This is a classic from my childhood. That chart run was amazing for the time.

don't let the name 'DJ Otzi' fool you, whilst he may be a DJ - the song is more cheesy pop than it is dance.

 

It was everywhere at the kids discos when I was young.

DJ Otzi is more schlager than anything (which incorporates elements of pop, country, traditional folk music and dance - though I'd struggle to make a case for him to be in this thread!). He's still huge in Austria/Switzerland/Germany, I never fail to be surprised whenever I walk into a music shop in Germany and see racks and even whole sections of shelves devoted to the guy's albums.

 

This was the biggest selling song of the noughties in Germany, with something like 40 weeks in the top ten across 2007 and 2008:

 

 

And this was his breakthrough hit from 1999, also a HUGE smash in those countries. Awful but hugely catchy, even if you don't speak the language:

 

don't let the name 'DJ Otzi' fool you, whilst he may be a DJ - the song is more cheesy pop than it is dance.

 

It was everywhere at the kids discos when I was young.

 

Well it has very light dance beats in it (would it qualify as house) and a trancey sort of synth and beat after the chorus.

 

It has a great vocal to it. I like the way he says 'Be my' it's quite unique, I also like the synth sounds after 'When you turn and walk away'.

 

That Anton Aus Tirol song is amazing - those trance beats. Really nice synths in it too.

Edited August 25, 20168 yr by TheSnake

Well it has very light dance beats in it (would it qualify as house) and a trancey sort of synth and beat after the chorus.

 

It has a great vocal to it. I like the way he says 'Be my' it's quite unique, I also like the synth sounds after 'When you turn and walk away'.

 

I'd just file it next to Scooch and Fast Food Rockers, dance-influenced cheesy pop. It's difficult to know where to draw the line though for sure.

 

For example this track which peaked at #15 in 2002 is far more traditional dance than all of the above, and sounds like a typical AATW Clubland production of the time, yet I'm not sure it belongs in this thread either (not that it will feature anyway, as there will have been dance songs above it that week):

 

Oh my, 2001 took a while to start getting to the classics, but Another Chance, Castles In The Sky and Starlight are all divine, the latter in particular is one of my all time favourites. :wub: I actually prefer the remix of Castles in the Sky, if only cos I feel it needed a big drop to send it *ahem* skywards.

 

My colleague at the shop I volunteer in has an uncle that was in So Solid Crew B-) 21 Seconds isn't a big favourite, but it's amazingly quotable/unique, Hey Baby on the other hand was a school disco classic, though not really one that's appropriate to this thread.

Edited August 25, 20168 yr by Chez Wombat

Ian Van Dahl had a good run of Top 40 singles, including Castles In The Sky, Will I, Reason, Try, I Can't Let You Go and Believe, but each time the songs peaked lower and lower until they made no more music.

 

So Solid Crew were a decent garage outfit at the time. 21 Seconds was a surprise #1 single.

 

Gotta love Supermen Lovers – Starlight. The video is great!

 

DJ Otzi also had hits with Do Wah Diddy, X-mas Time and Live Is Life (a collaboration with Hermes House Band).

DJ Otzi is more schlager than anything (which incorporates elements of pop, country, traditional folk music and dance - though I'd struggle to make a case for him to be in this thread!). He's still huge in Austria/Switzerland/Germany, I never fail to be surprised whenever I walk into a music shop in Germany and see racks and even whole sections of shelves devoted to the guy's albums.

Exactly, DJ Ötzi is schlager.

I don't know what's the equivalent for that in the UK but I wouldn't class it as dance.

 

You can hear such songs in the Octoberfest in Munich all night long :heehee:

But be aware, your ears will be damaged after 30 minutes! :ph34r:

agree just because somebody presents himself as DJ (Otzi), doesn't mean it's making dance music, this is a pop novelty song just like Barbie Girl

Exactly, DJ Ötzi is schlager.

I don't know what's the equivalent for that in the UK but I wouldn't class it as dance.

 

You can hear such songs in the Octoberfest in Munich all night long :heehee:

But be aware, your ears will be damaged after 30 minutes! :ph34r:

 

It's not a genre really heard here, the closest we've had to charting schlager is ABBA's Waterloo, Charlotte Nilsson's Take Me To Your Heaven and I guess the likes of Steps and Scooch have schlager influence but there's just as much cheesy pop and dance influence.

 

Go to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park each year though and you'll hear it in the Bavarian village!

Why's that? I'm sure it would have done fine in September too! The charts were still very receptive to trance, as seen by N-Trance's seminal trance reworking of Set You Free hitting #4 that month.

