Deee-Lite - Groove Is In The Heart

 

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/tonyttt31/011%20Groove%20Is%20in%20the%20Heart.jpg

 

Date 2nd Sept 1990

4 Weeks

Official Chart Run 60-32-13-4-2-2-3-8-11-17-28-46-67 (13 weeks)

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

 

 

It is indeed, Dee-lite. And the ascendency to (unofficial) number 1 is warranted here more than most because, as I'm sure most of you already know, the chart compilers at the time had the rule that if two or more songs tied at number 1, the single that had climbed the most places was the official number 1 and so it was to be that Groove is in the Heart had to settle for second place to the privilege of a 17 year old track (which shall remain nameless) released to cash in on Levi's ad exposure, as it had climbed fewer places.

 

Less about that and more about this. Groove is in the Heart was at the time and still is now, a peculiar confection. Unutterably kitch, and hence unutterably cool. As the esteemed Dr Blind has already said, in 1990 dance music was still in the throws of sample-overload and even this most exotic piece was no different.

 

In this case, opening the whole thing with the impossibly funky bassline from Herbie Hancock's Bring Down the Birds. There were also some hipper-thou-names involved. One Bootsy Collins from Parliment-Funkadelic and A Tribe Called Quest's Q-Tip.

 

The single topped a few end of year singles polls - NME deemed it better than Primal Scream's Loaded, Happy Monday's Step On, Charlatans' The Only One I Know, The La's There She Goes and (gasp) Pet Shop Boys Behaviour.

Looking at the video now, one can't help thinking of Austin Powers. The influence on Scissor Sisters could also be argued for.

 

Alas another of the year's and indeed the decade's most original creations was deprived a spell at the top, even in this chart and that was What Time Is Love? by the KLF which was the number 2 dance single around this time.

 

Their time would come, though.

 

Edited June 26, 201510 yr by AntoineTTe

Love “Groove Is In The Heart” - it just never seems to age (well, apart form the 1970s video!) but I particularly love Bootsy Collins' baseline. ICONIC.

OMG I always kept thinking 'Groove is in the Heart' is a minor yet classic hit from late 90s. Definitely was above its age.

Major hit!

Groove Is In The Heart is a tune! :music: such an injustice that 'The Joker' had to block it from #1 and with so few sales between them (isn't the 'they tied' story a chart myth? or did that actually happen? :unsure:)

Not a myth. Gezza will confirm, I suspect.

The week of the 'tie' “The Joker” was judged to have sold 44,118 and “Groove is In The Heart” 44,110.

 

Of course these were only approximate figures as back in 1990 the chart compilers could only monitor several hundred or so shops.

So there was a margin within which they would apply the rule?

So there was a margin within which they would apply the rule?

 

Nope - there was never a tie. I think the tie was deliberately blown out of proportion in the media by WEA (label) to give a sense of injustice (they referred to the published panel sales: which were 2,595 for both (rounded)).

 

Indeed this helped for a time because “Groove is In The Heart” was #1 in the midweeks the following week, but again lost out to “The Joker” by the end of the week as it was genuinely increasing in sales faster.

There was never a tie? My whole life is a lie!!

 

I don't know what to believe any more :(

Rob 'n' Raz featuring Leila K - Got To Get

 

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/tonyttt31/001%20rob%20n%20raz.jpg

 

Date 6th Jan 1990

1 Week

Official Chart Run 57-32-14-13-14-11-11-8-8-10-18-28-47-68*

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

 

Rob n Raz were a Swedish production duo that had been dj-ing and performing primarily turntablism and scratching for most of the 80s. In the late 80s they started making their own music, hiring vocalists to help out. They discovered Leila K in a music competition and they offered to work with her.

 

Got To Get Was their first release together and was a hit all over Europe in 1989 going Top 5 in several countries but strangely doing better in other countries than in their homeland, Sweden. As was common, it didn't become a hit in the UK until later where it peaked at the turn of the decade becoming the biggest selling dance single in the Christmas chart and in the New Year's chart.

 

Rob n Raz would never trouble the Top 40 again, only reaching number 41 with the follow up single Rok The Nation (also with Leila K). She would have one further hit in 1992 with Carousel.

 

 

Just a correction Leila K had two further solo top 75 hits, one of which "Open sesame" got to UK no23 and was a huge hit around Europe. Her other was a over of "Ca plane pour moi" both charted in 1993.

 

This is a great list, but I am disappointed Adventures of Stevie V "Dirty cash" is not on it.

here's the "Full" story for the Dee-lite Vs Steve Miller Band debate!

 

http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?s...t&p=3538555

Just a correction Leila K had two further solo top 75 hits, one of which "Open sesame" got to UK no23 and was a huge hit around Europe. Her other was a over of "Ca plane pour moi" both charted in 1993.

 

This is a great list, but I am disappointed Adventures of Stevie V "Dirty cash" is not on it.

 

You're correct. I don't even know how I mixed that up. Carousel was her album.

 

Dirty Cash will get a mention at some point in the thread.

here's the "Full" story for the Dee-lite Vs Steve Miller Band debate!

 

http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?s...t&p=3538555

 

 

Thanks for that, Gezza. :heart:

Twenty 4 Seven featuring Captain Hollywood Project - I Can't Stand It

 

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/tonyttt31/012%20I%20Cant%20Stand%20It.jpg

 

Date 30th Sept 1990

1 Week

Official Chart Run 28-11-7-7-7-11-17-27-39-69->10(13 weeks)

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

Twenty 4 Seven were created by producer Ruud van Rijen in 1989 and were part of emerging eurodance scene using the template of female singer/male rapper. I Can't Stand It started out a lot slower as a hip-hop track with raps by MC Fixx It and Captain Hollywood, becoming a minor hit in the Netherlands with the chorus vocals done by Ruud himself, on vocoder.

 

A second version was recoded which was more up-beat, littered with over-used samples - this was a bigger hit in the Netherlands.

 

After interest being shown by German record companies it was re-recorded once more in 1990. A totally reworked version was created bringing in singer Nancy Colen on vocals. This was a slightly more serene version and this is the version that became a hit all over Europe.

 

It featured house piano much more heavily and a prominent use of a sample of Kraftwerk's The Robots which went uncredited.

 

It sneaks a week in as the best selling dance single during a bit of downtime for dance music in late 1990.

 

They would have one follow up hit in the UK with Are You Dreaming? at Christmas that year. Further hits were had on the continent while Captain Hollywood left in 1992 to pursue his own band's success with the Captain Hollywood Project which also proved more popular in mainland Europe compared to he UK where he had a huge hit with the Rhythm is a Dancer-sound-alike More and More - his sole hit in the UK.

 

I Can't Stand It has a nice little groove to it.

 

We shouldn't be too far from the ravey #1's by this point. :music:

We're still a few months away from them.

This week will be rather sparse due to commitments. Next post tomorrow.

Love “Groove Is In The Heart” - it just never seems to age (well, apart form the 1970s video!) but I particularly love Bootsy Collins' baseline. ICONIC.

 

I think the bassline was sampled from Herbie Hancock's Bring Down the Birds, but it might have been recreated. Bootsy just does vocals on the meeting of the minds mix I think. Iconic either way.

The mix of Twenty Four Seven's "I Can't Stand It" that was released in the UK was the Bruce Forrest mix (the one in the embedded video). The original version which had been a hit in Europe previously was considered too weak for the harder, UK dance market...and they were right - the original is really, really twee.

 

I had a bit of a thing for Nancy Coolen back then if I remember...