

First released on home-made cassettes in early 1992, it was later pressed on 7" vinyl, and distributed by Eerie Materials in the mid-1990s. These "Whipped Cream Mixes" combined a pair of Public Enemy a cappellas with instrumentals by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. In 1994, the experimental band Evolution Control Committee released the first modern mashup tracks on their hand-made cassette album, Gunderphonic. It reached #4 on the UK charts, and had continued success over subsequent years with several remixes and a cover by Florence + The Machine. In 1991, The Source featuring Candi Staton released " You Got The Love", based on a mashup created by DJ Eren Abdullah that had been an underground club hit since 1989, placing a Candi Staton a cappella over an instrumental version of Frankie Knuckles and Jamie Principle's house classic, " Your Love". The 1990 John Zorn album Naked City features a version of Ornette Coleman's " Lonely Woman" set over the bassline of Roy Orbison's " Pretty Woman". In 1990, Norman Cook reached #1 on the UK charts with his act Beats International with " Dub Be Good To Me", essentially a mashup of re-recorded vocals of The SOS Band's " Just Be Good To Me" with The Clash's " The Guns of Brixton", making it the first mashup to achieve significant mainstream success. It reached #11 in the UK, and the Top 10 in Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands. The song combines elements of " Do It Again", a 1973 Top 10 hit in the US and Canada by Steely Dan, with Michael Jackson's #1 hit from earlier in the year, " Billie Jean". This recording has led some to describe Harry Nilsson as the inventor of the mashup.Īlthough described as a medley in its title, " Do It Again Medley with Billie Jean" by Italian music project Club House could be described as one of the first ever commercially released mashups in 1983. Nilsson conceived the combining of many overlaying songs into one track after he played a chord on his guitar and realized how many Beatles songs it could apply to. Nilsson's recording of "You Can't Do That" mashes his own vocal recreations of more than a dozen Beatles songs into this track.

The 1967 Harry Nilsson album Pandemonium Shadow Show features what is nominally a cover of the Beatles' " You Can't Do That" but actually introduced the "mashup" to studio-recording.
