Various dance music genres have stormed the UK charts over the years, from house to rave to Eurodance to trance to garage to dubstep to D&B to deep house and beyond. But compared to a lot of countries in Europe, including Ireland and as far away as Australia, the gabber/happy hardcore genres never quite became the huge chart force they were in places like Germany and the Netherlands back in the mid-1990s. When they did sell, they'd generally be in the far north of the country and the Scottish Singles Charts are full of top 10 hits for the genre that missed top 40 when the rest of the UK is added back in.

 

What made things more complicated is that some tracks were remixed into slower handbag-house style songs when given their UK release, e.g. Interactive's 'Forever Young' and Westbam's 'Wizards of the Sonic' which made the top 40 in the UK as very different-sounding Red Jerry remixes. And then around 2002-03, a huge amount of underground hardcore club hits got covered as pop-trance songs, usually by Flip & Fill.

 

Does anyone remember any gabber/happy hardcore tracks, no matter how poppy, that charted in the UK in their original versions, not remixed? Early 1996 seems to have been the closest it came to reaching the UK mainstream, when Technohead's 'I Wanna Be A Hippy' somehow, brilliantly, charted as high as number 6, and is surely the biggest seller of the genre of this country:

 

...and a bonus question that I'd love if anyone could answer me, which I've wondered about for a while.

 

Nakatomi's 'Children of the Night' makes an extremely random appearance in the UK chart at #31, in w/e 26/10/2002. I've never worked out why, or what mix was used. Was it the original? Or was it some sort of Flip & Fill style trance mix which would fit the era better?

Born Slippy Nuxx could almost be considered hardcore.

 

I'm surprised Scooter were never as big in the UK in the 90s as they were in the rest of Europe.

You'll notice in the 90s dance thread that the tempo of rave accelerates rapidly in 92 influenced by the gabber movement in Rotterdam, with Rotterdam Termination Source probably (getting to 27 with the bouncy “Poing” in November) probably an early gabber example, however at a very low (for gabber) BPM of around 148.

 

Scooter's “Back In the U.K.” was charting at the same time as Technoheads but it took them until 2002 to score a huge hit to emulate their success across Europe (with my favourite chart run of 2002 incidentally!) however apart from across the north of England the closest we came to embracing gabber was the Dutch music chart.

 

I think Jungle gradually ended up being more popular at the time (see my Dance chart commentary for 1992) with M-Beat scoring a Top 10 hit in September 1994, followed by the rise of Drum and Bass.

'Children Of the Night' is amazing and probably my favourite of this particular genre! Such a great song. :wub:

 

Also, I loved Wigan Pier's version of 'I Touch Myself' (though, that never charted :()

I remember Paffendorf charted back in 2002.

'Be Cool' was a #7 hit, surely that counts?

 

 

Actually I'd be happier to include 'Crazy, Sexy, Marvellous' had it charted within the Top 40. 'Be Cool' is more on the trancey side, listening back.

Edited August 12, 20159 yr by Vülker

...and a bonus question that I'd love if anyone could answer me, which I've wondered about for a while.

 

Nakatomi's 'Children of the Night' makes an extremely random appearance in the UK chart at #31, in w/e 26/10/2002. I've never worked out why, or what mix was used. Was it the original? Or was it some sort of Flip & Fill style trance mix which would fit the era better?

I don't know anything about the song, but I would guess it was this release, with a QFX mix? http://www.discogs.com/Nakatomi-Children-O.../release/598985

 

http://i.imgur.com/9AHKxNk.png

 

That has the same catalogue number, and Turnbull's name in the credits.

the likes of baby d 'let me be your fantasy' and n-trance 'set you free' tend to be tagged as uk hardcore these days, but yeah generally hardcore/gabba seems to have been restricted to a generally underground following ~ similarly hard dance tracks often skirmished the lower reaches of the chart from the mid 90's into the early 00's without ever making that massive chart breakthrough~

I think "Children Of The Night" was just one of those records that became a bit of an underground classic over several years, a bit like "Forever Young", so would sell a bit every time it was released. I was only introduced to it by a friend of mine about 5 years ago and he was surprised I didn't know it! Looks like the 2002 top 40 version must've been the same as the 1997 QFX remix.

 

Chart history:

 

#149 (November 1996 - Original)

#186 (July 1997 - QFX Remix, Import)

#47 (February 1998 - QFX Remix, UK Release)

#138 (May 1999 - QFX Remix, Re-entry)

#31 (October 2002 - QFX Remix, Re-release)

 

I loved "Back In The UK", Technohead's "Happy Birthday" and the Red Jerry mix of "Forever Young" when I heard them on the chart show at the tender age of 9!

 

Pretty sure the Westbam track was a hit in its original version here - at least they played the original version on the Radio 1 chart show.

Edited August 12, 20159 yr by AcerBen

There were stacks and stacks of hardcore records making the chart in 1992 but they were all precursors to the "happy hardcore" UK movement which started a year or so after. Some acts such as Sonz of a Loop Da Loop Era and 4 Hero moved to a more breaks / drum n bass sound while others like SL2 and Ellis Dee embraced the cheesier sounds. That was pretty much the choice they had, most went for the former.

 

So, I would add...

 

#31 SL2 - On a Ragga Tip '97 (15th February 1997)

 

Not sure I would classify Rotterdam Termination Source's Poing! in the 'happy hardcore' bracket but it was certainly in the spirit. Check out their follow-up "Merry X-Mess" for more evidence of that.

 

I definitely would not tar Born Slippy (Nuxx) with the happy hardcore brush though.

Edited August 13, 20159 yr by richie

I'm learning lots about dance subgenres in this thread.