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John Benitez a.k.a. "Jellybean Benitez" born March 10, 1959 in New York City, is noted DJ mixer, remixer and music producer of Puerto Rican descent who is also known for producing the first "hit" and for his romance with pop singer Madonna.
Benitez's mother imigrated from Puerto Rico in the early 1950s. She settled in the South Bronx section of New York, which is largely populated by Puerto Ricans. She had and raised three children as a single mother, Benitez being the second child. As a child he enjoyed listening to music. He played records in his sisters record player (turntable) and entertained his friends. Benitez discovered that the moods of his friends would vary according to the type of music he played. His sister nicknamed him jellybeans because he was always eating that type of candy. Benitez attended De Witt Clinton and John F. Kennedy High Schools but, he dropped out.
He moved to Manhattan into his older brothers apartment and in 1975 happened to enter a nightclub in which he saw, a Professional Discotique DJ mixing two songs together, for the first time in his life. Benitez decided that he wanted to do the same and soon worked as such in a nightclub called Experiment 4. In 1980, Benitez enrolled and attended The Bronx Community College, where he studied Marketing and Sales Promo.
Benitez was soon solicitated in other clubs and worked for Electric Circus and Studio 54. However, in 1981 he was hired as the resident DJ of the club Funhouse. Benitez also hosted a weekend dance radio show at "WKTU".
Benitez started to remix singles, such as Jimmy Spencer's "The Bubble Bunch"; The Rockers "Walking on Sunshine" and Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock". Stephen Gray of the group Breakfast Club went to Benitez for a remix. Madonna met Benitez through Gray and soon was romantically involved with him. Benitez remixed Madonna's "Everybody", "Physical Attraction", "Borderline", "Lucky Star" and "Holiday", her "first" radio hit, which he also produced. Their affair lasted two years.
Benitez also remixed songs for such artist as La India, Whitney Houston, Joselyn Brown, Patti Austin, James Ingram, Hall & Oates, Billy Joel, Pointer Sisters, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney.
Among the motion picture sound tracks which he created and mixed tunes for are "Back to the Future", "Top Gun", "Flashdance" and "Footloose".
In 1987, Benitez produced and released the album "Just Visiting the Planet". Three of the songs "Who found who", "The Real Thing" and "Jings" made it to the #1 hit spot on the Billboard Charts. In 1988, Benitez released "Jellybean Rocks the House" and in 1991, "Spillín the Beans".
Currently, Benitez owns Jellybean Productions, JB Recording and JB Publishing. In 1995, he founded H.O.L.A. (House Of Latin Artists) Recording which developes hip hop and R & B music by bilingual artist and releases the recordings in both English and Spanish.
Selected Credits
- Flashdance, Irene Cara
- Sidewalk Talk, Jellybean feat. Catherine Buchanan and Madonna (singer)
- Holiday, Madonna (singer)
- Crazy For You, Madonna (singer)
- Gambler, Madonna (singer)
- Feel The Spin, Debbie Harry
- Love Will Save The Day, Whitney Houston
- What's It Gonna Be, Jellybean featuring Niki Haris
See also
External Link Official Jellybean Web Site (http://www.jellybean-recordings.com/) |
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