I have absolutely no recollection of that Baby D follow-up whatsoever.

 

I think I know what's coming next, and it is likely to be the only gabber entry on this list? (If I'm right).

 

 

:lol:

 

Possibly, but a cover of it may well feature also - if I'm feeling reckless.

Technohead - I Wanna Be a Hippy

 

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/tonyttt31/technohead.jpg

 

Date 28th Jan 1996

3 Weeks

Official Chart Run 12-8-10-10-6-9-9-12-13-27-23-32-54-71 (14 weeks)

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

 

Technohead was one of many, many aliases used by Michael Wells and Lee Newman who started releasing music in 1985. They were a husband and wife venture and initially used the name Greater than One and released several albums under that name.

 

Newman and Wells met at the Royal College of Art in London in 1985 and released well over 10 albums of various dance sub-genres throughout the late 80s and 90s. Their first taste of mainstream success was with the bleep-techno single Tricky Disco, while they were called Tricky Disco which made number 14 in 1990.

 

Their first album as Technohead, Church of Ecstacy, was released in 1993 but it wasn't until 1995 that they would release their most successful material with the album Headsex. Its lead single I Wanna Be a Hippy was released in March 1995 but failed to chart. Newman sadly passed away from cancel in Aug 1995.

 

I Wanna Be a Hippy featured two prominent samples from David Peel's I Like Marijuana - a 60s protest song about the herb. A remix by Jeff Porter and Jeroen Flamman (as Flamman & Abraxas) led it to be a hit on re-release in early 1996.

 

Two follow up singles were released with the not-very-different Happy Birthday making the Top 20 in July and Banana-Na-Na which missed the Top 40 altogether reaching number 61 in October 1996.

 

The Smurfs would, of course, take inspiration from this track for their hit I've Got a Little Puppy and out-peak it too. For the sake of decency and taste it will not be featuring in this rundown.

 

I remember a wise-cracking DJ saying the Technohead were the natural heirs to Heads Radio and Portis. :D

 

Edited January 7, 20169 yr by Colm

terrifically bonkers~ :dancing:

Wells sadly passed away from cancel in Aug 1995.

 

According to Wikipedia it was Lee Newman who died in 1995.

According to Wikipedia it was Lee Newman who died in 1995.

 

 

Checked and edited!

 

Thanks.

This should have been the moment happy hardcore took over the UK charts in the way it dominated much of Europe, but it never quite happened - easily the genre's biggest-seller in the UK. Scooter had their first top 20 hit around this time too.

 

Looking at the Scottish singles charts it was much bigger there than further south of the UK, Scooter's singles regularly reaching top 10 positions and Technohead going top 3. The bald-headed guys in the video later got spun-off into their own group, the Party Animals - 'Have You Ever Been Mellow' was #1 in the Netherlands, #11 in Scotland but only #43 on the main UK chart.

 

 

 

Aye, happy hardcore had a huge following in Scotland (and still does, albeit less popular) in the mid 90s. Not sure why we weren't as sophisticated as those down south, but there you go.

 

I'm sure there was a much harder (better) version of 'I Want to be a Hippy' going about a year or so before, but I've never managed to find it. Not that it's really worth tracking down....

 

Still think Tricky Disco is the best thing GTO ever did - although The Bullfrog is a close second.

LMAO fun song, but please... :lol:

 

And it was only number 12 officially and still the best placed dance track? and 3 weeks in a row? which songs were in front of I Wanna Be A Hippy inits first week?

 

BTW at that time I was quite a fan of rave, loved Scooter, Dune and Blümchen tbh LOL :kink:

And if we're talking about rave and Techno, here is a German project which was pretty big in the german speaking countries: RMB.

They were pretty big in the german speaking countries and had two top 10 hits in 1996 in Germany. Their biggest hit was Spring, which is a masterpiece in its genre imo. Shame they didn't trouble the international music charts.

 

Spring

 

and their other top 10 hit (with a pretty interesting video too):

 

Reality

"Spring" is amazing. :wub: More of a trancey feel than most Eurodance songs!

I was in high school at the mid 90's and one of the most tuned satellite channels of the TV in the cafeteria was German music channel VIVA, that played lots of videos for Happy Hardcore tunes. One of those was this one. Is this Mental Theo the same one credited to Basshunter's "Now You're Gone"?

 

I was in high school at the mid 90's and one of the most tuned satellite channels of the TV in the cafeteria was German music channel VIVA, that played lots of videos for Happy Hardcore tunes. One of those was this one. Is this Mental Theo the same one credited to Basshunter's "Now You're Gone"?

Yep it's the same Mental Theo :D

Robert Miles - Children

 

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/tonyttt31/children.jpg

 

Date 18th Feb 1996

5 Weeks

Official Chart Run 3-2-3-2-2-3-3-4-7-10-14-16-19-16-22-29-54-72-

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

 

Well, you know it was coming. What more can be said about Robert Miles' Children?

 

Miles was actually born in Switzerland but to Italian parents and spent much of his younger years in Italy too. In the early 90s he started out as a DJ playing clubs in Northern Italy and also did some radio.

 

During this time he saved to build his own recording studio and started producing his own music in the early part of the decade. Children started out in 1994 as a chill out piece written on acoustic guitar and synth pads - available to be heard on Youtube, if you fancy that sort of thing. Miles later added the distinctive piano figure while mixing it into a dream house track to be played in clubs.

 

It was widely reported at the time that Children was mixed as a dream house track with the purpose of lowering the tempo at the closing hours of clubs in an attempt to reduced road accidents of clubbers driving long distances to clubs. The accompanying drop in adrenaline promoted less risky driving on the way home after a night out.

 

Pressed to vinyl in late 1994, Children was released in early 1995 by DBX, an Italian label the owner of which, Joe Vanelli, brought a copy to Miami where it was heard by several taste-making DJs. Word of the track spread and began to pick up sales all over Europe of it's limited release. Copies were extremely sought after and demand was there for a high profile release.

 

For that subsequent release owner of Liverpool's Cream nightclub, James Barton worked with Vanelli to press thousands of copies which were distributed in November 1995. A full retail release followed after the track became a club smash all over Europe.

 

Its seamless production, pulsating and almost comforting bass made the track popular far outside the commercial dance market. The track hit the top spot in 12 European countries selling 5 million copies in the process and was the first commercial hit for the emerging trance and dream house genres. Championed by Pete Tong in the UK Children's airplay was originally confined to dance orientated radio programming but this changed when the track became a fixture in the official Top 5 for nine weeks out lasting and outselling many of the tracks that beat it in the weekly charts.

 

Here, it acquits itself admirably managing five weeks as the best selling dance single. It's obviously a classic dance track for many but overplaying has tarnished it for others.

 

We'll be hearing more from Robert later.

 

Children is great, it remains instantly recognisable and is a classic within the genre. I still really enjoy listening to it even after all these years.

 

Whilst it's quite unique, I still think it's remarkable that it was such a hit - it's like a dance version of Enya or Enigma.

Edited January 8, 20169 yr by dandy*

A true classic.

I enjoyed listening to it this evening while doing my write up - more than I have enjoy it in a long time.

Nope, never liked it and never will.

amazing song

Wow, can't believe that Children is now 20 years old.

Classic tune!!! :wub: one of mi all time faves