That's it for now. We'll return to the unfortunate number 2s later.

Undercover - Baker Street

 

Official Chart Run 17-9-4-3-3-2-3-3-5-10-15-28-33-57

 

Also from 1992 we have the bleep-tastic cover of Baker Street from Undercover that got kept in the silver position by The Shamen's Ebeneezer Goode (which it actually outsold) - and not Snap!'s Rhythm is a Dancer, which I believed for the last 20-odd years until I checked this recently.

This really was the Jonas Blue of its day then, not just the #2 peak but it spending quite a while in the top 10 plus of course covering a classic that many people would prefer to be left alone.

 

Liking most of these #2s anyway, poor 'Raving I'm Raving' was robbed of a decent chart run :(

Mark Snow -The X-Files Theme Song

 

 

Official Chart Run 2-2-2-5-9-19-24-25-32-38-38-46-57-67-72 (15 weeks)

 

Given the discussion earlier, we should probably mention that this got held at bay for 3 weeks by Firestarter in March 1996.

This YouTube clip seems to be the same as the DJ Dado version [#8 April 1996]

 

Could someone who remembers actually post the version that was a hit for Mark Snow as I'm still very confused?

 

this is the main version that charted around the world.

Edited April 29, 20169 yr by jszmiles

Some pretty good number 2s there apart from Baker Street. Undercover appeared to be fronted by a geography teacher dancing at a school disco.

 

I loved the Brits dance medley at the time - and it always sounded weird hearing Jeff Wayne segue into Acieeeeed!

 

When it was 'performed' at the Brits I think the Cookie Crew were the only act to turn up live for their bit (the couplet at the end).

Edited April 29, 20169 yr by richie

It was a good remix for the technology that was around then.

 

On the quality of the number 2s - I thought Raving I'm Raving wasn't great. I loved Dirty Cash and the Brits medley.

Dr Alban - It's My Life

 

 

Still love this one. One of the songs I immediately think of when I think of the early 90's.

I thought Raving I'm Raving wasn't great.

 

Very much of its time. I don't think it would have made number 2 if it hadn't been forced to be such a limited release and with all the publicity that went with it. As far as the song goes, it was pretty standard SUAD apart from the sample and Peter Bouncer part. The "remix" they had to do for TOTP was bloody awful.

 

Regarding the release, I actually bought it a couple of weeks before it charted in a John Menzies in Inverness. I'm guessing there was either an embargo after it initially went out or some went out early and the folks in the shop just put it on the shelf anyway.

Run-DMC Vs Jason Nevins - It’s Like That

 

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm82/TheMagicPosition86/Its%20Like%20That_zps5gtnvsuj.jpg

 

Date 15th March 1998

7 Weeks

Official Chart Run 1-1-1-1-1-1-2-5-13-17-23-26-35-36-48-66 (16 weeks)

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

 

Joseph Simmons (Run), Darryl McDaniels (DMC), and Jason ‘Jam Master Jay’ Mizell all grew up in the New York City borough of Queens, and in 1983 were given a recording contract on the strength of their debut single “It’s Like That” - a track which captured the voice of a disenfranchised generation without selling false hope away from the fatalism, poverty and economic disaster it described. The track is somewhat less gritty and explicit than other hip-hop anthems that went on to define the mid-1980s, however it has much the same social commentary, fresh sounds, and raw political rhetoric with the ironic refrain ‘it’s like that, and that’s the way it is’ collectively throwing its arms up in equal exasperation and apathy.

 

Early purveyors of hip-hop: Run-DMC were widely acknowledged as introducing hip-hop to a wider mainstream audience in 1986 when they took the refrain from Aerosmith single “Walk This Way” (which itself had only briefly made the Top 100 in the UK in 1976, peaking at #85, but was a moderate hit in the US) and energised it into a hybrid rock/hip-hop anthem drawing much of its success from that guitar riff and one that would eventually storm its way into the UK Top 10. So it is therefore perhaps appropriate that twelve years later their little known debut would be picked up in much the same way and transformed into a thumping house anthem by New York DJ Jason Nevins - in a remix that would secure the longest run at the top since the Spice Girls, and indeed become the first act to prevent a Spice Girls single from reaching #1 (“Stop”).

 

Also from New York, Jason Nevins (his real name, despite being in inverted commas on the artwork for the single) got his first gig as a radio DJ playing a mix of New York house and more accessible pop/dance in the 1980s. Through his love of spending time in the studio, he delighted in taking tracks that he loved and reworking them. His club remix of “It’s Like That”, taking an unrelenting beat to match the furious to-and-fro sharp, witty rhyme-swapping from Run-DMC would become a huge underground anthem in 1997, and the following year would make him an overnight star with artists queuing up to work with him. Jason only received a paltry $5000 for this remix despite it going on to sell 1.1 million in the UK alone and becoming the 20th biggest hit of the entire decade. Run-DMC briefly reformed but were unable to recreate their creative/influential peak of 1983-6 and tragically lost Jam Master Jay, who was shot in October 2002. Nevins returned with a Cyprus Hill remix the following year: “Insane In The Brain” (#19, June 1999) and made a return to the Top 10 briefly in 2003 with the Michael Jackson sampling “I'm In Heaven” (#9) and continues to work as a prolific remixer.

 

The success of It's Like That always baffled me. I dont get anything out of it at all.