 

True, but I was referring to the fact that 9/11 occurred in September 2001, and if Castles In The Sky had been released after 9/11, then it might not have done as well due to the title being inappropriate (I believe this did affect its airplay in the US).

Amazing to hear those other DJ Otzi songs, seems crazy how big they were in Germany - reminds me how Rednex were a massive group in some countries right into the noughties, where here they're just known for their one hit. Ein Stern sounds very 90s for 2007 (and did the video cost *anything* to make? I thought it was a fan video until about 30 seconds in), but I suppose it was so radio-friendly a track that it was guaranteed mega airplay. Anton Aus Tirol is ridiculous but awesome :D And I'd forgotten about 'It's A Rainbow', seemed a *really* random release at the time but looking back the average uni student of the era (born early 80s) would remember Rainbow quite strongly from their childhood, so probably worked in the same way the early 90s "toytown techno" hits (Smart E's/Urban Hype/Shaft etc) did so well. Youtube just confirmed my vague memory of the "live" Top of the Pops performance of it, which must have baffled most of the kids watching and would baffle anyone under 25 today :P

 

Back to 2001 - yep, Castles in the Sky is an early noughties masterpiece IMO, poppier than Sandstorm and Silence but layered enough to hugely stand out in the trancepop-dominated early noughties. There's something unusually sad about it, one of those dance tracks that's upbeat but with an underlying poignancy throughout - like the very idea of building 'castles in the sky' is hopeless, although maybe that's just me reading too much into it. Loads of trancepop tracks do this but it especially works here.

 

21 Seconds - Nah. Sorry, again, not for me, a couple of good bits but nothing that wows me, and it annoyed me perhaps too much that this was played at a "90s club night" about a year ago when it's nowhere near either musically or chronologically. 'Sandstorm' was too but I let that pass for being recorded in '99 and just being a way better dance track than this.

 

Starlight (date needs fixing on this one I think) might be an early example of dance tracks realising that a memorable CGI video will guarantee them tons of TV airplay, particularly on 'music request' channels like The Box - the song itself was a massive radio hit anyway and unescapable right through the second half of the year, but there'll be a few over the noughties where I think their bright colourful CGI videos helped a fair bit with their chart success, at least until 2004 or so when "fit girls in underwear" videos started to regrettably dominate. The very end of it is amusing to listen to now, thanks to a radio station I was listening to about a decade ago having a technical breakdown and playing the last ten seconds on repeat for over an hour!

 

N-Trance's 'Set You Free' remix misses out by one place (#4 the week Starlight was #3) and at #18 that week was the brilliant 'On The Move' by Barthezz, which sounds all the world like a random Euro club track that wouldn't get a UK release in a million years, but to my delight it did and hit the top twenty:

 

 

And no Hey Baby...yeah, I think I agree there, it felt like a dance track at the time but it fits in more with things like Steps and S Club, just about on the pop side of things. I notice Kylie's Can't Get You Out of My Head isn't included either which again I agree with.

 

Bizarre and kinda sad to think that out of all the songs to be #1 on that day in September, it was Otzi's...

Edited August 27, 20168 yr by BillyH

Barthezz was the Martin Garrix of his day, having dance hits while still a teenager.

Many Buzzjackers are probably aware of it already, but the full archived Scottish Singles Chart - at least back to 1994 - is on the Official Charts Company. You'd think there wouldn't be much difference between Scotland and the rest of the UK at first (except for the occasional football song) but there's actually a huge amount of differences, especially from a dance perspective. In the 1990s, acts like QFX, Q-Tex, Ultrasonic and Scooter are regular top 10 - some even #1 - presences, but charted low top 40 in the UK chart (or missed it completely) indicating that their success was mostly confined to the northern regions. In contrast, UK garage was way bigger in the south of the UK - particularly London - than in Scotland, so you've got huge UK garage #1s that missed the top 10 in Scotland in favour of trancier stuff.

 

Two extreme examples from both sides -

(check out the CGI video!) was a #1 hit in Scotland in 1997, but only #21 in the full UK chart. And on the other side, Oxide & Neutrino's 'Bound 4 Da Reload' a huge UK #1 but only entered at #28 in Scotland...however, it shot up to a peak of #11 in its second week, indicating the radio play once it reached UK #1 saw it catch on in Scotland a little better.

 

A word of caution though, they start to get somewhat misleading from about 2006 onwards as downloads weren't integrated into the chart for years (late 2009 I think judging on the #1s), so there's all sorts of random tracks appearing and charting suspiciously highly which get less and less accurate as the noughties go on. But for the 90s/early noughties at least they're an interesting read.

