Awesome Friday!

To celebrate Friday being the most awesome day of the week and a bunch of Rainbo Video tracks being featured on superblog Forever Awesome, it's time to post some truly awesome music.

Next Friday may be getting all the hype because it's Halloween, but here's some music to make this Friday just as fun.

First up is a special Video Pop treat: Ya Kid K (of Technotronic fame) doing a hilarious and amazing song for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze soundtrack.

Appropriately called "Awesome (You Are My Hero)," it features some of the most unbelievably straightforward, literal lyrics ever. Amazing.

Ya Kid K - Awesome (You Are My Hero)

As a bonus, here's the longer club version, which incorporates some sweet, poppy diva vocals.

Ya Kid K - Awesome (You Are My Hero - Slammin' Club Mix)

And now it's time for the ultimate in ear candy awesomeness: sugary old school hardcore courtesy of Awesome 3!

For the uninitiated, don't let the term "hardcore" scare you off. A lot of it bears no resemblance to anything you might think as being "hard." Much of the genre is not that crazy or even that fast, and a high percentage of it is super catchy and enjoyable. (Check out Pete Dev/Null's old school blog, Blog 2 the Oldskool for some more obscure stuff in the genre.)

Awesome 3's "Don't Go" is a perfect example of the Video Pop sound and is an essential addition to any pop completist's collection.

For that reason, I'm including four different versions of it (!): the original mix, the Kicks Like a Mule edit, the LuvDup edit, and the version I first heard and am still attached to, which is a sped up, pitched up, mixed version from a pretty solid old school DJ mix by Billy "Daniel" Bunter called United In Hardcore - Disc 3: 1992 - 94.

Here they are:

Awesome 3 - Don't Go (Original Mix)

Awesome 3 - Don't Go (Kicks Like A Mule Original Edit)

Awesome 3 - Don't Go (LuvDup Edit)

Awesome 3 - Don't Go (Mixed)


Today and next Friday combined =


Happy Awesome Friday!