I much prefer Yeah Yeah Yeah by Jax Jones...it has a more lively and interesting instrumental, a classic house style vocal and has disco strings samples in the chorus which I like.

I really like the simplicity of 'You Don't Know Me' after all these over complicated noises recently. Same reason Kungs stood out so much last year I think.

 

I would be happy if you did four after my four come up, but its up to danG as well.

👌

Seeing as we've now lost Ethan from the project, I'd be happy to have a replacement and you seem knowledgable about 00s dance~

I've had to do some uni work recently which is why I haven't continued with this earlier, but we'll finally be finishing 2003 and getting on with 2004! It's a double! :dance: :yahoo:

Ultrabeat - Feelin' Fine

 

 

Date 21st Dec 2003

3 Weeks

Official Chart Run 12-12-13-14-18-18-24-24-31-41-54-71-x (12 weeks)

 

 

We've already seen Ultrabeat once this year* with their big #2 hit 'Pretty Green Eyes', and now here is their follow-up 'Feelin' Fine', which didn't quite make the top 10 but had great longevity for a top 20 hit, spending 6 weeks in the top 20, and 3 weeks as Dance #1. Similarly to 'Pretty Green Eyes', this was a cover of a happy hardcore song. Originally released in 1998 by Darren Styles under the alias Unique, Styles would give his blessing to the cover version; giving it one of the song's official remixes that featured on the CD single.

 

Musically the song is very similar to 'Green', as you would expect from a Clubland dance act, although 'Fine' is distinctly less 'hard' and more 'pop' than the predecessor. Both songs also use the same vocalist. However in my personal opinion this is a lot weaker of the two.

 

*Extra details about Ultrabeat and their career have already been given in the PGE commentary.

2003 in review

 

The #1s:

 

Divine Inspiration - The Way (Put Your Hand In My Hand) (1 week)

Jaimeson (feat. Angel Blu) - True (1 week)

Jurgen Vries (feat. CMC) - The Opera Song (Brave New World) (4 weeks)

Kira - I'll Be Your Angel (1 week)

DJ Sammy (feat. Carisma (aka Loona)) - The Boys Of Summer (1 week)

Junior Senior - Move Your Feet (3 weeks)

Room 5 (feat. Oliver Cheatham) - Make Luv (5 weeks)

Tomcraft - Loneliness (3 weeks)

Love Inc. - Broken Bones (1 week)

XTM & DJ Chucky presents Annia - Fly On The Wings Of Love (6 weeks)

DJ Sammy (feat. Carisma (aka Loona)) - Sunlight (1 week)

Benny Benassi presents The Biz - Satisfaction (3 weeks)

Ultrabeat - Pretty Green Eyes (7 weeks)

Elvis Presley - Rubberneckin' (Paul Oakenfold Remix) (2 weeks)

Scooter (vs. Marc Acardipane and Dick Rules) - Maria (I Like It Loud) (1 week)

David Guetta (feat. Chris Willis) - Just A Little More Love (Wally Lopez Remix) (1 week)

Ian Van Dahl - I Can't Let You Go (1 week)

Angel City (feat. Lara McAllen) - Love Me Right (Oh Sheila) (6 weeks)

The Lost Brothers (feat. G Tom Mac) - Cry Little Sister (I Need U Now) (1 week)

Ultrabeat - Feelin' Fine (3 weeks)

 

links to all the reviews are contained in the OP for easy reference

 

End-of-year:

 

Pos/Performer/Title/Dance Chart Peak/Actual Chart Peak/Sales

 

1 Room 5 feat. Oliver Cheatham - Make Luv 1 1 315k

2 Junior Senior - Move Your Feet 1 3 251k

3 Ultrabeat - Pretty Green Eyes 1 2 198k

4 XTM & DJ Chucky pts. Annia - Fly On The Wings Of Love 1 8 162k

5 Tomcraft - Loneliness 1 1 128k

6 DJ Sammy - The Boys Of Summer 1 2 128k

7 Benny Benassi pts. The Biz - Satisfaction 1 2 95k

8 Jurgen Vries feat. CMC - The Opera Song (Brave New World) 1 3 94k

9 Love Inc. - You're A Superstar 1 7 86k

10 Jaimeson feat. Angel Blu - True 1 4 80k

 

In a year of very low sales it is Room 5 and Junior Senior who are the main winners here being the only two to go Silver by the year's end. Multiply their sales by three and that'd probably be their sales if it were in the streaming era. XTM also do very well for having peaked at only #8. Also Love Inc for they had sold 162k by the year's end as well but had sales split across 2002/3.

