THE YEARS ARE blurry, but the seven-minute experiences are vivid. I remember Frankie Knuckles's "Whistle Song" playing at noon on the dot at the end of a Hunters Point warehouse party – the door opened as the gray sun poured in and a cool mist filled the air. I recall repeatedly listening to LTJ Bukem's "Music" on my Walkman one morning after the Endup, and Model 500's "No UFOs" on an afternoon car ride back from a Wicked Full Moon rave in Santa Cruz. But while those three songs evoke nostalgic emotions far too corny for words, Robert Owens's "I'll Be Your Friend" conjures a memory of the absolute proudest moment in my own private clubland history: busting through the side door of Townsend because the door girl at the time was a notorious hard-ass toward losers with shady fake IDs. Jane (who now runs Edo hair salon on Haight) and I kicked open the door and charged though that tunnel as if we were in a raver's version of Chariots of Fire, and when we arrived on the dance floor, "I'll Be Your Friend" was blaring. That low, nasty voice repeated, "I'll be your, I'll be your" as some freak in sunglasses and a Kangol grabbed my hand and screamed, "I'll be your bitch!" Those were the days.

If there exist any authentically legendary male voices of house, Chicago-bred Owens and New Jersey-tied garage singer Michael Watford (of the extraordinary 1994 single "So into You") share that bill. But while Watford delivers that gospel garage enlightenment, Owens maintains an earthier feel, which his early partner, producer Larry Heard, encouraged through late underground '80s house classics like the gorgeously melancholic "No More Lonely" and the deep, body-moving electro-funk of "Bring Down the Walls." But the one song that places Owens in eternal house heaven is 1991's "I'll Be Your Friend" – one of the greatest anthems in dance music history and a song that personifies the communal, uncontrollably uplifting energy of a serious house dance floor. I know I'm not the only one who can recall the exact details of experiencing this song for the very first time.

Producers like Layo and Bushwacka, Satoshi Tomiie, Cevin Fisher, and Photek understand that it doesn't get any better than Robert Owens and have worked his singer-songwriter skills into their own tracks in the past three years. Now residing in London, Owens produces, sings, and DJs all over Europe and Asia, and this Friday the Wicked crew hosts him for his first S.F. appearance. Not only will Owens DJ, but apparently he's also scheduled to belt it out on the mic and add some live keyboard playing to his set. This is an event that will make trainspotters wet their pants and disco dancers lose their minds. Anyone who misses this night will be permanently banished to Colma.

Wicked. Fri/17, 10 p.m.-5 a.m., DNA Lounge, 375 11th St., S.F. $15. (415) 626-1409.