Gwen Guthrie – It Should Have Been You

Absolutely faultless, deep NYC electro funk disco at its best and what a line up Gwen, Larry, Sly, Robbie etc...tunes like this only come about once a decade and this is one of them. Buy on sight as people don't let tunes like this go.

how do you classify it as a "garage house"?
there was no House music in 1982, not even in the USA

A quintessential Guthrie track, and one of Larry's best mixes. Does not get any better than this.
Go for this promo 12" though as it has the instrumental mix as well.

A quintessential Guthrie track, and one of Larry's best mixes. Does not get any better than this.
Go for the promo 12" though as it has the instrumental mix as well.

The B-side chorus has been ripped "getting ready, getting ready for the best time in your life..." can't for the life of me though... Some 90's ravey chart track I think

For those interested, 2 parts from this UK 12" version of "It Should Have Been You" are missing on the album version : one around 2:45 and the other one around 3:30, timings given for the album version.

Total time of album version : around 4:20
Total time of UK 12" version : around 4:50

It says "Taken from the forthcoming album "Gwen Guthrie"" but the version of "It Should Have Been You" on this 12" is different from the version on the LP https://www.discogs.sitioby.com/Gwen-Guthrie-Gwen-Guthrie/master/112894 .

Sly & Robbie are absolutely on fire for both of these tracks. Gwen Guthrie's voice is amazingly beautiful and Larry Levan's mix is perfect. Both songs are dancefloor sure shots that sometimes bring a tear to this punk rockers eye. Especially after a few lagers with whiskey sidecars. Classic.

Yeah, I am gonna have to reiterate the previous reviewer's comments; this track is one of the great Levan mixes, just everything about it is perfect. It just flows on and on and you don't even really think about any part of the music; it just all rolls over you in one big wave of pleasure. I am, sadly, only recently acquanited with this track but, again in parallel to the above reviewer, have been listening to it continually, it's just that good. Big love and RIP Levan and Guthrie, two bright stars of the Garage.

There really are very few "Classics" that I love SO MUCH, that I will literally NEVER tire of them. OK, I do ask that you not play this for me more than once or twice in one evening, but otherwise, this song is so perfect that every time I hear it I notice something new about how well it was produced and mixed and performed. There are only a few songs that make me feel so good that I get goose bumps. I kid thee not...I'm in my hot, sweaty, un-air conditioned apartment, listening to this for the second time in a row, having decided that it's now or never if I'm ever going to review this. I get goosebumps about halfway through this on the strength of the lyrics and raw, heartfelt emotion that Gwen conveys. Larry Levan did one of the most timelessly classical, un-touchable and perfect jobs of his entire career on this. Yes, he did a LOT of perfect mix and remix jobs, and this is one of them. The judicious use of repetition...a synth sound that has never existed before and never will again...Sly and Robbie out-did themselves too! 6 minutes into the song, toward the end, there's that magical, otherworldly synth sound again, totally anchored by a killer bass-line and real drumming..."I've been searching such a long time...true Love's so hard TO find...been searching such a long time...true Love's so hard TO find...." God took Gwen Guthrie AND Larry Levan away from us way too soon, but those two geniuses and their production team give us the gift of eternal life so to speak: as long as I'm alive, I'll always get goosebumps listening to this.