 

Full list of Scottish #1s here.

Edited August 28, 20168 yr by BillyH

At least until 2004 or so when "fit girls in underwear" videos started to regrettably dominate.

 

I don't know why they had to do this the tunes were of great quality during this period and they didn't need to have such tacky videos.

 

 

Catch up time again...

 

All I Want

Love the energy of this. Really fun upbeat track that is still very well received to this day (possibly from the endless spamming of BGT dance acts to get Alesha's approval no doubt). I do much prefer Scandalous though, that one has a brilliant hook.

 

Another Chance

A bit of a clasique. Interestingly a few years back this was one of the few dance tracks from around this time I WASN'T a huge fan of for some reason, I thought it was lacking a certain spark but fortunately I've completed changed my mind since then & adore it for what it is, pure earsex :lol: seriously this is just heavenly & that production is sublime...

 

Castles In The Sky

Speaking of heavenly, this has to be one of my favourites of the whole countdown so far. Absolute euphoric perfection this song :wub: the way it builds up to that diamond of a chorus, and it doesn't need to rely on heavy drops or quirky synths, the flow of the record is what makes this so on point. A track I revisit regularly as it would be a sin to cast this one to the depths of one's memory.

 

21 Seconds

I do love a bit of this though too :lol: another club stable at Uni & popular in my circles. Love the spoken intro & that tempting beat, my only criticism is that the verses do drag on for a bit too long especially as there's not a lot else going on in the song to distract you. That chorus is hella-quotable tho & yes this is a surprising #1 given the songs we've seen around it but I suppose of course DJ Pied Piper hadn't long graced the summit.

 

Starlight

Another song I LOVE. It's just so singable especially the chorus! The verses work really well too, enticing you in with various melody changes but it is really all about the hook, one that gets stuck in your head & refuses to vacate :lol: love the vid too, I remember seeing a lot when I was younger, never knew who the artist(s) was/were until a few years ago so all the while I was searching the song I couldn't avoid the Muse namesake :arrr:

 

As for Hey Baby well more needs to be said than school discos, cheesy nightclubs. Enjoyable both on sugar at 10 & alcohol at 20 :heehee:

 

Gotta try & keep up with this a bit better so I'm kinda glad for the mini-break, keep up the good work gents!

Edited August 29, 20168 yr by Ðøßßø

Who's ready for this to resume tonight? :D

Who's ready for this to resume tonight? :D

 

I am ready and you are ready so that means 2 people are ready.

 

Another Chance - hauntingly beautiful. The video is amazing too

 

Castles In The Sky - amazing! Not my fav by them, but its undeniably catchy, and the original version that was played on MTV Europe (and UK radios) is the best.

 

21 Seconds - not my style whatsoever. I cant stand rap driven garage songs, I much prefer the late 90s/2000 smooth 2step sound with soulful vocals

 

Starlight - always found this incredibly boring

 

Hey Baby - was heard EVERYWHERE back in 2000 in Europe, in all the cheesy "costa del mar" shores of the continent

 

Barthezz vs Set You Free 2001 - both were great songs, but the trance remix of Set You Free is just stunning.

Edited August 29, 20168 yr by Euphorique

Jean Jacques Smoothie - 2 People (Mirwais Remix)

 

 

Date 7th Oct 2001

1 Week

Official Chart Run 12-16-23-30-43-66-72-x (7 weeks)

 

 

Jean Jacques Smoothie started DJing in 1994 though had his only hit with '2 People' in 2001. The song is another French house entry to follow 'Starlight' in the rundown, though he isn't actually French nor is Jean Jacques Smoothie his real name. To his friends and family he is Steve Robson and he was born in Gloucester (in England), but he would choose the name after producing a disco/funky house song 'Night Time' in 1997. He previously called himself Brinkley Paste to release his first single (also 1997) 'The Magnificent' on his own record label Plastic Raygun, which was, as he describes it, "badly produced big beat, but it sold 1,500 copies".

 

The song samples 'Inside My Love' by American singer Minnie Riperton, best known for X-Factor favourite 'Lovin You' who sadly died at a young age from breast cancer long before this song was released. It would be the Mirwais remix of the song that would be the most popular version and that charts here. Mirwais is a songwriter and producer from Paris who would work on many songs with Madonna including 'Don't Tell Me' (UK #4) and 'Die Another Day' (UK #3). He would also go on to take his remix of Sonny J's 'Can't Stop Moving' to #40 in 2008.