”BLUE EYES ‘25”
LAST YEAR IN 2024
Last year I produced a remix of a song titled “Just An Illusion” performed by Dutch band BZN from Volendam. You can find the ‘Extended Clubmix’ as well as the ‘Radio Clubmix’ on this website, just go to my profile and scroll through my remixes & mixes. Reason I did the remix “Just An Illusion ‘24” is because it is one of my favourite songs from the band BZN.
THIS YEAR IN 2025
This year (2025) 60 years ago the band BZN was founded. And the record company and band are celebrating this ‘event’ with the release of a ‘Greatest Hits’ album that includes all the singles of BZN that were released over the years.
BZN disbanded back in 2007, so 18 years ago, but was quite successful over the years with thousands of fans. To thank their fans and to celebrate the ‘event’ of being founded 60 years ago this year (and with a little persuasion from the record company, so the story goes 😉) BZN has released a new single titled “Thanks”.
WHY THIS NEW REMIX?
To celebrate the founding of BZN 60 years ago, I decided to produce another remix of one of my all time favourite BZN songs, titled “Blue Eyes”.
There’s a reason why this BZN song appeals to me so much and that’s the ‘oriental’ vibe it has. The music of the song clearly is inspired by the ‘Middle East’ and has an ‘Arabic’ sound achieved by the use of certain instruments and the way they are ‘altered’ in the original version of the song (one can clearly hear it when the song has been ‘taken apart’ in separate pieces).
Furthermore it’s the lyrics that make this song one of my favourites. Listen to the lyrics carefully and hear the romantic meaning of the song.. the two parts of the first verse..
“Well you were a stranger
Asking me out we were walking
You took me away
For many a day
We were talking
A beautiful night
For love at first sight was calling
I looked in your eyes
And I realised
I was falling for you
I know it's just that look in your eyes”
And then the words of the chorus of the song..
“Blue eyes, blue eyes
I'm just aware that I'm falling
Don't leave me here waiting, hear when I say
Blue eyes, don't make me feel blue
Blue eyes, blue eyes”
The second verse clearly makes another reference at the ‘Middle East’ and the ‘oriental’ and ‘Arabic’ influences of the song’s music….
“Here out in the blue
A princess for you is waiting
I know that you're mine
But all of the time my heart's breaking for you
I know it's just that look in your eyes”
They also made Anny Schilder sing several parts of her vocals in different keys, sometimes even three different keys which make, when all put together, the whole song sound even more ‘oriental’. I put the emphasis on it in my ‘Extended Summer Mix’ by having the lyrics of the second verse only accompanied by some percussion and tambourine, ending in an acapella part where Anny sings “I know it’s just that look in your eyes” and you can clearly hear that line is sung in three different keys .. absolutely beautiful..! 💖😍
EXTENDED SUMMER MIX
What I have uploaded first is the ‘Extended Summer Mix’.
I have put the emphasis in my remix on the ‘oriental’ and ‘Arabic’ sound by adding more instrumental parts in the remix. I also added more separate parts from the instruments in a so called ‘break’ which is approx. in the middle of the ‘Extended Summer Mix’.
Furthermore I also made the song sound even more ‘oriental’ and ‘Arabic’ by adding some parts of Anny’s vocals in the ‘break’ of the song, in reverb. By adding some delays, echo and playing with the volume of the reverb vocals, I managed to make those vocals sound ‘oriental’ and ‘Arabic’. It’s a ‘trick’ I picked up from 12 Inch Remixes from the 80s & 90s, when things like this were quite common to do (think of the 12” Version of the 1991 song “Winter In July” performed by Bomb The Bass, in which at some point the vocals of the lead vocalist Loretta Zoe Heywood are reversed to give them that ‘oriental Arabic’ sound & vibe).
The whole ‘accompanying’ part of the song has been newly produced from scratch. So all that’s been used of the original song are the vocals, instruments and bass. And of course there have been made some ‘changes’ here and there to all three parts, so they fit the new remix production. To make the song sound even more ‘oriental’ I added the tambourine and ‘Middle East’ percussion.
The ‘Luciën Vrolijk Extended Summer Mix’ runs at precisely 113 BPM which is just a little bit faster in tempo than the original version of the song which runs at 106,69 BPM.
PS: this remix production has been done without the use of a multitrack of the song, as there simply isn’t one available to the public 🤷🏼♂️
SONGS FROM MY CHILDHOOD & TEENAGE YEARS
I just LOVE doing remixes of songs from my childhood and teenage years! And there will be more remix productions in the (near) future! Some may be of Dutch artists or bands that none-Dutch-listeners won’t know, some will be of well known artists like ABBA of whom I’ve done 3 remix productions already (check my profile on this website!).
My advice always is, go to YouTube and search for the original version of the song I’ve remixed. Then again listen to my remix production and you’ll hear the difference. In most cases I stay very true to the original version of a song, I just update it. And of course produce an ‘Extended Version’ of the song, as there usually never ever was one when the original version of the song was released.
KEEP UP TO DATE
PS: if you automatically want to keep up to date on mixes and remixes by Luciën Vrolijk
(djlucien) you can follow V.E.P. (Vrolijk Entertainment Productions) on Facebook by liking the following Facebookpage:
www.facebook.com/vepnl.nl
Enjoy the music!
