Back in the '70s Candi Staton was a dancing queen with hits like "Young Hearts Run Free" and "Victim." She left all of that behind and embarked on a new career in gospel music in 1982 but the European dance world's thirst for another Staton club hit pushed her 1986 gospel track "You Got the Love" to be remixed multiple times, causing the multi-platinum track to hit the British Top Ten in 1991, 1997 and again in 2006 (Florence & the Machine also hit with it in 2010). Now, London-based Defected Records and Staton have teamed up for "Hallelujah Anyway" - her first big dance hit since 2008's Top 10 Groove Armada collaboration, "Love Sweet Sound."
 
Staton originally released  "Hallelujah" on her 2002 "Proverbs 31 Woman" CD. At the time, it was only played on Radio One's gospel format. "Because of my disco roots, I always called my mix of gospel with a disco beat - gospco," Staton laughs. "It was too much of a club track for most gospel radio stations at that time but Jeff Majors and Jerry Smith at Radio One pushed it on their stations." Two years ago, Staton added it to her European concert list. "We were looking for an encore song that could follow 'You Got the Love,'" she explains. "It's really the same beat. I played 'Hallelujah' to the band and they loved it, so we made that the encore song and people started asking how could they could buy it so Defected Records decided to do some new remixes."
 
Defected recruited one of House music's top young musical minds, Larse, to create a loose, mellow mix of "Hallelujah Anyway."  The German DJ says, "I'm a fan of Candi Staton and Frankie Knuckles for a long time - it's kind of unreal to be named with those legends. With my mix I tried to built it all around Ms, Staton's Voice which is incredible, unique and gorgeous. I used to listen to the a cappella file 1634 times and it gets me goose bumps every single time!" The Larse Vocal mix has topped two of the most respected DJ surveys, Beatport's Deep House chart and Traxsource's Top 100 chart.
 
Frankie Knuckles and Staton have history. He produced Jamie Principle's "Your Love" that served as the musical foundation for DJ Eren Abdullah bootleg mix of "You Got the Love" that reached #4 on the British pop chart in 1991. Later, Staton recorded Knuckles' 1995 classic "Whadda U Want" for her 1999 dance CD, "Outside In." Now, Knuckles has put his stamp on the high-energy mix of "Hallelujah." DJ Pete Tong of BBC Radio 1 says that the mixes are, "Already turning into a real end of the night anthem in Ibiza."
 
"Candi Staton's distinctive voice and her positive lyrical messages have frequently punctuated my time in the music industry," says Defected Records co-founder, Simon Dunmore. "I have bought, played, collected, sung & danced my ass off to many of her recordings. Defected is truly proud to be associated with an artist that has positively impacted discerning music lovers & DJ's spanning several generations. Candi Staton absolutely deserves her legendary status."
 
"I'm so blessed that my music is jumping across generations," Staton says. "It seems
like I always have some new or old song out every few years that just connects me with a new audience and a new age group and I couldn't be happier that Defected has pushed Hallelujah Anyway to the top.  I'm so honored to be with Defected and I'm so thrilled at how they are promoting and placing this record and giving me another dance hit after so many years. I'm simply overjoyed and hope and pray that the song continues to resonate with the dance world." The "Hallelujah Anyway" remixes are available on iTunes, Amazon mp3, Beatport.com, Traxsource.com and dozens of other online music portals.
 
TAKE A LISTEN:
 
http://soundcloud.com/defectedrecords/candi-staton-hallelujah (Larse Vocal Mix)
 
http://soundcloud.com/defectedrecords/candi-staton-hallelujah-anyway (Frankie Knuckles & Eric Kupper Mix)