I’m well aware of the fact that I haven’t been to the gym in a while, but this week’s theme sent me searching for one of my workout mixes in iTunes only to discover that I’d deleted them. All of them. Talk about giving up. I’ll get back in there one day, I’m sure…

Anyway, my favorite song to workout to is Twista’s “Overnight Celebrity” (it’s my ‘stripper song’) but that came out in 2004 and is not at all old school. Instead I’ll turn to my favorite sample original/sampling song pairing: 1980′s “Far Beyond,” by Locksmith and 1999′s “Red Alert,” by Bassment Jaxx.

Locksmith is the band that used to play with Grover Washington Jr. in the late 1970′s. The non-video is boring, but the bass-line and call and response vocals replete with old school colloquialisms puts such a pep in my step!

I got into electronica/dance in the late 1990′s and I’ve been an undercover piece of Eurotrash ever since. One of my favorite groups is still Basement Jaxx, a British duo whose first album, Remedy, made my junior of college easier to tolerate. You probably remember “Red Alert” from a much-played Coca-Cola commercial, which probably means that it brings back cheesy memories for most people. I love it anyway and it’s great for stepping up a level on the elliptical. Not that I do that much or anything.