Jellybean

John Benitez entered the world in the South Bronx in 1959 and quickly emerged as one of the leading remixers and studio craftsmen of the post-disco 1980s, shaping records for numerous chart stars of the era. He began amassing records in his youth; after stepping into the nearby Sanctuary club in the mid-1970s, he became fully absorbed by the rising disco movement and soon ranked among its strongest DJs while also experimenting with production on his own reel-to-reel recorder. Sets at Experiment 4 and Xenon led to regular appearances at such high-profile rooms as Studio 54 and the Electric Circus. When the 1980s arrived and disco faded, he kept working the turntables through a long-running residency at Manhattan’s Fun House that started in 1981 and by hosting a dance program on New York’s WKTU.

His remix and production output intensified sharply in 1981-82 as he reworked key tracks by Rockers Revenge, the Jimmy Spicer Bunch and Afrika Bambaataa; two of his 1983 contributions to the Flashdance soundtrack, “Flashdance” and “Maniac,” then scored major hits. Madonna, already a club regular who valued both his DJ skills and production sense, invited him to write and produce a song for her first album in 1983. The resulting “Holiday” became her initial hit, and she later co-wrote another Top 20 success for him, “Sidewalk Talk,” which appeared on his 1984 EP Wotupski!!?!. On the 1987 album Just Visiting This Planet Benitez again handled most production duties with his name featured on the sleeve; although the guest vocalists were largely unknown, the single “Who Found Who” with Elisa Fiorillo reached the Top 20. His follow-up, 1988’s Jellybean Rocks the House, proved more focused yet yielded no chart singles.

Even while concentrating on his own releases, Benitez devoted much of the late 1980s to remixes and productions for other pop acts including Sting, Whitney Houston, Eurythmics, Debbie Harry, Sheena Easton, Book of Love and Debbie Gibson. After issuing his third album, Spillin’ the Beans, in 1991, he largely kept a low profile through the 1990s while continuing steady remix and production work. In 1995 he launched H.O.L.A. Recordings, a label devoted to Latin-dance projects.