1996 at a glance...

 

1996-01-07 Baby D - So Pure (2 Weeks)

1996-01-21 Everything But The Girl - Missing (Todd Terry Remix) (1 week)

1996-01-28 Technohead - I Wanna Be a Hippy (3 Weeks)

1996-02-18 Robert Miles - Children (5 Weeks)

1996-03-24 Prodigy - Firestarter (4 Weeks)

1996-04-21 Lisa Marie Experience - Keep On Jumpin' (2 Weeks)

1996-05-05 Klubbheads - Klubbhopping (1 Week)

1996-05-12 JX - There’s Nothing I Won’t Do (3 Weeks)

1996-06-02 Robert Miles - Fable (1 Week)

1996-06-09 Livin’ Joy - Don’t Stop Movin’ (3 Weeks)

1996-06-30 Reel 2 Real - Jazz It Up (1 Week)

1996-07-07 Underworld - Born Slippy (Nuxx) (3 Weeks)

1996-07-28 Los Del Rio - Macarena (Bayside Boys Remix) (6 weeks)

1996-09-08 Stretch 'N' Vern presents Maddog - I'm Alive (2 Weeks)

1996-09-22 BBE - Seven Days and One Week (2 Weeks)

1996-10-06 The Chemical Brothers - Setting Sun (2 Weeks)

1996-10-20 Faithless - Insomnia (3 Weeks)

1996-11-10 Robert Miles ft. Maria Nayler - One & One (1 Week)

1996-11-17 Prodigy - Breathe (4 Weeks)

1996-12-15 Robert Miles ft. Maria Nayler - One & One (3 Weeks)

 

Top 10 Sellers

 

01 Robert Miles - Children

02 Prodigy - Breathe

03 Prodigy - Firestarter

04 Los Del Rio - Macarena

05 Underworld - Born Slippy (Nuxx)

06 Robert Miles & Maria Nayler

07 Livin' Joy - Don't Stop Moving

08 Technohead - I Wanna Be a Hippy

09 JX - There's Nothing I Won't Do

10 Faithless - Insomnia

Edited February 21, 20169 yr by Colm

A mixed year for me - I never thought it was great for dance music.

Let’s kick off 1997 then…

 

Tori Amos - Professional Widow (It’s Got To Be Big)

 

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm82/TheMagicPosition86/Professional%20Widow_zpsmszoedkm.png

 

Date 5th January 1997

4 Weeks

Official Chart Run 2-1-2-8-17-28-32-44-56-66 (10 weeks)

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

 

Starting off as an uncredited remix on a double A-side with other Boys For Pele single “Hey Jupiter” the previous summer - the Armand Van Helden remix of “Professional Widow” rapidly developed traction and club play which ensured a re-release 5 months later. The tactic of issuing the re-release in the quieter post-Christmas period paid-off handsomely with the single debuting at #2 to instantly give Tori her biggest hit (surpassing 1994s “Cornflake Girl” which reached #4) and promptly climbed to the top the following week after a performance on Top of the Pops - giving Tori Amos her only #1 and Armand Van Helden’s first #1 of two in the 90s.

 

Based in Boston but spending some of his youth growing up in Europe as the son of a US Air Force man, Armand Van Helden became immersed in dance music from a young age, and started to DJ from the age of 15. By the 90s he was developing a strong repertoire of remixes from artists such as New Order to M.C. Sar & The Real McCoy and became a trendy remixer for big names like the Rolling Stones. Tori Amos (born North Carolina) is an accomplished pianist and highly influential singer/songwriter who inevitably was compared to Kate Bush after her debut album, 1992s Little Earthquakes became successful. The themes of Tori’s songs however are a lot more raw than that of Bush, and act as a kind of catharsis for Amos as she deals with issues such as rape, abuse, and suicide.

 

On “Professional Widow” (taken from 3rd album Boys For Pele), a disorientating and angry harpsichord-driven rock song, Amos makes an unrelenting vitriolic attack on someone, who may or may not be Courtney Love and her relationship with Kurt Cobain (‘Don't blow those brains yet /We gotta be big boy’) - although she continues to deny this is the true inspiration behind the track. Armand Van Helden was given only one instruction when asked to remix the track - ‘just make it different’ - and that he did. “Professional Widow (It’s Got To Be Big)” is transformed into a funky house number with a blisteringly addictive bassline around which a few of Tori’s more seductive lyrics and vocals from the original are stripped out sped-up and twisted around. Van Helden steps it up around the 2 minute mark, with the bassline dropping out as echoing synths sounding like a departing tube train allow the emotional climax of ‘Beau-ti-ful ang-el, calling we got every re-run of Muhammed Ali’ before the bassline comes crashing back in. The result is something that sounds less of a remix but a new dance record that just so happens to sample Tori Amos, and because it is both danceable yet also has an alternative edge, this broadens its appeal beyond the night club.