Boogie Pimps - Somebody To Love (Saltshaker Remix)

 

 

Date 11th Jan 2004

3 Weeks

Official Chart Run 5-5-3-6-5-7-8-12-19-24-29-29-38-50-66-x (15 weeks)

 

 

For the first time since October of last year, dance music was back in the top 10, and it would remain that way for four consecutive months, spanning the first four Dance #1s of the year. There are 16 in total for 2004, four down on 2003.

 

The first one comes from Boogie Pimps, at the time German duo Mark J Klak and Mirko Jacob, but Jacob had left at some point after their two chart hits (not sure when) and was replaced by Australian-born Jon Henderson. An album, 'In Pimps We Trust' would be released in 2012. It does not feature 'Somebody To Love' or their follow-up 'Sunny' (cover version of the Bobby Hebb track in the style of the Boney M. cover, with vocals from Candee Jay), which reached #10.

 

'Somebody' was released as their debut single on Data Records and was a big hit, helped of course by a popular music video featuring babies skydiving onto a giant woman (model Natasha Mealey, who also appeared in the 'Satisfaction' video) acting as the singer, lying in a field in very little clothing; which ends with the babies sitting on her breast and getting squirted with milk (I'm not making this up).

 

The song itself is a remix of the Jefferson Airplane song of the same name, even using the original vocal from it. The song was actually first recorded by a band called The Great Society, but the vocalist (Grace Slick) left them to join Jefferson Airplane and took the song with her. The original dates from 1966 and is described as psychedelic rock. The remix however is a commercial house effort as you would expect, and was vastly more successful in the UK (the original did not chart here, but reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100). The Boogie Pimps version was also a top 10 hit in Australia but did not make a chart impact elsewhere.

 

My personal opinion, I really loved this song at the time, 2004 for me was the year I really got into commercial dance music with a lot of great dance songs becoming big hits. Lots of dance songs have bettered it since but I do enjoy listening to it every now and then for the nostalgia value.

Feeling Fine was a big singalong jam the two times I saw Ultrabeat live :D One of the many, many dance hits I'd happily assume went top ten with ease, fairly astonished it only got as high as #12 but staying in the top 20 for six weeks over Christmas means it probably sold as much as some top 5 hits.

 

I gave Somebody To Love something of a slating when I reviewed it back in 2013 - on its own it's not too bad, it's just when you compare it to something like The Opera Song from a year earlier you wonder what the hell happened to music in the twelve months previous. It's got more to it than other looped house hits of the era, but a worrying foreshadow of some of the stuff we're gonna be hearing at the top of the dance charts for the next three years...

Feeling Fine was a big singalong jam the two times I saw Ultrabeat live :D One of the many, many dance hits I'd happily assume went top ten with ease, fairly astonished it only got as high as #12 but staying in the top 20 for six weeks over Christmas means it probably sold as much as some top 5 hits.

 

I gave Somebody To Love something of a slating when I reviewed it back in 2013 - on its own it's not too bad, it's just when you compare it to something like The Opera Song from a year earlier you wonder what the hell happened to music in the twelve months previous. It's got more to it than other looped house hits of the era, but a worrying foreshadow of some of the stuff we're gonna be hearing at the top of the dance charts for the next three years...

 

Felling Fine is brilliant...the vocal really makes it and I remember it from the radio at the time and I think I actually liked it - rare for a trancepop/Eurodance song back then!

 

Somebody To Love I don't really like, the repetitive don't you want want, don't you want want is very annoying and ruins the flow of the song. The later remixes of 80s songs flow much better, I like the fact they would fade out for a while and then come back, and I much prefer them to the Waze and Odyssey, Philip George and Joe Stone organ house looped dance songs of late 2014 and early 2015, they sound warmer and are less minimal.

