The Another Chance star does Journey at karaoke and gets the party started with Daft Punk. But which Stevie Wonder track would he like played at his funeral?
The first song I fell in love with
I grew up in New York City, so the emergence of hip-hop really connected with me when I was a kid. Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang started me down the road where I am today.
The first single I bought
Let No Man Put Asunder by First Choice, on 12-inch vinyl from Rock and Soul in New York City, with money I’d saved from working part-time at the grocery store.
The song I do at karaokeDon’t Stop Believin’ by Journey reminds me of the melting pot of growing up in the 80s. It’s such a singalong, and gets everybody’s hands in the air.
The song I inexplicably know every lyric toNow That We’ve Found Love by Third World was one of my favourite tracks to play in my DJ sets back in the day. It’s a great clubby, disco-reggae track, and without realising it I started recording the lyrics in my head.
The song I secretly like but tell everybody I hateMy daughter loved Happy by Pharrell Williams because it’s in Despicable Me 2, so it got glued to my head. Pharrell is an amazing writer. It’s such a cleverly written song: exceedingly sticky and annoying but, because of that, I love it.
The song that changed my lifeI Won’t Hold You Back by Toto, which I sampled for Another Chance. I heard that Steve Lukather from Toto was performing around the time Another Chance had gone to No 1 in the UK, and said: “Here’s a record that some DJ turned into a No 1 and made us a lot of money. I can’t stand it, but here’s the original version.” He got 90% of the publishing rights, so he can’t have been that mad!
The song that gets me up in the morningGo Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac is such a motivational, get-me-up-in-the-morning song, even though it’s supposed to be a breakup song.
The best song to have sex toI have actually tried my own music without realising. It just came up in a playlist. One of the darker tribal ones like My Roots would work best.
The song that makes me cryPearls by Sade is so emotionally evocative and poignant, yet creates such a visual of what the person is going through. It makes me cry because it’s such a sad story, but at the same time there’s hope.