Awful. I'd forgotten all about it and have just listened to it, really really really bad.

 

 

 

You used to be such a nice chap..... :(

I've still got a lot of time for Sesame's Treet. There's certainly nothing wrong with the track if you remove the samples - and the same with Urban Hype - but that's what caught the record buying public's imagination. I was the perfect age - 15 - old enough to remember the kids TV shows and young enough not to let the cheesiness bother me. The trend went on and on and later in 1992 two acts released tracks that sampled the Rainbow theme in the same week. Only one had the backing of Zippy and George (the rubbish(er) one). Then at Christmas, Keith Harris and Orville were given the hardcore treatment..... It was immense fun for me, but pretty tiresome for most...and we haven't even got on to the Nintendo remixes yet...

 

Anyway, if anything, Sesame's Treet introduced me to Suburban Base Records and what was by far the best hardcore label then and now.

 

There's a great clip from Dance Energy about the emergent 1992 Essex hardcore scene here -> http://idmmag.com/news/the-essex-rave-scene/

I remember hearing the Rainbow one when I was in in England in 1991. I never heard it since. Were either hits?

Nope, I bought the Sonz of Bungle one!

 

 

(17:44 in)

 

This is the one that managed to rope Zippy and George into a TV appearance on The Word (I think)

 

Snap! - Rhythm Is A Dancer

 

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/tonyttt31/SNAP.png

 

Date 17th July 1992

8 Weeks

Official Chart Run 13-6-3-2-2-1-1-1-1-1-1-3-4-10-14-20-32-50-57 (19 weeks)

*Positions in red are the weeks when the track would be number 1 if just dance music was chart eligible.

 

Being 1990s top selling dance band and with dance music being more popular than ever you'd think that a Snap! comeback single would be some sort of event. But in the UK it wasn't so. The lead single from Snap!'s second album, The Madman's Return, limped to number 54 in late 1991. That single was Colour of Love and is almost unknown in the UK by mainstream music fans.

 

Another potential lead single had been suggested but after early support lost out to Colour of Love because of objections by Turbo B. That other single is Rhythm is a Dancer.

It's hard to image that it would have topped the charts had it been release in late 1991 as it would have had Bohemian Rhapsody to contend with, so it's probably good fortune that it made its debut in the charts the following Summer at the insistence of the rest of the band.

 

Although she was the author of Rhythm is a Dancer former vocalist, Penny Ford was, for contractual reasons, not permitted to take care of vocals on the track itself - she signed to Sony and they wouldn't let her sing on any more Snap! singles. In her place arrived Thea Austin who Ford met at a press interview.

 

There was quite a leap in the sophistication of the sound, with its sweeping synphonic phrasing echoing the riff from Automan's Newcleus and the electo-influenced synth backing that up.

 

The controversy surrounding a Snap! single for once didn't concern sampling or copying. This time it was lyrical content that drew attention. The band got significant flack for the lyric "I'm serious as cancer when I say rhythm is a dancer" betraying a lack of knowledge by commentators as the phrase "serious as cancer" had been frequently used in hip hop tracks before this.

 

The song is now part of the fabric of 90s dance music spawning multiple sound-a-likes some of which we will encounter later in this rundown. The band themselves would continue to perform well and we will see more of them later, too. For many fans of 90s music it is the peak of Euro-dance.

 

Rhythm is a Dancer would appear a few more times in the chart. It would be re-recorded by the band in 1996 for their first hits set - Snap! Attack: The Best of Snap!, but not chart. It would resurface again in 2003 and reach the top 20 in a further remix. Finally, the original would chart again in 2008 due to use in a Drench advert.

 

Turbo B would leave the group soon after its success in 1992 due to conflict between management and himself and the negative press over the lyrical controversy mentioned earlier. He would reunite with them in 2000 for a new album project which was aborted when the first single failed to chart.

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 20159 yr by AntoineTTe

'rhythm is a dancer' ~ such an amazing and timeless jam :dance: :wub: :dance:

 

*.* epic chart run for a dance record run as well :cheeseblock:

 

:blink: never knew that sesame thing even existed tbh~ :lol:

Edited August 26, 20159 yr by Ethan

What more can be said about the song? It'll always stand the test of time.

It sounded massive at the time, especially when that deep bassline kicks in.. so was surprised to see it only debut at 13 and slowly climb to #1, but as you say the group had been absent from the Top 40 for 15 months and so many had likely assumed they were gone for good. I love the track, it was definitely the pinnacle of the Eurodance movement and nothing that came after really topped it.

 

It was the biggest selling single of 1992 until the very last week when it was overtaken by Whitney Housten. :(

It sounded massive at the time, especially when that deep bassline kicks in.. so was surprised to see it only debut at 13 and slowly climb to #1, but as you say the group had been absent from the Top 40 for 15 months and so many had likely assumed they were gone for good. I love the track, it was definitely the pinnacle of the Eurodance movement and nothing that came after really topped it.

 

It was the biggest selling single of 1992 until the very last week when it was overtaken by Whitney Housten. :(

 

 

So Whitney went from ~490,000 to #750,000 in the final week?

A strong dance track, not my favourite at the time or even now but there was a punch in the tracks at the beginning of Euro-Dance that started to get diluted as the years went on. Pretty much the blueprint for many to come - including "Mr Vain" which is practically the same song with different lyrics.

On the youtube clip I was playing yesterday while doing the write up Mr Vain always come afterwards on autoplay and I thought to myself - This is a new mix of RIAD I haven't heard before.

REEEALLY petty but hopefully still worthwhile observation re the Snap! entry: the date the chart in which it became the best-selling dance single was issued should read 19th July 1992, not 17th. None of this charts being revealed on a Friday nonsense back then!

My favourite Utah Saints track is 1995's

(#42 in the UK Chart), mixing up Ohio Players' Fire, Jocelyn Brown's Somebody Else's Guy and KC & The Sunshine Band's That's The Way I Like It.

REEEALLY petty but hopefully still worthwhile observation re the Snap! entry: the date the chart in which it became the best-selling dance single was issued should read 19th July 1992, not 17th. None of this charts being revealed on a Friday nonsense back then!

 

Yeah - we messed up the dates at one point and were too lazy to go back and change them all. It's all relative, anyway.

Edited August 30, 20159 yr by AntoineTTe

Then at Christmas, Keith Harris and Orville were given the hardcore treatment.....

 

Is that the one that was performed on Going Live? I'm too young to remember it when first shown, but there's an brilliant clip I've seen of them performing it and the camera cutting back to a horrified/disgusted looking Phillip Schofield, to huge laughter from the camera crew.

 

The Rainbow remixes are completely new to me! Here's a great one of Pacman:

 

My favourite Utah Saints track is 1995's

(#42 in the UK Chart), mixing up Ohio Players' Fire, Jocelyn Brown's Somebody Else's Guy and KC & The Sunshine Band's That's The Way I Like It.

Yes I quite liked this at the time too. It annoys me that it's not available to download anywhere as I want it for completist purposes!

 

You used to be such a nice chap..... :(

Haha!

 

Were you a fan of Sesame's Treet then?

 

The Rainbow remixes are completely new to me! Here's a great one of Pacman:

 

 

Not one of Aphex Twin's finest moments!

Haha!

 

Were you a fan of Sesame's Treet then?

 

 

Not hugely. But you used 3 'reallys'....It's 1 really at most.

Edited August 30, 20159 yr by AntoineTTe

Can't we compromise at 2 reallys?

 

Afraid I don't like it at all. :(