SMJ Dance - Freehold Township High School - Feb 10, 1978 - Pt 1

SMJ Dance - Freehold Township High School - Feb 10, 1978

This is part 1 of 2 videos posted on YouTube.
Part 2 is posted here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnwtjlORN4U

SMJ and Their Golden Discs was the name of one of the first mobile DJ's in the New York City - New Jersey area.
Formed on Dec 7, 1973, SMJ is an acronym of the initials of founders Spencer Morasch and Mark Johnson (the M is mutual).

SMJ played in almost every major High School in New Jersey in the 1970's & 1980's. Having virtually no competition, the business exploded as Middle & High School kids experienced for the first time in their lives what a high powered sound system playing vinyl records sounded (and felt) like!

Back in this time, our only real competition were live bands, and we did them one better by playing the actual songs they were trying to cover, and using a much better sound system. No longer did people consider recorded music second rate to a live band. We also added more excitement in the form of dance contests, phone in request lines (yes, we used an actual closed circuit phone at our dances to take requests & dedications!) and general give-aways.

At first we played a lot of 50's & 60's oldies when the TV show "Happy Days" was red hot, and American Graffiti the movie was #1 at the box office. Then we started to incorporate a lot of classic rock and current music into the mix. When disco exploded in 1978 with Saturday Night Fever, so did the business and the size of the dances. Getting 500 to 1000 kids at a school dance was the norm!

SMJ was an experience I will never forget, and to this day, you will find either Mark Johnson or myself (Spencer) playing an occasional charity event of other large venue for a good cause. Catch us at the March of Dimes Walkathons, the Boy Scout NJ State Police Camporee in March 2011, for example. You will hear music played just like it was back in the 70's & 80's. Our style worked then and it continues to work today! (sorry, we see no need for scratching or beat mixing - don't need that stuff!)

Here is some more info as reported on at another web site:
This audio only was recorded at an SMJ Dance at Freehold Township High School (Bruce Springsteen's home town). Recorded Feb 10, 1978. One of the earliest and most successful mobile DJ companies around in the metro New York City area in the 1970's. Many of the techniques used today were innovated by SMJ at these early DJ dances. The biggest competition back then were live bands, for there were few, if any other mobile DJ's around at the time. SMJ and their Golden Discs dances were legendary for the crowds they attracted and the music that was played. This dance probably had over 500 in the crowd! This is just a short clip. I actually have over 2 hours of continuous recording from this dance. Everybody thinks that back then it was only disco. As the music played on this video (listen to Part 1) proves, it was far from that, with pop and rock getting just as much attention. For those interested in the technical description of our sound system - we used Four Cerwin Vega V30 speakers driven by four discrete Southwest Technical amplifiers rated at 60 watts per channel. The pre-amp was a Heathkit and the main mixer was home made (still in use today, and still sounds great!). The Cerwin Vega speakers are also still in use today as well. The turntables were manual belt drive Technics SL-21 with Stanton magnetic cartridges. Lighting too was all home made. Enjoy!

See my videos from 2008, where most of the same equipment was used as was used in this 1978 dance.
First video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1C4w1zuSf4
Second video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of3aL9p1ucw

Category:

Music

Tags:

• SMJ
• Dance
• Freehold
• Township
• High
• School
• Feb
• 10
• 1978
• New
• Jersey

[jasonlava]

5:10 ♥