Back then it didn't seem that they were a huge band. I was getting into REM, New Order and Depeche Mode in 1993, dance was receding into the backgrond. In late 93 I would be swept away by Kate Bush and Tori Amos.

 

It was a pivotal year for me. I started it being an Erasure fan and finished it by being captivated by those two women.

Edited September 29, 20159 yr by AntoineTTe

"Tribal Dance" is one of 2 Unlimited's best singles. They kind of owned the early '90s dance wise.

Yes, 1993 was the year I went off dance music too with a couple of notable exceptions in The Orb re-releases and Leftfield's collaboration with John Lydon towards the end of the year. Rave completely ate itself and I just couldn't get into drum 'n' bass when jungle morphed into it. I was getting hugely into the bands who would be clumsily gathered together to form the nascent 'Britpop' scene soon after - Pulp, The Auteurs, Sleeper, Elastica, Suede, Blur - and some of those still hanging on from the previous "scene" - Kingmaker, Levellers, Carter USM, Pop Will Eat Itself etc. and a few other oddities that didn't fit in anywhere - Senser, Cornershop, Back to the Planet, Credit to the Nation and possibly some other bands with "to the" in their name.

1993 isn't one of my favourite musical years of the 1990s anyway, it's probably only just above 1992 for me which is my least fave year of the decade. But then I only discovered most of it years later, I'm massively more biased to the second half of the decade as I remember more of it from the time.

 

Just scrolling down my iTunes for 1993 tracks, the likes of Suede and James stand out more along with the whole of the 'Very' album by the Pet Shop Boys. Although The Time Frequency made some pretty good tracks that year.

Haddaway - What Is Love?

 

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm82/TheMagicPosition86/rsz_what_is_love_zps2xwrsa42.png

 

Date 6th June 1993

8 Weeks

Official Chart Run 18-6-3-3-2-2-3-5-6-9-16-20-32-47-64 (15 weeks)

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

 

Even if you weren’t born in the 90s, you are very likely to be aware of this song. Trinidadian Alexander Nestor Haddaway shot to #2 in the summer of ’93 with his debut hit “What Is Love?”, asking one of the most profoundly deep rhetorical questions you’re ever likely to find in a dance record, and also became the first of 3 enduring 90s dance classics that dominated the singles chart during that summer.

 

Whilst in America the song became a sizeable hit (peaking at #11) he remained the very definition of a one-hit-wonder there, however “What Is Love?” continues to be remembered thanks to enduring SNL sketch The Roxbury Guys which featured the nightclubbing addicted Butabi brothers (Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan) and even spawned 1998 film A Night at the Roxbury. Across much of Europe however, Haddaway had massive success, particularly in Germany where “What Is Love?” spent 23 weeks inside the Top 10. It was Germany after all (in Cologne) where he had settled in 1989 after spending his formative years in the United States. He initially worked as a choreographer and carpet seller, but always wrote music in his spare time, eventually he hit the big time and achieved his lifelong dream after signing with German based label Coconut Records and releasing the thumping soulful eurodance of “What Is Love?” (written and produced by Tony Hendrik and Karin van Haaren) in 1993.

 

The track uses the much employed formula of juxtaposing downbeat and heartbreaking lyrics with a euphoric beat and unbelievably catchy synths, so that as Haddaway’s lament to ‘a girl who won't love him back’ echoes through the track’s chorus - the emotion is only heightened by the backing track and successfully turns the song into something both relatable and danceable. The repetitive nature of the chorus in the song matching the frustration in the way we that we often make the same mistakes in relationships over and over.

 

Though it was blocked from the #1 by Gabrielle’s “Dreams”, “What Is Love?” spent an impressive 12 weeks in the UK Top 20, and did reach #1 in Austria, Belgium, France, and Ireland amongst others, and it also outsold many of the years chart toppers here ending as 1993’s 8th biggest hit in the UK. Perhaps surprisingly, Haddaway managed a further 3 consecutive Top 10 hits here, including Christmas ballad “I Miss You” which debuted at a worryingly low No. 34 but managed to crawl into the Top 10 in early ’94.

 

I always thought Haddaway was part of a Geordie rap duo? The other chap was a bit unfortunately named.

Love that song. The riff is pure euphoria and the verse melody is very strong. I always felt it owed something to Rhythm is a Dancer with it's snaking synth backing.

Signature track. Love his followup, "Life" which was also huge in Europe.

Sybil - When I'm Good And Ready

 

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

 

Date 4th Apr 1993

1 Week

Official Chart Run 22-16-8-5-5-5-7-13-16-23-40-54-65 (13 weeks)

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

 

Sybil Lynch arrived in the mid 80s with her wonderful voice and churned out a string of minor hits. It wasn't until her second album that she gained notable popularity updating classic Dionne Warwick songs - Don't Make Me Over and Walk On By (both written by Bacharach/David). Both UK hits.

 

But she wasn't able to maintain the momentum of this recent success and her third album failed to produce any hits at all and so she trundled on in the margins quietly making beautiful music.

