Mark Summers is the English

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

, sound engineer and music producer of Scorccio, a music production company founded in the UK in 1996. A London DJ since 1979, he is a guest lecturer and masterclass presenter on sample replay production, sound engineering, DJ culture, sampling and the music industry. His productions have been featured on hits for Nicki Minaj,

Diplo Thomas Wesley Pentz (born November 10, 1978), known professionally as Diplo, is an American DJ and music producer. He is the co-creator and lead member of the electronic dancehall music project Major Lazer, a member of the supergroup LSD with ...

, Sam Smith,

the Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboard player and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured dancer and singer Keith Flint and dancer and occasional l ...

Pitbull Pit bull is a term used in the United States for a type of dog descended from bulldogs and terriers, while in other countries such as the United Kingdom the term is used as an abbreviation of the American Pit Bull Terrier breed. The term was f ...

Fatboy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known by his stage name Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ, and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist f ...

, David Penn, Jess Glynne, Disclosure,

Steve Aoki Steven Hiroyuki Aoki (, ; born November 30, 1977), best known as Steve Aoki, is an American DJ, record producer, music programmer, and record executive.

, CamelPhat, Swedish House Mafia, the Shapeshifters and many other notable music artists. He is related to Herbie Flowers, one of the UK's best-known session bass players ( David Bowie,

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

, T-Rex,

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

First recordings

Starting his musical career as a London club DJ at the age of 15 (playing

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

/ soul/

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

/ electro until a transition to

house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...

in 1986), Summers became a UK recording artist and studio engineer in 1989 with his involvement on the underground

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

track "Meltdown" by Quartz. Following a dispute over ownership and royalties of "Meltdown" between Summers and the other two Quartz members, Summers decided to release his own first solo work "Melt Your Body" - which was moderately based upon "Meltdown", made in retaliation by Summers after the dispute. By January 1990, "Melt Your Body" had outsold "Meltdown" by 3:1, it entered the UK top 100 sales chart, and in recognition of this, Summers was firmly established as a promising new UK dance music producer. Due to big responses from playing his own tracks whilst DJing, Summers signed a two-single deal with

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...

' offshoot urban dance label

4th & Broadway 4th & B'way Records (pronounced and spelled out completely as Fourth and Broadway Records in the UK) is a US-based subsidiary of Island Records that specialised in street-oriented music such as hip hop. Established in 1984, it was the flagsh ...

, in May 1990. The first single "Party Children" just missed the UK top 75,Mark Summers
at OfficialCharts.com whereas the second single "Summers Magic" climbed up the UK chart to peak at number 27, in January 1991. "Summers Magic" gained instant recognition as the first ever dance track to heavily feature a sample of music from a children's TV theme tune, in this case the BBC's '' The Magic Roundabout''. The hardcore/breakbeat/techno-driven kids' TV sampling phenomenon of "Summers Magic" seemingly provided inspiration for many other artists, including

(also from East London/Essex), with their first single " Charly". Before entering the UK national charts, some rave followers believed "Charly" was possibly the work of Mark Summers and his follow-up to "Summers Magic". The Prodigy's track eventually charted in July 1991, almost 7 months following the ground-breaking "Summers Magic". This style of breakbeat hardcore came to be known as " toytown techno". "Summers Magic" was later to appear in the opening of the 2013 comedy film ''The World's End'' (starring Simon Pegg), although it does not appear on the soundtrack album. During 1991-93, Summers produced and remixed tracks mainly in the musical styles first labelled as " hardcore" and " jungle", which later morphed itself into the breakbeat-driven music genre now commonly known as "

drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

Artist productions

Moving on from "rave" and revisiting his preferred style of house music, Summers released six singles on the Hoochie Coochie label (1993–96) with fellow DJs Ben Howard and Dave Malone. During this time, he was hired as a sound engineer to work in the studios of Air Lyndhurst/Chrysalis Music (now Air Studios), co-owned by

Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developme ...

producer Sir George Martin. Summers became the head studio producer within less than 3 months. He went on to produce and remix Chrysalis Music artists, and also for the offshoot dance label Tuch Wood/Tuchwood Records, co-owned by DJ-producer Dave Lee (a.k.a. Joey Negro). By the end of 1995, Summers had gained an immense sound production status to add to his post-DJ and dance artist qualifications, including recording and production work with notable artists such as

Malcolm McLaren Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English impresario, visual artist, singer, songwriter, musician, clothes designer and boutique owner, notable for combining these activities in an inventive and provoc ...

, Mica Paris,

Jocelyn Brown Jocelyn Lorette Brown (born November 25, 1950), sometimes credited as Jocelyn Shaw, is an American R&B and dance singer. Although she has only one ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart entry solely in her name, she has an extensive background in the musi ...

Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic music, electronic styles such as techno, ambient music, ambient, and jun ...

