Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (song)

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"Last Night a DJ Saved My Life"

Single by Indeep
Released	1983
Format	5" single, 7" single, 12" single
Genre	R&B/Disco
Length	5:38
Label	Sound of New York
Writer(s)	Michael Cleveland
Producer(s)	Mike Cleveland, Reggie Thompson
Chart positions
#2 (U.S. — Club Singles) #10 (U.S. — Black Singles) #13 (UK)
Indeep singles chronology
	"Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" (1983)	"When Boys Talk" (1983)

"Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" is a song written by Michael Cleveland for R&B/dance group Indeep. It features vocals from Reggie and Rose Marie Ramsey, and its protagonists recall how they were bored to death until a DJ played a hot song and saved their lives by giving new energy to the night. The song was released as the album's first single in 1983 (see 1983 in music) and became the most popular and successful hit released by their record label, Sound of New York. In the U.S. "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" reached number ten on the Black Singles chart and number two on the Club Singles chart, and it peaked at number thirteen in the United Kingdom.

Rolling Stone magazine declared the song "one of the greatest songs ever written about being a girl, listening to the radio or any combination of the two",^[1] and in 2005 editors of Blender magazine placed it at number 406 on their "500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born" list. The song also provided the inspiration for the title of the book Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey (2000). Because of the limited success of Indeep's later releases, the group's first single was their only hit and placed them into the one-hit wonder category of artists. In 2004 UK house/trance music producer Seamus Haji made several popular remixes of the song through his own label, Big Love Records, and released them on a 12" single titled "Last Night a DJ Saved My Wife (ATFC mixes)".

American pop/R&B singer Mariah Carey co-produced a cover of "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" with DJ Clue and Duro for her tenth album, Glitter. Carey's version of the song features rapped verses from Fabolous and rapped lines from Busta Rhymes, and it is heard during a scene in the film Glitter in which Carey starred. It was released as the album's sixth and final single in 2001 (see 2001 in music) on a strictly promotional basis to boost the album's slow sales, as the preceding singles from the album had performed poorly. Because of its limited release and conflict between Carey and Virgin Records, the single's video (directed by Sanaa Hamri) was not released until late 2002/early 2003 through Carey's personal online fan club.

The song is also featured in Paniq's album mentalmilestones, as the basis for the song "Last Night (WTF Remix)".

[edit] Trivia

The song's title and lyrics were an inspiration for Radiohead's song "Airbag" on OK Computer (1997).

This song was featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, on Fever 105.

This song was also sampled by boy-band FIVE for the song "If ya' gettin' down". Which featured different lyrics, but still contained the same aesthetics for the background music.