I'm not really sure if you're pro- or anti-Stardust :D

Edited May 19, 20169 yr by Colm

Well I'm very much pro-Stardust, one of my favourite dance tracks of the 90s, I was totally obsessed at the time and still think it's a simple and effective house track. 8 weeks as the #1 would be entirely acceptable. :D

:D

I'm not really sure if you're pro- or anti-Stardust :D

 

Best to assume I'm anti- everything from beyond 1992 unless I say otherwise ;)

Fatboy Slim - Gangster Trippin

 

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm82/TheMagicPosition86/rsz_gangster_trippin_zps12v9qemy.png

 

Date 11th October 1998

1 Week

Official Chart Run 3-7-13-18-28-32-46-60 (8 weeks)

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

 

Making only his second appearance in this countdown (after appearing and subsequently becoming bankrupted as part of Beats International in 1990 for not clearing a Clash sample), despite remaining at the forefront of the rapidly evolving 90s dance scene through pseudonyms such as Freak Power, Pizzaman and The Mighty Dub Katz, we finally have Norman Cook in his most popular and permanent guise - as Fatboy Slim.

 

The oxymoronic moniker was adopted by Cook in 1996 and was used as a vehicle for his solo output - a mixture of sample-heavy big beat tunes that lift parts of obscure funk, soul and rock records and through looped drum beats, squelchy acid synths and ska guitars transformed them into hugely popular dance tracks. His debut Better Living Through Chemistry released in the same year spawned just the 1 Top 40 hit over a year after its release - Cook’s tribute to the Roland TB-303 bass synthesiser “Everybody Needs A 303” - which originally made #191 but on re-release soared to #34 in October 1997. This was a sign of both the superstar DJ, and this stem of dance music’s increasing popularity as we headed towards the giddy pre-millennial highs of endless partying supported by the optimism of the dotcom boom years.

 

The appropriately titled You've Come A Long Way, Baby was the follow-up, released on small Brighton label (showing Cook’s dedication to the town) Skint Records two years later, instantly launching him back into the mainstream. The huge vocal hook employed on “The Rockafeller Skank” with its maximum power jammed-up sample gave it instant standout and crossover appeal, subsequently launching an impressive Top 10 debut and making Norman Cook once again a household name. The follow-up “Gangster Trippin” echoes many of the same trademarks, it is shamelessly built around the opening horns from Ann Robinson’s (not that one!) 1969 single “You Did It” and loops itself around the vocal hook ‘We gotta kick that gangsta shit’ from fellow sampler DJ Shadow’s “Entropy” from which the track partly takes its title. Arguably however, the most recognisable vocal in the track was the ‘it’s what we’re doing when the Fatboy’s trippin’ sample of Dust Junkys' “Rinse (Beatbox Wash)” which went uncredited until 2013 when the due royalties were finally settled. “Gangster Trippin” built on the success of its predecessor debuting at #3 and leading the album out to an impressive #2 debut.

 

More from Norman very soon!

 

Edited May 21, 20169 yr by Doctor Blind

Amazing song, when Fatboy Slim was in peak form.

much prefer Rockafeller Skank but this is good too... where did Rockafeller Skank peak in this dance chart and who blocked it??

much prefer Rockafeller Skank but this is good too... where did Rockafeller Skank peak in this dance chart and who blocked it??

 

That was #2 behind Dario G!

 

Spacedust - Gym and Tonic

 

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm82/TheMagicPosition86/rsz_spacedust_zps5witu23m.png

 

Date 18th October 1998

2 Weeks

Official Chart Run 1-6-16-34-48-57-65-73-XX-XX-76-65-55-86 (10 weeks)

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

 

The record industry can be a cruel place indeed, and nowhere is this better illustrated than the absolute mess that surrounded the release of “Gym and Tonic”, an opportunistic cover by two British lads Paul Glancey and Duncan Glasson who rushed a cheap knockoff of a popular French house track with an equally cheap video into the charts and celebrated a UK number 1 hit - something which eluded the original creator until 2013.