The Tamperer ft. Maya - Feel It

 

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm82/TheMagicPosition86/rsz_feel_it_zpssyhw1hpy.png

 

Date 3rd May 1998

4 Weeks

Official Chart Run 3-4-3-5-2-1-4-5-11-21-30-42-42-54-62-61-68 (17 weeks)

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

 

As with their Italian contemporaries Livin’ Joy, The Tamperer were an Italian production duo (Alex Farolfi and Mario Fargetta) fronted by an imported American singer - however debut single “Feel It” didn’t actually feature the vocals of front-woman Maya Days - who they were already working with for a follow-up; instead they took the uncredited vocals of Heather Leigh West from a mid-90s underground house track called “Drop A House (On That Bitch)”.

 

Igniting nostalgia and novelty simultaneously - “Feel It” gratuitously takes the hugely recognisable bell-soaked fanfare, riff and main bassline from The Jacksons’ 1981 hit “Can You Feel It?” and updates it for the 90s with a stomping house beat. Despite the sample not being entirely subtle, Farolfi and Fargetta manage to transform the disco track into an entirely modern sounding house anthem. In spite of the title, none of the lyrics from the original track are here, and instead we get some speed garage style mashed-up vocal effects sampled directly from Urban Discharge’s little-known 1995 single “Drop A House (On That Bitch)”. That track as mentioned was credited to She who was in fact New York singer Heather Leigh West; on which she unleashes an aggressive vocal assault on the women who has cheated with her guy, and threatens brilliantly to ‘drop a house on that bitch’ - hence the infamous lyric ‘what’s she gonna like with a chimney on her?’ which puzzled and intrigued listeners equally.

 

“Feel It” was a consistent seller and took advantage of a becalmed singles chart to improve on its debut and eventually hit the number 1 on its sixth charting week. This is by no means the last we have seen of The Tamperer.

 

Edited May 1, 20169 yr by Doctor Blind

however debut single “Feel It” didn’t actually feature the vocals of front-woman Maya Days

 

You learn something every day...

Much like The Rockefeller Skank, the best part of Feel It is the slow motion bit. "Withaaaa chiiimneeeey oooon herrrrrr!"

Pete Waterman was quite clearly influenced by the production on Feel It for the Steps cover of Tragedy later on in the year. Practically the same.

Feel It is such a timeless jam! :love:

 

Next song to hit #1 with the Can You Feel It sample was Madonna's Sorry.

Pete Waterman was quite clearly influenced by the production on Feel It for the Steps cover of Tragedy later on in the year. Practically the same.

 

 

Totally. And I've only just copped that now.

Rightt.....now I get why that "what's she gonna look like with a chimney on her" lyric is in there - the original title of the vocal makes sense.

 

In the case of both It's Like That and Feel It, it was a chance for the current generation to enjoy the previous generation's (early 80s) music for the first time. In each case, the producers didn't exactly do a lot except sellotape it together with a current beat underneath. Not unlike those awful Starsound records of the early 80s or, indeed, Jive Bunny.

Mousse T Vs Hot ’n’ Juicy - Horny

 

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

 

Date 31st May 1998

5 Weeks (2 consecutive)

Official Chart Run 3-2-7-7-7-10-11-16-17-19-24-29-31-42-52-64-70 (17 weeks)

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

 

Mousse T was the alias of German/Turkish DJ and producer Mustafa Gündoğdu, who started his career back in 1989 as a keyboardist for Fun Key B - it was shortly after this that he teamed up with Errol Rennalls to launch the Peppermint Jam record label in Hannover, whilst at the same time igniting his passion for DJ-ing. The label mainly focussed on underground techno and trance to start with but gradually moved towards vocal house with Ruffneck’s “Everybody Be Somebody” becoming their first hit in 1995 (#13 in the UK).

 

Mousse T produced a couple of his own singles in the mid-90s, these being a mix of vocal house and even early UK 2-step garage but it was “Horny” that became his breakthrough, a whirlwind mix of disco and house with an uncredited (but fairly prominent) horn sample chopped up from Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Something Special” after which the track originally took its title. The equivocality of the title obviously brought the single a lot of additional attention and was played up to with the lyric portraying an ode to feeling amorous. The original of “Horny” was produced the year before and featured prolific New York singer Inaya Day on vocal duties; however just as they prepared to shoot the video Errol spotted Emma Southam (now: Lanford) and Nadine Richardson in a popular bar in Birmingham and asked them if they wanted to be in the video - when arriving back in Hannover to meet Gündoğdu it was noted that Emma could really sing and so her vocals were added to Inaya’s and credited to the vocal group Hot ’n’ Juicy. The ’98 mix was then created and starts off with the horn sample and beat coming in immediately, whereas the 1997 original starts with the vocal refrain quietly looped as the track starts to build - it immediately became a huge success storming into the Top 3 with 2 other new entries, only the second time in UK chart history that there had been an ‘all-new-Top 3’.

 

Mousse T continued to have Top 10 hits in the 2000s with “Sex Bomb” (with Tom Jones) and “Is It ‘Cos I’m Cool?” (with Emma Lanford returning) in 2000 and 2004 respectively. Inaya Day continued to provide vocals on dance tracks and even had a hit on her own with “Nasty Girl” in 2005 (#9).

 

Edited May 2, 20169 yr by Doctor Blind

Also worth noting the song returned to the chart in the 2000s as a cool mash-up with The Dandy Warhols 'Bohemian Like You' titled 'Horny As A Dandy'