"Whitney Joins the JAMs" is a song and 1987 single by the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs). The song, released on the JAMs' independent label KLF Communications, is built around plagiarised samples of Whitney Houston in which—thanks to studio technology—she "joins the JAMs".
"Whitney Joins the JAMs" was given a low-key, uncommercial release in the UK, as a one-sided 12" in a generic monochrome KLF Communications sleeve. The single did not enter the UK Singles Chart.
Background
Early in 1987, Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty formed the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (the JAMs), grafting plagiarised samples from the history of popular music with beatbox rhythms and Drummond's often political raps. The JAMs' small-budget debut single "All You Need Is Love" and album 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?) both attracted the attentions of the UK music press, who praised The JAMs' innovation and social commentary, and the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society, who demanded the immediate withdrawal and destruction of all copies of 1987 in response to an objection from ABBA.
Despite the potential legal and financial risks that their composition methods entailed, the JAMs next created "Whitney Joins the JAMs", a house mash-up built around samples of Whitney Houston, Isaac Hayes, Lalo Schifrin's Mission: Impossible theme tune, and (according to later sleevenotes) Westworld. The lyrical theme of the piece is the satirical false premise that Whitney Houston had been begged and persuaded to collaborate with the JAMs; Drummond's jubilant lyrics suggest that extensive sampling of Houston's 1987 #1 single "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" is evidence of Houston's dedication to the project.
According to Drummond, the JAMs had originally planned to produce a house record around Isaac Hayes' "Theme from Shaft". However:
Release
"Whitney Joins the JAMs" was given a low-key release in the UK, initially as a run of 500 one-sided 12-inch singles in generic monochrome KLF Communications sleeves. The vinyl labels contained only the title and "120 bpm". Two repressings followed in 1987, both having a test tone groove B-side, with copies supplied in either a generic KLF Communications sleeve or a plain black sleeve. The single did not enter the UK Singles Chart, but it reached #3 on the UK Independent Chart, prompting the UK television programme The Chart Show to request a music video. The JAMs obliged, hiring a video camera and getting a friend to film them driving to The Chart Show studio in Cauty's repainted Ford Galaxie American police car. According to Drummond, "When we got there, we took out the cassette, handed it in at the gate and said 'that's your video'! The next day it was on national TV. It cost us £19.96." The video was remembered in 1991 by NME, who thought that the KLF's VHS compilation The Stadium House Trilogy would have benefitted from the inclusion of the "pre-megastardom" video. The song features on neither of the JAMs' studio albums, but is included on the duo's 1988 compilation and remix album Shag Times, where co-authorship credit is given to composers of works sampled in the track. Shag Times also contains an instrumental remix of the song, credited to the KLF.
Composition
The upbeat and apolitical tone of "Whitney Joins the JAMs" was similarly accented by Drummond and Cauty's subsequent work as the Timelords and the KLF. The song's self-referential nature—in this case concerning its own production—is also typical of much of the duo's output. The 7-minute song is progressive, funky house, and an early example of a mash-up. It opens with quiet synthesiser drones and cymbal percussion which are soon joined by the markedly louder Mission: Impossible theme. Drummond says "'Mission impossible' we were told, she'll never join the JAMs", a point answered by power chords sampled from Whitney's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody". Drummond then begs and pleads to Whitney for around ninety seconds before the first strains of her voice can be heard. Drummond sounds ecstatic, proclaiming "Whitney Houston joins the JAMs!" and "I'm yours!".
The song develops to sample full sections of Houston's chorus, alternating these with increasingly pronounced guitar work taken from Hayes' distinctive Shaft theme and portions of the Mission: Impossible theme complemented by piano work. Ultimately the track descends into an unrhythmic cacophony of samples.