If trance could come back it would be very much appreciated :D

 

It will be coming back with my BJSC entry with Colm.

 

Yes early 2000s trance was great but early and mid 2000s house was great too, not just the funky variety, but the deep house too like the last Planet Funk song is much better imo than 2010s deep house. And there is even some nice early 2000s drum and bass which will feature on this thread.

Jakatta - American Dream

 

 

Date 18th Feb 2001

3 Weeks

Official Chart Run 3-8-13-18-20-25-35-36-49-56-66-65-63-x(2)-73-x (14 weeks)

 

 

Dave Lee is a British DJ and producer who has been releasing music since the 90s and DJing since before then. Like a few dance acts he would use a number of aliases - the most known of these being Jakatta and Joey Negro who both had multiple chart hits in the UK. He would also have two top forty hits as Raven Maize. Today he mostly uses the Joey Negro alias and is still active.

 

'American Dream' would be his first of three top 10 hits as Jakatta, though it would not be until one year later before he released a follow-up, the #8 'So Lonely'. Between those releases a remix package of 'American Dream' was released and charted in the top 75. The song would sell 67,000 in the first week to get a #3 debut (only 5k behind Wheatus sitting at #2) and over 200,000 in total, enough for it to land in the top ten of the end-of-year dance chart. A vocal was provided by Swati Nektar, though this is not the focus of the song and there are no sung lyrics.

 

Unusually for a dance song the beats are in 6/4 time rather than 4/4 which more than 99% of dance songs use. Though wikipedia simply describes it as progressive house it is vastly different to many others of its genre due to such a change. It also does the unusual thing of sampling a film score. The two samples are both taken from the soundtrack to 'American Beauty' (1999) composed by Thomas Newman titled 'Any Other Name' (used in the downbeat piano bit in the middle) and 'Dead Already' (used in the rest of the song). 'Dead Already' was also used in a scene in the film Madagascar which was one of my favourites as a child.

 

Unrelated fun fact: It was Dave Lee that suggested to Take That's record label to make a cover version of 'Relight My Fire' as the original had been making a good impression at house music clubs. He produced the song with Andrew Livingstone and it was a UK #1. So you can thank him for that Take That fans.

Chase The Sun & American Dream are both great tracks :wub:

The 3 tracks from 2001 are all fantastic so far - American Dream in particular.

'touch me' is an all-time fave ~ sublime :wub: :dance: :wub:

 

‘chase the sun’ :heart: seems to be something of a forgotten gem :music:

 

‘american dream’ is LUSH :wub: :dance:

American Dream is amazing, that film had such a gorgeous soundtrack that was just screaming for a remix.

Very good selection so far for 2001. :)

2001 couldn't start better, love the three tracks, all 10/10 for me, with Rui da Silva and Planet Funk being 11/10 songs :D

I never knew Make A Move On Me and this song were made by the same person, such different styles of house music.

 

It is the Darude - Sandstorm house equivalent I would say, another iconic instrumental track from the early 2000s. I heard it quite a bit at the time, liked it a lot and still do but not as much as Make A Move On Me.

 

Interesting mix of UK #1s and (lots of) Eurohits that did nothing/weren't released here, and a few that eventually were UK hits but years later - Mauro Picotto's Komodo in 2001, DJ Aligator's The Whistle Song and ATC's Around the World in 2002, and a remixed version of The Underdog Project's Summer Jam a whopping three years later in 2003! And Gigi D'Agostino's La Passion which was randomly massive in Ireland but bafflingly not in the UK.

 

is a fave of mine in that video, very Alice Deejay/DJ Quicksilver - surely that would have been a UK top ten had they bothered releasing it here?

 

I only discovered Danse Avec Moi last year on a cheap old German Bravo Hits compilation but yes, what a tune. I also hear Sash! (the vocals) and Scooter (the techno backing) and even N-Trance (the piano outro) in it. It's like it was made for me, I'm only sorry I missed 15 years of enjoyment from it.

 

I was so glad ATC's Around The World got another chance here in 2002, as it was such an epic track, it even smashed in the US in 2000. They featured in Smash Hits magazine in summer 2000 iirc so I guess the single was cancelled in before it got released first time around.