Ashley Beedle Ashley Beedle (born November 25, 1962, in Hemel Hempstead, England) is a British house music DJ and producer. He was a member of the groups Black Science Orchestra and X-Press 2 in addition to releasing material under his own name. Career Bee ...

, X-Press 2, Gabrielle and

Kylie Minogue Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She is the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time, having sold over 80 million records worldwide. She has been recognised for reinve ...

, amongst many others. Summers worked within various (mainly dance) music styles and genres, from R&B to house, trance to drum and bass and even pop and rock, using his extensive DJ experience as the basis for his knowledge and technical skills acquired from Air Studios in different types of music production.

Scorccio Records

Fully inspired by 1970s disco, '80s hip hop and '90s house music, in 1996 Mark Summers launched his own label, Scorccio Records (pronounced "scor-chee-oh"), with releases that combined elements of those three music genres from the past three decades. The first release was the disco rapped "Inferno" - under Mark's pseudonym Souvlaki. "Inferno" reached top 20 in the UK national chart via the

PolyGram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

offshoot label Wonderboy (coincidentally, it was also their first single release), and "Inferno" also appeared on the 1.5 million-selling

Ministry of Sound Ministry of Sound or Ministry of Sound Group is a multimedia entertainment business based in London with a nightclub, shared workspace and private members' club, worldwide events operation, music publishing business and fitness studio. James ...

''Annual 2'' album mixed by Boy George, becoming a worldwide hit via international licensing. Using the label credit of "Scorccio Remix", the mixing skills and popularity of the "fired-up sound" Mark Summers produced instantly pushed

JT Playaz JT Playaz are a European neo-disco group, produced by Giles Goodman and Mark Summers (Scorccio). They recorded a UK number 30 hit single, "Just Playin'" (1997), and were subsequently featured on many compilations including Dancemania's sixth ...

to a UK number 1 dance chart position with "Just Playin", and the follow-up "Let's Get Down". Major label remix work followed, including remixes for Perfecto, Warner Brothers, EMI, Telstar and

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a t ...

. Success from the release of over 40 Scorccio tracks and remixes on various dance compilations and singles created a huge fan base for Scorccio, most notably in Japan. Key to success was Mark Summers using up to 10 different pseudonyms for his artist name, one of the most popular and often used being Ultimate Heights.

Sony PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

and Konami have tracks and remixes by Scorccio featured on their popular '' Dance Dance Revolution'' (DDR) console and arcade series of music video games. '' Dance Dance Revolution Extreme'' featuring "Highs Off U" by 4 REEEL (produced and mixed by Summers), was the winner of the Video Music Awards in 2005 on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

for * Best Video Game Soundtrack.

Scorccio Sample Replay Productions

The Scorccio release of "Inferno" in July 1996 originally featured a sample of Dan Hartman's "Relight My Fire", which Summers was told by PolyGram (prior to their release) that the sample either had to be replayed, or that he should pay for the master sample clearance ($15,000 USD). Avoiding financial loss, Summers decided to replay the sample, the first time he had ever undertaken such a challenge. Summers was determined to make the sample replay as close sounding as possible, and upon first hearing the replayed version PolyGram/Wonderboy believed Summers had simply re-EQ'd the original sample, until he played them all the separate stem parts to prove it had been fully recreated (including a 4 piece string section overdubbed numerous times). Since then, every Scorccio-related release has had replayed and/or revocalled samples. Quickly establishing the world's first ever 'sample replay' service, in 1996 Mark Summers took his venture into the next stage by working for a large number of major and independent music labels, DJs, producers and recording artists.

Defected In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

Positiva Positiva Records is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group and concentrates on releasing dance music in the UK. The record label was set up in 1993, by Nick Halkes, who previously ran XL Recordings. Its headquarters are at the Universal UK ...

, Universal, Virgin,

Sony-BMG Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout ...

(amongst others), soon became regular clients of Scorccio sample replays. In 2004, Positiva released "

Lola's Theme "Lola's Theme" is the debut single of British house duo the Shapeshifters, featuring soul singer Cookie on vocals. It was released on 12 July 2004 as the lead single from the Shapeshifters' debut album, ''Sound Advice'' (2004). The song became ...

