FIRST ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK OF AN EXERCISE VIDEO, JAKE “BODY BY JAKE” STEINFELD’S 1984 ALBUM, BODY BY JAKE: DON’T STOP!®, REVITALIZED FOR THE DIGITAL AGE AND MAKES STREAMING DEBUT
INCLUDES HIGH ENERGY INSPIRING SONGS TO MOTIVATE YOU TO GET UP AND MOVE BOBBY CALDWELL, MICHEL SEMBELLO, JOSEPH WILLIAMS (TOTO), LESLIE SMITH (THE CARNIVAL), AND MORE
NEWLY ENHANCED HIGH RESOLUTION VIDEO FOR BOBBY CALDWELL’S “DON’T QUIT!®” PREMIERE TODAY ON YOUTUBE AFTER OVER 35 YEARS
LOS ANGELES, September 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Emerging decades before the global popularity of “workout playlists,” Body By Jake: Don’t Give Up!® is just one step in a long list of pioneering achievements by the timeless fitness personality Jake Steinfield. Released in 1984, Don’t Give Up!® was Steinfeld’s groundbreaking collection of all-original swelling musicthe first original soundtrack of an exercise video, a precursor to the type of curated playlists found on Peloton and streaming services. The collection was produced by Steinfeld at the start of a storied career that now spans more than four decades.
The first workout playlist, Body By Jake’s 1984 album, “Don’t Quit!” has been revitalized for the digital age.
Known throughout the 1980s as first “coach to the stars” thanks to a list of celebrity clients that included Steven Spielberg, Harrison FordMadonna, Priscilla Presley, Bette Midlerand more, Steinfeld made personal fitness training an occupation in the early 80s, eventually creating the first exercise segments on cable television (CNN), the first 24-hour television network (FitTV) and the first on-demand fitness television service (ExerciseTV), not to mention a branded fitness empire that has sold over two billion dollars worth of exercise equipment and is counting, helping put countless people in fit the world.
Now, over 35 years later, Steinfeld is ahead of the curve’s album Do not abandon !® has been revitalized for the digital age as it makes its streaming debut via body by Jake Music/UMe, returning to increase heart rate, work muscles, and move bodies once more. With hitmakers like Bobby Caldwell, Michael Sembelloand Joseph Williams (Toto), the album has not been available since its original release on LP and cassette in 1984 on MCA Records.
The album’s first single, “Don’t Quit!®”, is courtesy of Bobby Caldwell, the soft-souled multi-instrumentalist and hitmaker behind 1978’s “What You Won’t Do For Love.” A heart-pounding AOR-funk jam, “Don’t Quit!®” came with encouraging words from Jake him -same. The 12″ mix ended up breaking the American dance club charts.
Along with the reissue of Do not abandon !®, UMe has also released a new and improved high-res version of the inspirational and flextastic music video for the title track, which has been playing in heavy rotation on MTV. Inspired by Charles Atlas beach commercials, the video features one of Steinfeld’s brothers as a muscular bully who steals the girlfriend of an archetypal nerd played by Michael Edwards who at the time was the number one model in the world and by Priscilla Presley buddy.
WATCH/SHARE “DON’T STOP!”® HERE
Released the same year as Steinfeld’s bestseller Body by Jake book, Don’t Give Up!® emerged at the crossroads of synthesizer-driven ’80s radio, the spandex-stretch fitness trend, and the burgeoning home video market, serving as the workout montage soundtrack to countless warm-ups , bending, stretching and cooling at home.
The crowded aerobics market of the early 80s brought a slew of workout albums by the likes of Jane Fonda, Jayne Kennedy, Richard Simmons and more. But Steinfeld was not inspired by their canned music and “one and two and three and” instructions.
“I don’t think people thought about music the way I thought back then,” Steinfeld says. “We created the album for people to practice but also to play it loud in the car or when they’re doing housework and need something to pump them up. It was great music to get you motivated and make you feel good. I’ve always been more about the motivation, more about the psychological, and more about visualizing success.”
