| "Ten Percent" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single byDouble Exposure | ||||
| from the albumTen Percent | ||||
| Released | May 1976 (1976-05) | |||
| Length | 6:51(album version) 9:42(12" version) 3:05(7" version) | |||
| Label | Salsoul Records | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Allan Felder, T.G. Conway | |||
| Producer(s) | Norman Harris[1] | |||
| Double Exposure singles chronology | ||||
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"Ten Percent" (also written as "Ten Per Cent") is adisco song written byAllan Felder and T.G. Conway and recorded byDouble Exposure. Originally released on the band's 1976 albumof the same name, "Ten Percent" was laterremixed byWalter Gibbons for a single released onSalsoul Records, the label's eighth ever release.[2] Gibbons's remix of "Ten Percent" was the first commercially available12-inch single.[3][4]
The12-inch single was reserved forDJs until the release of "Ten Percent."Disco had already begun to exploit the12-inch's allowance for higher volumes, better sound quality, and longer playing time, but no record companies had previously seen commercial value in the new format.[5]
Ken Cayre, the head ofSalsoul Records, decided to sign a number of famous musicians and bands to the label, hoping to "consolidate the success of the facelessSalsoul Orchestra", andDouble Exposure was chosen as the newly signed band whose first release, "Ten Percent," would feature the orchestra and be promoted with a 12-inch single as well as the typicalseven-inch format.[5] Walter Gibbons was a DJ, not a producer, but his innovative skills, along with his punctuality and serious nature, got Gibbons the "Ten Percent" assignment atSalsoul Records. One of his original techniques was "taking two records and working them back and forth in order to extend the drum breaks," a technique he applied to the "Ten Percent" mix, which displeased the original songwriter, Allan Felder, but which was supported by Salsoul in the front-page story in whichBillboard magazine covered the release.[5] It was "mostly an exercise in stretching the original track out,"[6] and Gibbons transformed it from a "four-minute song into a nine-minute-forty-five-second-cut-and-paste roller coaster."[5]
When Gibbons first played the "Ten Percent" 12" remix at Galaxy 21, where he was a regular DJ. One witness said, "It sounded so new, going backwards and forwards. It built and built like it would never stop. The dance floor just exploded."[5][7]
| Chart (1976) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| USR&B Singles[8] | 63 |
| USBillboard Hot 100 | 54 |
| USHot Dance Club Play Singles[9] | 2[10] |
"Ten Percent" was a "dancefloor stormer that radically changed the disco underground in terms of record production."[2] The release "signalled the rise of remixers",[11] and the rise of the DJ.