What Is the First Deep House Song (Track) Ever?

The original Mr. Fingers ‎– Mystery Of Love vinyl release

Every electronic dance music (EDM) genre started once with the first song (track) in that genre, which is also the case for deep house. By knowing what the first deep house song ever is, we can learn more about that genre. What is the first deep house song (track) ever?

The first deep house song ever is “Mystery of Love” by Mr. Fingers. Mr. Fingers is also known as Larry Heard.

After this introduction, this post gives a story behind the “Mystery of Love” song, and then some in-depth information about this song. The section after this information is about some similarities and differences between the “Amnesia” release and the “Ammnesia” release. After this section, we can listen to some versions of the “Mystery of Love” song.

The Story Behind the “Mystery of Love” Song

The Red Bull Music Academy did a lecture with Larry Heard in Seattle 2005. A video about this lecture is here below in the “The Lecture” subsection. In this lecture, Larry gives some information around his “Mystery of Love” song, and this section has a part of that information.

Larry Heard made the “Mystery of Love” song with at least two instruments, which are probably the Roland TR-707 and the Roland Jupiter-6. When he was making this song, he didn’t know what house music was. Someone told Larry that the song sounded like the music they play at the Warehouse, which is a nightclub in Chicago.

At the time that Larry Heard let Frankie Knuckles (DJ and producer) and Ron Hardy (DJ and producer) hear his song, the Warehouse’s owners already changed the name of the Warehouse to Music Box. At that moment also, Frankie Knuckles had already started his nightclub in Chicago named Power House. On the Wikipedia “Warehouse (nightclub)” page, we can read more about the Warehouse and the transition.

After Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy heard the “Mystery of Love” song by Larry Heard, they claimed that they had made the song. We can see this claim as a bit strange, but Larry saw it as a compliment since they would not claim that they made the song if they didn’t like it. However, the people that knew Larry said that Larry made that song.

The First Two Releases of the the “Mystery of Love” Song

The song “Mystery of Love” was the first release of Larry Heard, and he released this song on his label Alleviated Records. After this release, Larry re-recorded this song, and then the label D.J. International Records released this re-recorded version. This re-recorded version became a bit different than the original version.

Larry Heard re-recorded the song “Mystery of Love” at home with a low budget solution, such as with a reel-to-reel audiotape recording machine. However, this recording quality was not good enough for the D.J. International Records release. Therefore, Larry and D.J. International Records went into a studio for a rendition of the song.

In the third rendition of the “Mystery of Love” song, Larry Heard included the vocals of Robert Owens. These vocals are the spoken part in the beginning and the singing and the end.

The Lecture

Here is the lecture at Red Bull Music Academy Seattle 2005 with Larry Heard.

The First Deep House Song Ever “Mr. Fingers ‎– Mystery of Love”

Many online pages mention that the “Mystery of Love” song by Mr. Fingers is the first deep house song ever. Such pages are from Wikipedia, Electric Soul Show, and Mixmag.

I try (I can’t guarantee) to give in this section some correct information about the “Mystery of Love” song, with three found pages. Two pages from Discogs about the original song release. One page on Beatport about the song, which is not about the original release.

A Mr. Fingers ‎– Mystery of Love Page on Discogs about the Original Release

A Mr. Fingers ‎– Mystery Of Love page on Discogs provides some information about the song. On this page, we can see that “Mr. Fingers ‎– Mystery Of Love” is also the name of the vinyl (LP), which has the “Mystery Of Love” song. This release is the original release, which the lecture above also mentioned.

The Discogs page has some more information about this vinyl:

  • In the US, the vinyl released in 1985 on the label Alleviated Records and Alleviated Music published it.
  • Discogs named the genre of the vinyl ‘Electronic’ and the style of the vinyl ‘House, Deep House.’
  • The vinyl has two songs:
    • On the A-side, “Mystery Of Love” with a song length of 6:54 minutes.
    • On the B-side, “Mystery Of Love (Dub Version)” with a song length of 7:07 minutes.
  • L. Heard (Larry Heard) produced and wrote the songs on the vinyl, and Donnie Heard is also a producer of these songs. Further, Joseph McNeil recorded and mixed these songs, and Bud Pressner mastered the songs.

Another Mr. Fingers ‎– Mystery of Love Page on Discogs about the Original Release

There is another Mr. Fingers ‎– Mystery Of Love page on Discogs, which is also about the original release. This page has many similarities with the already mentioned page on Discogs.

The similar Discogs page mentions another three releases of the “Mystery Of Love” vinyl. However, these releases are from the group “Fingers Inc.” On a Wikipedia page and a Discogs page, we can see that Fingers Inc. consists of the members: Larry Heard, Robert Owens, and Ron Wilson.

The three vinyl releases have a minor difference. One release is the original release, one release is a promo, and one release is a reissue. The year of release is unknown of the reissue, but the release year of the other two releases is 1986.