 

Edited February 21, 20169 yr by Doctor Blind

For die-hard Tori Amos fans, it must still be hard to accept that her biggest UK hit is a remix that pretty much repeats the same lines over and over again.

Edited February 21, 20169 yr by N-S

it's Boys for Pele!!!!!!! not Songs for Pele!!!!!!!!!

 

yes for me, very very hard to accept, I was a huge Tori fan, and seeing her worst single being her highest charting is a bit sad

it's Boys for Pele!!!!!!! not Songs for Pele!!!!!!!!!

 

Thank you! Corrected. : )

I personally think it's a very very bad remix of a very very bad song. Even the original song is one of my least favourite Tori songs

 

by contrast, the follow-up to this, 1998's Spark is probably Tpri's best but only got to #16 and that's the last we heard from her in the top 40

*.*

 

1996-02-18 Robert Miles - Children (5 Weeks)

1996-03-24 Prodigy - Firestarter (4 Weeks)

1996-07-07 Underworld - Born Slippy (Nuxx) (3 Weeks)

1996-09-22 BBE - Seven Days and One Week (2 Weeks)

1996-10-20 Faithless - Insomnia (3 Weeks)

1996-11-10 Robert Miles ft. Maria Nayler - One & One (1 Week)

1996-11-17 Prodigy - Breathe (4 Weeks)

 

wow some immense tuneage came out in 1996 ~ all time classiqués :wub: :dance: :wub:

 

1996-07-28 Los Del Rio - Macarena (Bayside Boys Remix) (6 weeks)

 

the archetypal party anthem~ :party2:

 

am i right in thinking toni braxton's 'unbreak my heart' only became a hit in the uk because of the frankie knuckles radio mix?! :teresa:

Top 10 Sellers

 

01 Robert Miles - Children

02 Prodigy - Breathe

03 Prodigy - Firestarter

04 Los Del Rio - Macarena

05 Underworld - Born Slippy (Nuxx)

06 Robert Miles & Maria Nayler

07 Livin' Joy - Don't Stop Moving

08 Technohead - I Wanna Be a Hippy

09 JX - There's Nothing I Won't Do

10 Faithless - Insomnia

 

mark snow 'the x-files' should be #6~ ;)

Edited February 21, 20169 yr by Ethan

mark snow 'the x-files' should be #6~ ;)

is that really dance though???

mark snow 'the x-files' should be #6~ ;)

 

 

I noticed that on Wikipedia but when I went to youtube/Spotity I could never find a definitive version that was a dance version. I excluded it thinking that the main version was just the original X-Files theme.

 

Edited February 21, 20169 yr by Colm

is that really dance though???

 

trance/trip-hop

For die-hard Tori Amos fans, it must still be hard to accept that her biggest UK hit is a remix that pretty much repeats the same lines over and over again.

 

 

I didn't mind at all. For a few reasons - 1 it was a terrible song to start with. 2 It brought her back into the music buying population's consciousness (Little Earthquakes re-charted that month). 3 Like Everything But the Girl it may have changed Tori's direction - which it did, but I didn't know at the time.

I noticed that on Wikipedia but when I went to youtube/Spotity I could never find a definitive version that was a dance version. I excluded it thinking that the main version was just the original X-Files theme.

 

This one's always been a bit of a mystery to me - it was a huge seller but I've never been quite sure whether it was on the strength of the original version or the dance remix included on the CD single. Two videos were made for it, one with the original as used on the TV show and the other for the bleepy 'Terrestrial Mix', both identical except for the music:

 

 

 

Then of course there's the DJ Dado cover which turned it into a 'Children' soundalike, but that's a completely different version.

 

Anyone who was around to remember it know better? Which got the most radio play? Here's a clip from the ITV Chart show playing the dance remix:

 

Edited February 22, 20169 yr by BillyH

I'd say it's the dance version... why would the regular song be so popular out of the blue in 96? Hadn't the show been going on for a while? think it started in 93??

oh, I always assumed it was the original that was the hit - but a dance remix being the hit makes more sense.

I'd say it's the dance version... why would the regular song be so popular out of the blue in 96? Hadn't the show been going on for a while? think it started in 93??

Let me ask back, why wouldn't it be still popular in 96? I think the series was at its peak around 95-96 and although it's unusual that the theme song was only out when the third season was aired but it was everywhere hugely successful and the casual fans wanted to have the song itself not just a dance remix.

 

(tbh I only heard the dance remix when I bought the single... yes I bought it, I was a big X Files fan and am still, so I'm watching the new season too) :kink:

I don't think either version of X Files got played much on the radio. Top 40 played the original, but TOTP played the dance video.

I'm glad I'm not the only person confused by all this.

 

 

I don't think either version of X Files got played much on the radio. Top 40 played the original, but TOTP played the dance video.

 

peaked at #68 on airplay chart. I guess most people who bought it just watched the TV show and liked the original version. I suppose the dance video might have had some play on The Box but I certainly don't remember it being very well exposed, apart from that TOTP play

Edited February 22, 20169 yr by AcerBen