Barry G

Spar Wid Me hit the top of both the JBC and RJR charts, claiming pole position on the latter, despite a competitive quirk. Gordon says "When the song was selling and moving up the RJR's chart, the presenter refused to play the song. He would only call the name. The competition was so fierce."

And it was not only RJR's chart that did not 'spar wid' Toyan's tribute to Barry G, as he says "I do not know if it was company policy, but no radio show (on RJR) played it."

"The thinking was that it was propelling my popularity."

Although Gordon says he understood the situation, that thinking was spot on. "If you were to grade my popularity at the time at 97 out of 100, that song carried me, if at all possible, to 120 per cent. It put me over the top," Gordon says.

"I was the only jock in history who was given this treatment," he says, noting that while the names of other radio personalities had been mentioned in songs before, this was an entire song dedicated to one man.

Scared

The song did put Gordon in a spot, though, as he said, "I was literally scared to play the song," for fear of being accused of conflict of interest. "I did not want people to think that I was promoting the song for me and that there was a monetary gain. I was scared people would think it was my production and not Volcano's," he says.

It did not come without its detractors, though, building on an existing situation. "Controversy was brewing. Because I was number one a lot of producers were sending me tunes before they even pressed them. And that is how the debate came about as if I was involved in payola. People could not believe that with the business turning as it at that level I was not with producers to push songs to number one," Gordon says.

- M.C.