 

I would compare the whole mid 00s 80s remixes thing to the likes of Galantis' Love On Me now....it was just intended to be light hearted and fun after a few years of more serious sounding dance genres had dominated.

 

We Close Our Eyes by Groove Cutters is my favourite of the 80s remixes, its a shame it didn't do very well on the top 40, but I can see why, it is less commercial than the rest of them. I also like the D.O.N.S. remix of Technotronic's Pump up The Jam, keeping the original structure of the song, but adding more of a beat and some synths to make it more lively.

 

Although I prefer the actual house songs during the mid 00s to the 80s remixes (and there will be quite a few of these at dance number 1 too).

 

Edited January 20, 20178 yr by Snake Got Hissed

Seeing as we've now lost Ethan from the project, I'd be happy to have a replacement and you seem knowledgable about 00s dance~

Cool, happy to help. PM me with details 😊

The Ultrabeat one I completely forgot! Euphoric and decent.

 

Love love LOVE the Boogie Pimps track, a regular in my set list as well. What an iconic video too :lol: until this moment I had absolutely no idea it was a cover/sampling though!!

Edited January 20, 20178 yr by Lenny

Love love LOVE the Boogie Pimps track, a regular in my set list as well. What an iconic video too :lol: until this moment I had absolutely no idea it was a cover/sampling though!!

 

Its a great video, but I think the song lacks the smooth transitions of the later 80s remixes and the atmospheric fadeouts, the 'don't you want want, don't you want want' is horrible and ruins it I think.

 

I don't remember it at all from the time, which is weird.

Its a great video, but I think the song lacks the smooth transitions of the later 80s remixes and the atmospheric fadeouts, the 'don't you want want, don't you want want' is horrible and ruins it I think.

 

I don't remember it at all from the time, which is weird.

I like how it's a bit different to the rest. One of the reasons I had no idea it was a sampler.

 

Talking of which I think another one is next, possibly? A sampler and cover-interpolation at the same time...

The next one indeed samples from an older song. Well actually it samples from two.

The next one indeed samples from an older song. Well actually it samples from two.

Is it the one I dream of?

More songs during the Ultrabeat and Boogie Pimps' reigns

 

 

#35 - Bass house re-release of the house classic from the early 90s....THIS is how to make an interesting bass house track imo, not the boring minimal ones this decade such as Rhymes.

 

 

#11 - Deep trance song, very good track, if trance comes back soon it would probably be in this sort of chilled form. I think I remember this from the time, I would have like it I think, as it is quite chilled for trance.

 

 

#20 One of Flip and Fill's best I think, certainly much better than their next track. A weird title, I thought green was more Irish than blue. Also features Junior, who was a major happy hardcore vocalist in the 90s (singling the original version of Pretty Green Eyes), sadly deceased now :( Flip and Fill also seem a lot less serious looking now in the video :lol:

 

 

 

#12 Drum and bass song (didn't know Basement Jaxx did drum and bass too :o ), well ahead of its time, sounds a bit like Sigma's songs or Rudimental's Waiting All Night.

Edited January 20, 20178 yr by Snake Got Hissed

Is it the one I dream of?

 

The next one is good but I prefer the two more lively follow ups by the two dance artists in it (which both only just made top 40 sadly).

 

I shall post the next one tomorrow.

Edited January 20, 20178 yr by Snake Got Hissed

'As The Rush Comes' and 'Good Luck' are both big choons! :dance: Criminal that both of them missed the top 10.

That is one of Basement Jaxx's very best - deserved to be a much bigger hit!

"As the rush comes" is literally one of the best dance songs of alltime for me. Jes' voice is one of the most under-rated ones in music culture, for real!

Agreed As the Rush Comes is immaculate - the way it builds and the vocal are perfect - actually listened to the cd single today cos I'm working my way through my collection and triming it down - god I brought so much trance between 1999-2004 and stuff that didn't even peak top 20 too lol. Loads of Michael Woods for some reason!!