 

This happened to a lot of tracks in the early 00s, with singles being cancelled at the last minute (Atomic Kitten's You Are springs to mind, that was surely a top 5 smash in the waiting?), Vanessa Amorosi's Shine (would have gone top 20 I think based on the exposure it had leading up to the cancelled release) and DJ Encore's I See Right Through To You (actually I think this may have been disqualified rather than cancelled but I can't be sure).

Artful Dodger feat. Michelle Escoffery - Think About Me

 

 

Date 11th Mar 2001

1 Week

Official Chart Run 11-17-26-36-38-47-62-63-x (8 weeks)

 

YouTube Link

 

Once again we see Artful Dodger here, their fourth and final entry in this countdown. Between this and 'Woman Trouble' they released #4 hit 'Please Don't Turn Me On', which was stuck behind Daft Punk's 'One More Time', but 'Think About Me' manages to claim the dance #1 here despite missing the top ten, debuting at #11 with sales of 25,000. This makes the song the first on our rundown to have peaked outside the top ten, and it won't be the last. Artful Dodger would make the UK top 10 once more with 'Twentyfourseven' featuring Melanie Blatt of All Saints but that won't be featured here.

 

'Think About Me' is another garage song from them as they are used to doing, using a piano in the mix this time though it does sound like a weaker version of Craig David's 'Fill Me In' (garage inspired but was decided ineligible for this). It is quite forgettable really.

 

You already know Artful Dodger but it is worth including a description of the featured artist here. Escoffery only had one hit single as a singer but she has been quite successful as a songwriter - having written Liberty X's #1 single 'Just A Little' and won an Ivor Novello award for it, as well as writing for All Saints, Tina Turner and Beverly Knight.

It's got a nice trancey build up to the chorus. I don't remember it at all but the piano is really nice and I like this. Escoffery's voice is nice too.

 

That's a headache inducing single cover though.

I always prefered Inside All The People to Chase The Sun.

 

Think About Me is my favourite Artful Dodger tune. Michelle's vocals are heavenly.

So if Craig David isn't included, then Daniel Bedingfield definitely won't be either.

It's got a nice trancey build up to the chorus. I don't remember it at all but the piano is really nice and I like this. Escoffery's voice is nice too.

 

That's a headache inducing single cover though.

Totally forgot about this Artful Dodger song. Very nice imo. And you're right with the cover. This cover doesn't suit this song to be honest :lol:

I wish Artful Dodger had a more prolonged career, they weren't seen again after just a couple of years, if that.

I wish Artful Dodger had a more prolonged career, they weren't seen again after just a couple of years, if that.

 

Yes they were very big in the first two years of the 2000s. I wish Ultrabeat and The Shapeshifters would have had longer ones making the top 40 too those two were great.

Edited August 14, 20168 yr by TheSnake

I always prefered Inside All The People to Chase The Sun.

 

“The Switch” is my favourite, though predictably it flopped - but it still did better than “Inside All The People” which stalled at #81!

Rui Da Silva must have been a big shock to chart-watchers of the time, as the 'planned' #1 was surely It's The Way You Make Me Feel by Steps...but a few record stores sold copies a week early, charting it at #72 the week before and climbing to #2 the week Touch Me debuted at #1. Looking at how empty that chart is - one of the quietest weeks of the year -

(#3) and

(#13) look also to be attempts at high-charting dance hits sneaking in post-Christmas, Mauro at least getting the biggest UK hit of his career and a massive hit in Ireland, where it reached #2. A similar sales issue to Steps affected a dance #1 we'll be seeing in this thread in about a (past) year's time.

 

As great as Touch Me is, I was hoping to see this at some point, #6 in the main chart and dance #3 behind Rui and Fragma:

 

 

(Safri Duo - Played A-Live (The Bongo Song))

Cheesy for some perhaps but I adore it, trancepop paradise!

So if Craig David isn't included, then Daniel Bedingfield definitely won't be either.

 

Daniel Bedingfield will be included. It's more dancey than 'Fill Me In' imo and definitely enough to qualify for this.