 

In 1993, Messrs Aitken and Waterman took advantage of the traditional January slump in the singles market and promptly thrust our starlet into the lime-light with yet another cover, this time it was soul ballad writers Gamble and Huff's song The Love I Lost, made famous by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. This was a huge hit nestling behind Snap! as the second best selling dance single for two weeks in January.

 

By the time March came it was time to follow this up and Aitken and Watermen (lordy, men do love writing songs in pairs) provided Sybil with a newly written song When I'm Good and Ready.

 

As Doctor B mentioned in the Undercover write up (apolz from mentioning that again :( ) Pete Waterman was fond of using bleeps in his productions around this time, and this was no different. It's a pleasing confection, showcasing Sybil's effortlessly classy vocals.

 

Alas, her success was short-lived and she never again had a Top 40 hit in the UK, managing to reach number 41 with her two follow up singles Beyond Your Wildest Dreams and Stronger Together.

 

 

I won the Sybil album on cassette from Fast Forward magazine. My name was printed as a competition winner but it never arrived. At the time I thought it was the geatest injustice .

 

I just listened to Tribal Dance and it's much worse than I remembered. Twilight Zone seems to be the least rubbish of all the 2 Unlimited singles.

The text under Haddaway's clips on Youtube contains the words "Haddaway is one of the pop music world's global players." :D

'what is love' is a tune :heart:

Urban Cookie Collective - The Key: The Secret

 

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm82/TheMagicPosition86/rsz_the_key_the_secret_zpsdvnfd7rv.png

 

Date 1st August 1993

3 Weeks

Official Chart Run 40-29-20-11-6-2-2-4-6-7-13-20-33-42-56-67 (16 weeks)

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

 

We continue with more eurodance in the summer of 1993, though this time its origins are British and it has fewer and even more memorable lyrics than “No Limit”!

 

Urban Cookie Collective, were exactly that, a collective of Manchester-based record producers, songwriters, and musicians brought together by Rohan Heath - probably the most well-known and successful of which was Neil Claxton, aka Mint Royale - who now provides amusing commentary of the UK midweeks on twitter. Heath was himself influenced heavily by the Manchester dance scene that was tied closely to the hugely successful Haçienda nightclub and its co-founders New Order. He had previously worked with Together (who hit #12 in August 1990 with “Hardcore Uproar”) and toured as keyboardist with Gerald Simpson (aka, A Guy Called Gerald) who was responsible for the early acid house classic “Voodoo Ray” which also got to #12 in the summer of 1989.

 

Wanting to go it alone, Rohan set up Urban Cookie in 1992 and wrote/produced the hip-hop influenced track “Pressin’ On”. Both that single and follow-up “Lucky Stars” failed to chart, along with the original “The Key: The Secret”. Step forward into 1993 and the development of the ‘collective’ which included Mark Hadfield and the aforementioned Neil Claxton, who were both just starting out, but also Simon Bentall, Peter Samon and Johnny Jay. Perhaps the biggest coup however was the extremely talented vocalist Diane Charlemagne who had been the lead vocalist with 52nd Street during the 1980s, and was approached to provide the vocals on a remixed club ready version of “The Key: The Secret” which was based on Glam “Hell's Party”.

 

Despite its understated chart debut at 40, it quickly became the soundtrack to the summer with Diane Charlemagne’s soulful vocals elevated by the uplifting piano house melody, providing indie label Pulse-8 with their biggest hit when it went all the way to #2. The near identical follow-up “Feels Like Heaven” went to #5 in the autumn but diminishing returns soon set in. Charlemagne went on to record Goldie’s brilliant early D&B classic “Inner City Life” (which charted at an unfairly low #39 in 1995), and Neil Claxton went on to form Mint Royale with Chris Baker in 1997, who belatedly reached #1 in 2008 thanks to a dance by George Sampson on Britain’s Got Talent.

 

The first time I heard The Key The Secret I thought the vocals were Carol Decker's from T'Pau. :D

 

Sail Away was always my favourite of theirs.

Another signature track of the '90s! Never seems to get old! :wub:

My older brother's favourite song of all time. He used to hammer it in his car when I was very young.

Great write-up there about UCC. I remember when 'Pressin' On' came out and I thought, firstly, what a bloody awful name and, secondly, they'll never amount to anything. But this one track did make their name.

 

I remember hearing Hell's Party and really loving the riff, then I heard this while out one night and thought it was a really odd remix. In a way it's a shame they went on to have the big hit with that riff as it's the only part of the tune that's any good - the vocals are teeth-clenchingly irritating. Practically every big-lunged female vox dance hit of the mid 90s would have been better as an instrumental (Set You Free by N-Trance is a good example).

So many memories. 1993 was the year I first had MTV Europe at home and when I started following the UK chart.

I know what's next! :yahoo: :D

I know what's next! :yahoo: :D

 

I know what is next and I want it now?

 

SPOILERS!! :D