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âYou know, the story of every top 10 hit is weird,â says John Smith, half of Portland husband-and-wife duo Nu Shooz. He would know.
Thirty-five years ago this spring, his bandâs plastic disco thumper âI Canât Waitâ topped the
Billboard dance charts.
In 1985, Bay Area label Hot Trax scooped up âI Canât Waitââa regional hit that launched Nu Shooz to the top of Portlandâs vibrant downtown sceneâto include on a DJ subscription record. Not much later, Dutch music execs stumbled on that LP in a bargain bin and tapped producer Peter Slaughuis to remix âI Canât Wait.â He swapped the originalâs delicate funk for thick robo-synths, and voilà : a smash was born. The song exploded in New York and, by spring 1986, had set the charts on fire and landed Nu Shooz a singles deal with Atlantic Records.