More than just a song, the phrase “Don’t Quit!®” is a motto Steinfeld has worn since middle school.
“I got kicked off my eighth grade basketball team. True story. It was devastating. I was an overweight kid with a bad stutter,” Steinfeld said. “After I was circumcised, a friend gave me this life-changing poem: ‘Stand up to the fight when you’re hit hardest/It’s when things look worse that you shouldn’t give up. ‘ In 1981, I trademarked the words ‘Don’t Quit!®.’ I beat the corporate giants of the world many times to keep those two words sacred.”
The Do not abandon !® album, with production by AndrewFischer and Pierre Bunettaalso includes “Pump it up“, a living piece of digital swing via Michael Sembello, still fresh off the No. 1 “Flashdance” mega-smash “Maniac.” The powerful voice of Maxaine Smith (the Ikettes, Maxyane) leads “hard work,” and Leslie Smith (a session pro known to be part of a heavily sampled rare-funk team LA Carnival) provides “Baby is training” and “You can get it if you really want it. “Notably, two breezy synth-rock tracks,”Firepower” and “Harden“, courtesy of Joseph Williamsa then-unknown singer and songwriter who would go on to provide the singing voice of the adult Simba in “The Lion King”.
“So, John Williams, the great composer, whom I met thanks to Spielberg”, recalls Steinfeld. “I was talking about the album, and John said, ‘You know, my son is an artist. So Joseph makes two cuts, and he ends up becoming Toto’s lead singer. And to this day, he is still Toto’s lead vocalist. I got it first, man!”
Steinfeld first teamed up with UMe to bring his love of music and exercise together with his label, Body By Jake Music, which debuted in 2012 with hour-long themed mixes organized by workout style, beats per minute, and decade. Conceived as “the fitness version of the Now series”, the Body By Jake series, which includes hits and remixes from the biggest names in music, first appeared as CDs and downloads and currently serves as a stream popular on Spotify and Apple Music. Other new blends are in preparation.
Steinfeld has been linked to music since the very beginning of his career: at 18 New York expat pumping iron in Venice, California.he was offered $100 flex on stage as the Village People sang “Macho Man” as the song skyrocketed the charts. Steinfeld recalled, “All I have is my pose briefs. I have baby oil all over my body…That was my introduction to the music industry.”
In more than 40 years as an American fitness icon, Steinfeld has been a New York Times and the wall street journal best-selling author, sitcom star (“Big Brother Jake” from The Family Channel), voice-over actor (“Ratatouille”, King of the Hill”), dominant infomercial guru, Olympic torchbearer from been and even the honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades, California.
In 2001 Steinfeld created Major League Lacrosse, the first professional outdoor lacrosse league in America and in 2015 he founded the World Series of Youth Lacrosse. He twice served as Chairman of the Governor’s Council on Fitness and Sports under the Governors of California. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown. Today, he is president of the National Foundation for Governors’ Fitness Councils, bringing physical education and a whole new $100,000 from state-of-the-art fitness centers to underserved children across the country. The NFGFC has already dedicated DON’T QUIT!® Fitness Centers in 38 states more washington d.c. and this year will offer three per state to elementary and middle schools in Idaho, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakotawith the aim of rewarding fitness centers in each state of the UNITED STATES. Each fitness center is funded through public/private partnerships with companies such as The Coca-Cola Company, Anthem Foundation, Wheels Up and Nike, and does not rely on taxpayer dollars or state funding . The foundation’s goal is to build a nation of the fittest and healthiest children in the world.
But above all it was Do not abandon !®, soon to be available again for all to enjoy.
BODY BY JAKE: DON’T STOP!® LIST OF TRACKS
1. Don’t give up! – Bobby Caldwell
2. Hard Work – Maxayne Lewis
3. Baby training – Leslie Smith
4. Pump it up – Michael Sembello
5. Toughen up – Joseph Williams
6. You can get it if you really want it – Leslie Smith
seven. Kamau Peterson – Hard as a rock
8. Firepower – Joseph Williams
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SOURCE Body by Jake Music/UMe
