#13 David Tavaré, "If You Don't Know My Name (You Can Call Me Baby)"

If you don't know my name
You can call me baby

NOT "Call Me Baby (If You Don't Know My Name)," the remixed heavy beat version released as a single in France (and the version that plays in the music video in most cases, though the one above plays the proper original PG-approved version)--I'm still furious over what they did to this song.

I've been waiting for Spanish singer David Tavaré's debut album since 2006, when he released his debut single, "Summerlove" (a cover of the Underdog Project's "Remember"). He taunted me through 2007 with the release of another great single that further cemented my belief that an album from him would be all party-friendly pop dance with no concern for credibility--i.e., potentially fantastic. "If You Don't Know My Name (You Can Call Me Baby)," taken from that album--finally released in 2008--is an example of David doing that music at its and his best. I'm still convinced that it has to be a case like his "Summerlove" or "Hot Summer Night," where he basically reworked 2 Eivissa's "Oh La La," was because let's face it, the female part of this song is so classic dance song-sounding that for this song to have just suddenly sprung into the world fully formed, Athena-like, out of someone's head seems near impossible.

Whatever its origin, the song is fantastic, with one of those deep but not heavy summer grooves, some repeated nonsense syllables, and David trading vocals off with that female singer. It's all pure class, to be honest, despite the fact that I think of David as king of a certain type of summery half-trashy dance song (his official site opens with a breathy female voice pronouncing "Sex...Glamour...Fashion...Summer...and Love...Welcome to the world of David Tavaré")--a song that really could be and should be a classic. I would love to get lost to it somewhere on the beaches of Spain late one June night. Oddly entrancing, always catchy, and shockingly classy without caring that it is and despite the best efforts of the video, "If You Don't Know My Name" is a Spanish fantasy come to life.

Find it on: La vida viene y va (that's the French edition, but I can't find the album listed in any Spanish stores, and it has the original version of this song on it near the end anyway)