Andy Kahn, co-writer and producer of the original song, shares the story of Hot Shot...
"I lured DJ Kurt Borusiewicz at 4 AM to my recording studio after he'd just obliterated the dance floor crowd
with his unique artistry. A cigarette in one hand and a cocktail in the other, Kurt listened as I played a rhythm
track to a song I'd already started. With his deadpan face, he said "That's a Hit Record." Together we re-wrote
the lyrics for Karen Young who was performing in Florida. Listening to the cassette with me singing "Hot Shot"
on it, she screamed this was the perfect song for her. We flew her to Philadelphia where it took 36 continuous
hours to create Karen's vocal track on "Hot Shot."* Karen delivered a vocal performance destined to go up onto the mantle of Disco History.
I've been told by many DJs and Disco enthusiasts alike, that there are so many great Disco songs from marvelous performers back in
the day, and then.....there is "Hot Shot!" My humility prevents me from gushing over this, but there's one thing I will say.
There never was a more exciting vocal delivery than the one we received from super-talented Miss Karen Young way back in 1978.
How thrilling it was to get back into the studio with Karen again. Only this time, it was by way of the marvels of technology.
Karen died in 1991, yet here she was wailing at me through the studio monitors, giving me goose-bumps and chills from head-to-toe all
over again. So fresh, so full of energy, so ALIVE! It didn't seem possible that this outstanding vocal track was recorded almost
thirty years before our MaxRoxx team would initiate its rebirth. Hearing Karen's driving vocal, every intonation of which I knew
backwards and forwards, was like listening to her lay it down for the first time. It was breathtaking. Mitch, Jon, Susan and I
sat there speechless, overwhelmed by the sheer wall of sound from Karen's voice filling the control room at Rock Dog Studios.
We began synching her vocals to the first rhythm track we'd created for this project. And there it was. Magic, once again.
"Hot Shot" was new, alive, refreshed, reborn. A voice from the past traveled to the future and took us by the hand, pleading
all the way, "I need a Hot----Shhhhottttt!" Karen Young, this phenomenal singer, with extraordinary talent guided and stood
beside us while we created the arrangements that would bring her performance back onto dance floors and sound systems everywhere.
Karen Young is back, singing enthusiastically her "Hot Shot heard 'round the world!!"
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Karen Young, 1978
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