2 languages
Steve 'Silk' Hurley
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Steve 'Silk' Hurley · Steve Silk Hurley is an American club DJ, house producer and songwriter from Chicago, born in 1962. He studied engineering, but dropped out in 1981 to devote himself entirely to music. In the mid-1980s he became known as a DJ on the Chicago radio station WBMX, on the programme Saturday Night Live Ain't No Jive Dance Party. His mixing style went beyond beatmatching: he also used scratching, beat juggling and backspinning the record, techniques from hip hop.
Music and breakthrough
With the singer Keith Nunnally he made a string of dance club hits as J. M. Silk, of which I Can't Turn Around reached the top of the American dance chart in 1986. That song was a cover of Isaac Hayes, and Hurley's housemate Farley Keith released a version of his own, over which they fell out. In January 1987 Jack Your Body spent two weeks at the top of the British singles chart, the first house hit to reach number 1 there, without having been played on BBC Radio 1 outside the chart programmes. After that he never had another hit under his own name. In 1988 the album Work It Out Compilation was released on Atlantic, and in 1997 he had one more British hit with The Word Is Love by The Voices of Life.
Influence
He is also an important remixer, including for Madonna, Michael Jackson, CeCe Peniston, New Order, Janet Jackson and Inner City, and has been nominated for a Grammy four times. For the history of pop he is above all the man who brought Chicago house to the general public.