Cheers,
Luciën Vrolijk (aka djlucien)
LAST YEAR IN 2024
Last year I produced a remix of a song titled “Just An Illusion” performed by Dutch band BZN from Volendam. You can find the ‘Extended Clubmix’ as well as the ‘Radio Clubmix’ on this website, just go to my profile and scroll through my remixes & mixes. Reason I did the remix “Just An Illusion ‘24” is because it is one of my favourite songs from the band BZN.
THIS YEAR IN 2025
This year (2025) 60 years ago the band BZN was founded. And the record company and band are celebrating this ‘event’ with the release of a ‘Greatest Hits’ album that includes all the singles of BZN that were released over the years.
BZN disbanded back in 2007, so 18 years ago, but was quite successful over the years with thousands of fans. To thank their fans and to celebrate the ‘event’ of being founded 60 years ago this year (and with a little persuasion from the record company, so the story goes 😉) BZN has released a new single titled “Thanks”.
WHY THIS NEW REMIX?
To celebrate the founding of BZN 60 years ago, I decided to produce another remix of one of my all time favourite BZN songs, titled “Blue Eyes”.
There’s a reason why this BZN song appeals to me so much and that’s the ‘oriental’ vibe it has. The music of the song clearly is inspired by the ‘Middle East’ and has an ‘Arabic’ sound achieved by the use of certain instruments and the way they are ‘altered’ in the original version of the song (one can clearly hear it when the song has been ‘taken apart’ in separate pieces).
Furthermore it’s the lyrics that make this song one of my favourites. Listen to the lyrics carefully and hear the romantic meaning of the song.. the two parts of the first verse..
“Well you were a stranger
Asking me out we were walking
You took me away
For many a day
We were talking
A beautiful night
For love at first sight was calling
I looked in your eyes
And I realised
I was falling for you
I know it's just that look in your eyes”
And then the words of the chorus of the song..
“Blue eyes, blue eyes
I'm just aware that I'm falling
Don't leave me here waiting, hear when I say
Blue eyes, don't make me feel blue
Blue eyes, blue eyes”
The second verse clearly makes another reference at the ‘Middle East’ and the ‘oriental’ and ‘Arabic’ influences of the song’s music….
“Here out in the blue
A princess for you is waiting
I know that you're mine
But all of the time my heart's breaking for you
I know it's just that look in your eyes”
They also made Anny Schilder sing several parts of her vocals in different keys, sometimes even three different keys which make, when all put together, the whole song sound even more ‘oriental’. I put the emphasis on it in my ‘Extended Summer Mix’ by having the lyrics of the second verse only accompanied by some percussion and tambourine, ending in an acapella part where Anny sings “I know it’s just that look in your eyes” and you can clearly hear that line is sung in three different keys .. absolutely beautiful..! 💖😍
EXTENDED SUMMER MIX
What I have uploaded first is the ‘Extended Summer Mix’.
I have put the emphasis in my remix on the ‘oriental’ and ‘Arabic’ sound by adding more instrumental parts in the remix. I also added more separate parts from the instruments in a so called ‘break’ which is approx. in the middle of the ‘Extended Summer Mix’.
Furthermore I also made the song sound even more ‘oriental’ and ‘Arabic’ by adding some parts of Anny’s vocals in the ‘break’ of the song, in reverb. By adding some delays, echo and playing with the volume of the reverb vocals, I managed to make those vocals sound ‘oriental’ and ‘Arabic’. It’s a ‘trick’ I picked up from 12 Inch Remixes from the 80s & 90s, when things like this were quite common to do (think of the 12” Version of the 1991 song “Winter In July” performed by Bomb The Bass, in which at some point the vocals of the lead vocalist Loretta Zoe Heywood are reversed to give them that ‘oriental Arabic’ sound & vibe).
The whole ‘accompanying’ part of the song has been newly produced from scratch. So all that’s been used of the original song are the vocals, instruments and bass. And of course there have been made some ‘changes’ here and there to all three parts, so they fit the new remix production. To make the song sound even more ‘oriental’ I added the tambourine and ‘Middle East’ percussion.
The ‘Luciën Vrolijk Extended Summer Mix’ runs at precisely 113 BPM which is just a little bit faster in tempo than the original version of the song which runs at 106,69 BPM.
PS: this remix production has been done without the use of a multitrack of the song, as there simply isn’t one available to the public 🤷🏼♂️
SONGS FROM MY CHILDHOOD & TEENAGE YEARS
I just LOVE doing remixes of songs from my childhood and teenage years! And there will be more remix productions in the (near) future! Some may be of Dutch artists or bands that none-Dutch-listeners won’t know, some will be of well known artists like ABBA of whom I’ve done 3 remix productions already (check my profile on this website!).
My advice always is, go to YouTube and search for the original version of the song I’ve remixed. Then again listen to my remix production and you’ll hear the difference. In most cases I stay very true to the original version of a song, I just update it. And of course produce an ‘Extended Version’ of the song, as there usually never ever was one when the original version of the song was released.
KEEP UP TO DATE
PS: if you automatically want to keep up to date on mixes and remixes by Luciën Vrolijk
(djlucien) you can follow V.E.P. (Vrolijk Entertainment Productions) on Facebook by liking the following Facebookpage:
www.facebook.com/vepnl.nl
Enjoy the music!
Cheers,
Luciën Vrolijk (aka djlucien)
Tracklist
| 1 | Blue Eyes '25 (Luciën Vrolijk Extended Summer Mix) / performed by BZN (1982 / 2025) |
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