock with You” was someone’s—maybe Michael’s—favorite, and it’s hard not to hear why.


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4. Frankie Knuckles Presents Satoshi Tomiie, “Tears”

Japanese producer Satoshi Tomiie’s salty debut single, “Tears,” co-produced by Knuckles in 1989, is a seminal house-music moment, as cathartic and bitter as a good cry.

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3. Jamie Principle, “Baby Wants to Ride”

Knuckles and vocalist Jamie Principle followed up the angelic “Your Love” with the hellish velocity of “Baby Wants to Ride,” one of the jackin’est of jack tracks, thanks to Principle’s uninhibited and gender-vague Prince-a-like interjections.


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2. Sounds of Blackness, “The Pressure (Classic 12” Remix)”

Expertly utilizing the best elements of both parts of Twin Cities gospel choir Sounds of Blackness’s diptych, Knuckles stitched together an ugly cry-worthy powerhouse of urban lament, kicked off by the most gorgeously tormented piano flourishes he ever unleashed.


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1. Jamie Principle, “Your Love”

Considered one of the very first house tracks, Jamie Principle’s 1984 single “Your Love” became a staple of Knuckles’s club sets and an eventual re-release with new production by the DJ has become definitive of both Principle’s work and house music at large.

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