 

The reason this happened was because of the legal break that had been put on the original of “Gym and Tonic”, (titled “Gym Tonic”) which was produced by one half of recent French disco/house revivalists Daft Punk: Thomas Bangalter, but then put on the debut album of French DJ/producer Christophe Le Friant (aka Bob Sinclar) as a Thomas Bangalter mix. “Gym Tonic” wrapped a funky guitar riff from Motown Sounds “Bad Mouthin’” around uncredited vocals from Jane Fonda’s 1981 workout tape, and became a huge hit in Ibiza and was all over the clubs back home, so it was then unsurprisingly earmarked for a future commercial release, however the breaks were immediately put on. Jane Fonda’s refusal to have her vocals used on any single mix of the track and Bangalter’s equal unease about Sinclar releasing it meant that despite being one of 1998s most in-demand club anthems nobody in Britain could buy the single (except for on Bob Sinclar’s debut Paradise) and inevitably then followed the deluge of bootlegs seeking to cash-in.

 

Step forward Paul Glancey and Duncan Glasson who had been working together since 1992 under guises such as Dual, VPoint, Aquarius and The Swimmer, but decided to name their production duo (apparently after a sweet that exploded in your mouth, but perhaps as a nod of recognition to Bangalter - who had just peaked at #2 with a similarly titled group) Spacedust, and sensing an opportunity they promptly delivered a commercial release of this track, immediately quenching demand and narrowly fending of 911 to storm in at the top of the UK chart. By simply re-recording the vocals with an actress who was brought in to imitate Fonda, then slightly re-jigging Bangalter’s simple yet effective production they remove most of what made the original so encapsulating although the strong hook of the original survives, it is mostly the novelty that shines through in this version.To add insult to injury perhaps the duo added a few filtered orchestral stabs of Stardust’s recent runner-up “Music Sounds Better With You”. Despite this success the song plummeted out of the chart and failed to make the Top 100 of 1998.

 

This is the last we see of Spacedust, though they did score another Top 20 hit in 1999 with an awkward mix of Chic’s "I Want Your Love". Daft Punk went on to eventually score a #1 of course with “Get Lucky” for four weeks fifteen years later in 2013.

 

Perhaps the worst dance number 1 single ever for me.

 

An obviously cheap knock-off that deserved to be a hit no more than any of the opportunistic karaoke covers on iTunes that smashed earlier on in this decade.

 

At least it had a miserable chart run, within the top 40 at least.

At the time I loved hearing the Bob Sinclar vs Thomas Bangalter original in the clubs, it was really fun and different. I lost track of the amount of times I heard this segueing in or out of Music Sounds Better With You.

Didn't this happen all over again with 'So Much Love to Give' charting as a soundalike cover a few years later? At the time I remember people being furious over what seemed like an harmless looped house single (by which time there were loads!) without me knowing the full story. They even had the cheek to call themselves The Freeloaders.

The Freeloaders (who according to Wikipedia were the guys behind N-Trance) track reached the top 10 over 2 years after Thomas Bangalter & DJ Falcon's version charted at #71 (some sources credit it to Together).

I do like Gangsta Trippin but I prefer Rockafella Skank

 

Gym Tonic will always be paired with Vengaboys - Up and Down in my mind as they're both minimally worded and ostensibly deal with a gymnasium theme. :D

Didn't this happen all over again with 'So Much Love to Give' charting as a soundalike cover a few years later? At the time I remember people being furious over what seemed like an harmless looped house single (by which time there were loads!) without me knowing the full story. They even had the cheek to call themselves The Freeloaders.

 

 

Cabin Crew - Star to Fall and Sunset Strippers' Falling Stars is a similar case.

Cabin Crew - Star to Fall and Sunset Strippers' Falling Stars is a similar case.

 

And Avicii's Levels and Flo Rida's Good Feeling to a smaller extent.

and this stem of dance music’s increasing popularity as we headed towards the giddy pre-millennial highs of endless partying supported by the optimism of the dotcom boom years

 

???!?!!?!

 

 

 

I think Gangsta Trippin' is one of Norman Cook's weakest records. As I discussed much earlier in this thread, I was disappointed that his natural cheesiness popped into the Fatboy Slim persona which had, up until Rockafeller, been slightly less obvious in its output.

T-Spoon are a eurodance band so it makes sense to me, just SOTB is more euroreggae than the usual dance fare, but tbh most eurodance bands did slow down for a few songs. And this sound was still relatively popular in Europe back in 1997 (original release date).

Touch and Go - Would You…?