" by the Shapeshifters, which featured a Scorccio replay of Johnnie Taylor's "What About My Love". The song went from being hugely popular in clubs to gaining a No. 1 national chart position in the UK, Italy and Germany, followed by a No. 1 spot on the U.S. Hot Airplay Charts. The following year (2005) saw Michael Gray's " The Weekend" reach No. 7 in the UK and No. 1 in Italy, featuring distinctive keyboard riffs played by Summers (initially based upon a re-edited 1980s electro track). Other notable replays have included: "People Hold On", "Blue Monday", "Love to Love You Baby", "Love Sensation", and "One More Time". In 2009, Summers replayed "Street Player" (originally by Chicago) for the U.S. ''Billboard'' No. 2 hit " I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)" by

. The Scorccio replay of "Street Player" has since become the most successful usage of any sample replay in history, due to the number of sales and media plays of the Pitbull song worldwide. With over 400 million hits to date on YouTube, the song is now ranked as the third most viewed electronic dance music video in history. Another successful sample recreation in September 2010 was produced by Summers for the U.S. Hot Dance 100 No. 1 artist Duck Sauce, with " Barbra Streisand" featuring a Scorccio sample replay of the 1979 Boney M song "

Gotta Go Home "El Lute"/"Gotta Go Home" is a 1979 double A-side single by German group Boney M. It was the lead single from their fourth album ''Oceans of Fantasy'' (1979) and was the group's eighth and final number-one single in the German charts. In the UK, ...

". The song reached No. 1 in dance charts worldwide. Summers replayed four samples on the album '' The Day Is My Enemy'' by English electronic music group

, two decades after both Summers and the Prodigy had first appeared on the UK rave scene. The album was released on 30 March 2015 and immediately charted at number one in the UK, officially certified by the BPI with a gold disc for sales in excess of 200,000 copies. It was released by Three Six Zero Music/ Warner Bros. Records in the United States. "One Last Song" from the album '' The Thrill of It All'' by English singer Sam Smith features Mark Summers' recreation of "Be a Lion" on the intro and throughout "One Last Song". The original recording is a track from '' The Wiz'' (1978), produced by Quincy Jones and featuring the vocals of both

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups o ...

and Michael Jackson. Summers was guest speaker on panel discussions at the New Music Seminar in New York, June 2015. By October 2022, Summers had produced over 4,000 sample replays for Scorccio. During the previous years, 4 tracks featuring his production works had reached number 1 on Beatport's Top 100 chart;

's "

Praise You "Praise You" is a song by British big beat musician Fatboy Slim. It was released as the third single from his second studio album, ''You've Come a Long Way, Baby'' (1998), on 4 January 1999. It reached number one on the UK Singles Chart and in ...

" (Purple Disco Machine Remix), Roberto Surace's " Joys", Matt Sassari's "Put a Record On" and Martin Ikin's "Hooked". His replay production of vocals and instrumentation from Rick James's 1981 single " Super Freak" featured on Nicki Minaj's " Super Freaky Girl" debuted at number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, number 1 on US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and number 1 on UK Hip Hop/R&B (OCC) during August/September, 2022. Due to his vast number of successful productions spanning over 25 years, Mark Summers is now widely recognised by the music industry as one of the most prolific and most important contributors to dance music throughout the world.

Discography

Albums

*2000: ''Number One'' - Billie Godfrey (JVC, Japan) *2001: ''Scorccio Super Hit Mix'' (Toshiba-EMI, Japan) *2003: ''Exotica - Chill-Out Paradise Vol. 1'' (Scorccio) *2008: ''Dreamy'' - Dreemtime (Dreemtime)