All the three vinyl releases have these four songs (the song lengths of these songs are on these releases all the same):

  • On the A-side song one, “Mystery Of Love (Club Mix)” with a song length of 6:39 minutes.
  • On the A-side song two, “Mystery Of Love (Mystery Of Dub)” with a song length of 6:29 minutes.
  • On the B-side song one, “Mystery Of Love (Instrumental Mix)” with a song length of 6:41 minutes.
  • On the B-side song two, “Mystery Of Love (Original Basement Mix)” with a song length of 6:29 minutes.

Two Possible Mistakes

The page probably has a mistake, which is that the page mentions that the song “Mystery Of Love (Instrumental Mix)” has a song length of 6:42 minutes. This song length is probably a mistake since the page links to the three vinyl release pages, and on these pages, the song length is 6:41 minutes.

The page probably has another mistake, which is that the page mentions that there is a 1988 “Mysteries of Love” LP version. I think it is a mistake since I could not find this LP version on Discogs and not with Google.

Mr. Fingers ‎– Mystery of Love on Beatport on the Amnesia Release

The Mr. Fingers ‎– Mystery Of Love page on Beatport provides some information about the song on the Amnesia release. The song version on this release is probably not the same as the original 1985 version since the song length of this version, and the original version differs.

The song length of the original “Mystery Of Love” release is 6:54 minutes, and the song length of the Beatport version is 7:10 minutes. So the two songs have a 16 seconds time difference.

On the Beatport “Mystery Of Love” page, we can see that:

  • The song’s tempo is 115 BPM (beats per minute).
  • The song’s key is G major.
  • Alleviated Records released the song.
  • The page names the genre of the song as ‘House.’ I don’t understand why they didn’t name the genre as ‘Deep House.’
  • The song was released on 2017-08-18. I think (I don’t know for sure) this date represents when the song became available on Beatport.

The Similarities and Differences Between the “Amnesia” Release and the “Ammnesia” Release

The only place I could find the “Amnesia” release is on Beatport. Further, there is one page of the “Ammnesia” (with double m) release on Discogs, and this release is a bootleg. These two releases are different but have similarities.

There are some differences between the Amnesia release page on Beatport and the Ammnesia release page on Discogs, which are at least:

  • They have a name difference. The Ammnesia release page on Discogs has the cover of the release visible, which can show us that the release name has a double m in it. The Amnesia release page on Beatport doesn’t have an image with the release name on it.
  • The label of the Discogs release is “Jack Trax (2) ‎– FING 2,” and the label of the Beatport release is Alleviated Records.
  • The Beatport release can show us the time lengths of the songs. However, the Discogs release doesn’t have these time lengths of the songs.
  • The Beatport page has the release date of 2017-08-18, and the Discogs page doesn’t have a release date.
  • The Beatport page has labeled each song in the house genre. The Discogs page labeled the whole release in the genre ‘Electronic’ and labeled the style of the release as ‘House, Deep House, Acid House.’

The names of the songs on both releases are the same. Also, these songs are in the same order.

Some Extra Things on the Ammnesia Release Page on Discogs

The Ammnesia release page on Discogs also mentions some extra things of the release, such as:

  • The format is in two pieces of vinyl.
  • Leo Songs published the first three songs and Indigo Music the other songs.
  • Larry Heard produced, wrote, and arranged the songs.
  • D.C.S U did the artwork.
  • Trax Records (which is in Chicago, Illinois) licensed the release.
  • Indigo Music Ltd has copyright and sound recording copyright.

Listening to Some Versions of the “Mystery of Love” Song

Here follow some versions of the “Mystery Of Love” song that this post has already mentioned. However, maybe there are more versions of this song, such as remixes.

Mr. Fingers ‎– Mystery Of Love

Mr. Fingers ‎– Mystery Of Love (Dub Version)

Fingers Inc. ‎– Mystery Of Love (Club Mix)

Fingers Inc. ‎– Mystery Of Love (Mystery Of Dub)

Fingers Inc. ‎– Mystery Of Love (Instrumental Mix)

Fingers Inc. ‎– Mystery Of Love (Original Basement Mix)

Closing Words

Hopefully, you like the story behind the “Mystery of Love” song by Mr. Fingers, and you know now more about this song. Maybe you also like the similarities and differences between the “Amnesia” release and the “Ammnesia” release. Furthermore, perhaps you liked how some versions of the “Mystery of Love” song sound.

If you want to read more about the deep house genre, this blog has a comprehensive overview of the deep house genre. Also, if you like this post, look at other posts on this website since you might also like them.

When you know someone who likes to know more about what the first deep house song ever is, then feel free to share this post. Additionally, do you know something about the first deep house song ever that this post didn’t mention?

By Markus Kreukniet

Markus Kreukniet is an electronic dance music (EDM) producer and founder of Passion for EDM. He wants to share his EDM knowledge with the rest of the world. Read more about Markus Kreukniet.

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