 

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm82/TheMagicPosition86/rsz_would_you_zpskizep3qe.png

 

Date 1st November 1998

1 Week

Official Chart Run 3-4-6-13-22-28-38-42-43-48-52-69 (12 weeks)

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

 

We continue now with more novelty fare, this time produced by David Lowe and the late Charlie Gillett. Touch and Go were actually fronted by Vanessa Lancaster on vocals, Sovra Wilson-Dickson on drums, James Lynch on trumpet and Mieko Shimizu on keyboards, but the project was actually masterminded by the one and only David Lowe.

 

Working on radio as a sound recordist for the BBC at Birmingham Radio, David quickly developed a love for producing his own music and jingles, this led to him writing the music for the adverts of big brands such as Häagen-Dazs and British Airways, as well as creating well known television theme tunes such as The One Show, Countryfile, Panorama, Cash in the Attic and many more, he even started his own band named Cool Fish. In 1997, with encouragement from friend Charlie Gillett he released his first album Dreamcatcher - a complex layered and widely varying mix of sampled vocals, global rhythms and sounds such as the bağlama - however the album failed to chart.

 

In 1998, whilst working on some Brazilian-style music he came up with the concept of Touch and Go - which would pay homage to recently successful groups such as Propellerheads, where solid grooves are interspersed with sparse vocals. In this instance the vocals were taken from a documentary called The Science of Sex (though this was a closely guarded secret by Lowe at the time) and recreated live by their vocalist Vanessa Lancaster, and they avoid British reservedness instead putting all the cards on the table when she asks that vitally important question: would you go to bed with me? The novelty factor combined with the Brazilian rhythm and trumpet sounds gave the track instant appeal which launched it into the Top 3. Eventually “Would You…?” went on to become the TV theme tune to As If, and Lowe later went on to create one of the most played and widely recognisable theme tunes of all time - the fantastic BBC News theme which has been in use since 1999. Follow-up “Straight To ... Number One” went straight to the bargain bin instead and missed the Top 200, and Touch and Go were never seen again.

 

Wow. I did not know he was involved in so many television themes.

 

Myself and my best mate re-wrote the lyrics about someone who really annoyed her, who had a bit of a weight problem.

 

"I notice you are round. I find you very annoying. Would you go away from me?"

Edited May 24, 20169 yr by Colm

The Tamperer ft. Maya - If You Buy This Record Your Life Will Be Better

 

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm82/TheMagicPosition86/rsz_if_you_buy_this_record_your_life_will_be_better_zpstkdomxzg.png

 

Date 8th November 1998

2 Weeks

Official Chart Run 3-4-7-11-18-30-39-33-32-46-66-64-64-59 (14 weeks)

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

 

Where the Italian duo’s previous hit “Feel It” celebrated 80s disco track “Can You Feel It?” by taking its most defining feature and merging it with a credible underground house track, the idea for follow-up, the attention-getting “If You Buy This Record…” employed rather less sleek execution as it added an urgent beat to the instrumental hook from Madonna’s 1985 #3 hit “Material Girl”, and proceeded to camp it up to the max crossing the threshold into very definitely novelty.

 

“If You Buy This Record…” pretty much lives on its sample and offers little else of note, and the wry title gives it a novel but even more disingenuous and ironic feel (leading to one such buyer trying to sue after it failed to live up to its proclamation). Singer Maya finally takes on vocal duties here after miming those of Heather Leigh West on their debut, wrapping her fun and incredibly camp lyrics about being fabulous around the familiar sampled instrumental. There is even a stage two and a half minutes into the record where everything drops out for Maya to proclaim the drag queen-esque statement ‘I never knew life could be so fabulous’ !

 

Fast running out of ideas, after sampling Madonna so prominently the group then proceeded to beat Madonna to using the sample that gave the singer her biggest hit of the 21st Century “Hung Up” - that of course being ABBA’s “Gimme Gimme Gimme” - which was used on the groups third and final single “Hammer To The Heart” (#6), though the sample was blocked meaning there was a wait of over a year, and we got some rather less impressive rock interpretation of the sample. Incredibly it became another Top 10 in February 2000 and although it marks their final foray completes their 100% Top 10 hit success rate.

 

Edited May 25, 20169 yr by Doctor Blind