Singles

*1989: "Melt Your Body" - Mark Summers : (SMR / Hillbilly House, U.S.) *1990: "Party Children / Wicked in Mombassa" - Mark Summers : (4th & Broadway) *1990: "Bass / Confused About?" - Next Century : (Next Century) *1990: "The Force" - 50K : (white label) *1991: "Summers Magic" / "5p Like A Micro" - Mark Summers : (4th & Broadway) *1991: "Don't Cha Know" - Niteflyte : (Desire) *1993: ''Overdubb EP'' - Unit-E : (Contagious) *1993: "Eruption / Ruffplate" - Overdubb : (Impact) *1993: "Take Control" - Interface : (Tuch Wood Records TUCW008) ** A Wood Side 1. ''Take Control (Summers/Kris)'' ** A Wood Side 2. ''Take Control (Of the Radio)'' (Summers/Kris) ** B Tuch Side 1. ''Keep It Comin' (Summers/Flippa)'' ** B Tuch Side 2. ''Questions'' (Summers) *** B2 features soundbyte samples from '' Blade Runners Roy: "Yes... Questions" ** Published by Chrysalis Music, produced by Mark Summers *1994: "Keep It Coming" - Interface : (Tuch Wood) *1994: "CityBeats (Bassline Kickin')" - Hoochie Coochie : (Hoochie Coochie) *1995: "Make It Right" - Interface : (Slamm) *1995: "CityBeats (Bassline Kickin') Remixes" - Hoochie Coochie : (Hoochie Coochie) *1995: "Gonna Get Over" - Hoochie Coochie : (Hoochie Coochie) *1996: "Make You Move" - Eastbase Boogie Boys : (Hoochie Coochie) *1996: "The Business of Booginess" - Disco FX 1 : (Hoochie Coochie) *1996: "Inferno" - Souvlaki : (Polygram/Wonderboy) *1996: "Just Playin" - JT Playaz : (Telstar) *1997: "Friction" - Kornholio : (Scorccio) *1997: "Let's Get Down" - JT Playaz : (Telstar) *1997: "ADP Groove / Ultra Vibe" - Cappuccino / Kornholio : (Scorccio) *1998: "Disco High" - Ultimate Heights : (Scorccio) *1998: "My Time" - Souvlaki : (Polygram/Wonderboy) *1998: "Sunshine Day" - Freakkout : (Scorccio) *1998: "Total Recall" - Ultimate Heights : (Scorccio) *1998: "Go Round Again" - Starbeat 2000 : (Scorccio) *1998: "Fired Up Sound" - Ultimate Heights : (Scorccio) *1999: "Retro Fire" - Maxx 'N Cala : (Scorccio) *1999: "The Source" - Scorccio : (Scorccio) *1999: "Alright 2 Nite"- Ultimate Heights : (Scorccio) *1999: "Good Times" - Mighty High : (Rosenburg) *2000: "Highs Off U" - 4 Reeel : (Scorccio) *2000: "Drop the Vibe" - Ultimate Heights : (Scorccio) *2001: "Pump the Rhythm" - Ultimate Heights : (Scorccio) *2002: "Everybody 2 the Sun" - Ultimate Heights : (Scorccio) *2002: "U Feel It" - 4 Reeel : (Scorccio) *2002: "Jibaro" - ENV : (Scorccio) *2003: "What What" - High Five Kings : (Mash Up Recs) *2003: "Tonight" - High Five Kings : (Mash Up Recs) *2004: "On Fire" - 4 Reeel : (Scorccio) *2009: "

Hella Good "Hella Good" is a song by American rock band No Doubt from their fifth studio album, ''Rock Steady'' (2001). Written by Gwen Stefani, Tony Kanal and the Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo), and produced by Nellee Hooper and the band, "Hel ...

" - Scorccio : (Gallo Recs)

Remixes

*1989: "Meltdown" - Quartz : (ITM) *1991: "Feel the Music (x3 Mixes)" - Control : (CM) *1992: "Protein (Hardcore Innovator Remix)" - Sonic Experience 3: (Strictly Underground) *1992: "Classical in Motion" - Excel D : (Brainiak) *1993: "Here Again" - DGP : (Tuch Wood) *1993: "Whenever I Dream" - Twang Dynasty : (Tuch Wood) *1994: "Together We Can Learn" - Awa : (Tuch Wood) *1994: "Hacker / Auraya" - Repo : (Tuch Wood) *1995: "Generation X" - Kooky Ballerina : (Slamm) *1996: "Movin' Up Movin' On" - Mozaic : (Perfecto) *1997: "No Stoppin'" - Big Band Experience : (Telstar) *1997: "Summerlove" - S-Connection : (Happy One, France) *1998: "Gonna Make Ya Move (Don't Stop)" - Pink : (Activ) *1998: "That's the Way" - X-Treme : (EMI. Italy) *1998: "On the Run" - Known Felons : (Playola) *1998: "We Come to Party" - N-Tyce : (Telstar) *1998: "Lift Me Up" - Jamestown : (Playola) *1999: "Everybody Dance" - X-Rated : (Scorccio) *1999: "I Believe" - Jamestown feat Jocelyn Brown : (Playola) *1999: "Treat Me Right" - TJ Flayerz : (Playola) *2000: "Love Sensation" - Loleatta Holloway : (Toshiba-EMI, Japan) *2000: "The Break" - Skybox : (Rosenburg) *2000: "Transambient" - Galaxy Beyond : (Addictive TV) *2001: "It Only Takes a Minute" - Tavares : (Toshiba-EMI, Japan) *2002: "As Long As I Got U" - Unknown : (Z Records) *2002: "Living on a Love" - WTP : (Scorccio) *2003: "Rhythm Is a Dancer" - Snap : (Ministry of Sound, Germany)

Video games

Scorccio has two songs which appear in the '' Dance Dance Revolution'' arcade series. In addition, the song "Total Recall" was to be included in ''Dance Dance Revolution 3rdMix Plus'', but the song never appeared in the series. It is available in ''beatmania 5thMix'' and newer, and in ''beatmania III'', but not in ''beatmania IIDX''.

References

External links

Mark Summers Discography at Discogs.com

SCORCCiO Sample Replays website
* https://www.facebook.com/LiftoffRecordings/videos/346466883870141/ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6079780/bio {{DEFAULTSORT:Summers, Mark Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) Living people DJs from London English house musicians English audio engineers English record producers Remixers Electronic dance music DJs Musicians from London