Cerrone opens up Love in C Minor to remixers: 50 years ago the hit ended up in New York by accident instead of Barry White

Cerrone and the label Because Music have announced an open remix contest for Love in C Minor: for the track’s 50th anniversary, its author is handing the original stems to anyone who wants them. Entries are accepted until 19 November, and the top prize is an official release on Because Music across all platforms.

The terms are published on the contest page on LabelRadar.

The stems can be downloaded from the same page. The winners are chosen by Cerrone and the label and will be announced within a month of the closing date. The release of the remix is subject to label approval. The winner also gets a signed vinyl and merchandise, and two runners-up get merchandise.

Three hundred records instead of Barry White

Cerrone told this story to Red Bull Music Academy in 2016. He pressed 5,000 copies in the UK and sold them to Paris record shops with a friend. A shop on the Champs-Élysées where DJs gathered took 10, then 20, 50 and 100 copies. Then the delivery man asked for 300 copies and called two days later: one of his people had made a mistake, and instead of 300 copies of a Barry White album due to go back to a reseller in New York, Cerrone’s record had gone out.

The man in New York opened the boxes and played the record in the club, and people started asking what it was. A month later a friend told Cerrone it was being played “in every club” in the city. He flew to New York and rang the bell of the first record company he could find. It turned out to be Atlantic Records, where he met Ahmet Ertegün, and they signed a contract then and there. According to Cerrone himself, the record sold three million copies. Other accounts differ on the details of the mistake.

Sixteen minutes on one side

The title track takes up the whole first side of the record: 16 minutes and 6 seconds. The album was recorded at Trident Studios in London, with arrangements by Don Ray. On 4 December an anniversary edition comes out on clear apple-green vinyl.

The anniversary is not all Cerrone has going on: at the start of October he released a new single, Hell, with Asa Taccone, the frontman of Electric Guest. On our air Cerrone has been played 42 times in the last 30 days, most often Tattoo Woman in the Jamie Lewis mix.

Another French story of an old tape: how a 1997 mix was found, recorded by Daft Punk.