Yep the re-issue features a vocalist who features on another song in 2005 which might make our countdown, who definitely has that motivational Kelly Llorenna style female dance vocal that was such a part of dance tracks from 2002-2006.

I had thought both versions featured Tara McDonald but she was credited only on the latter (as verses had been added to it)? Hazy memory though!

I loved that Sigala track last year, didn't think it sounded immature at all! I love how versatile Sigala is within the dance genre.

 

Maybe not immature, but Imani's voice sounds very cheesy Clubland to me, would really like to see her featuring on a trancepop song in the future when trance comes back into chart popularity, as it would definitely sound like a second Fly On The Wings Of Love with her voice!

 

Speaking of Sigala, Sweet Lovin' and Give Me Your love are both very 00s. Sweet Lovin is an original song, but it does remind me of some of the 80s remixes with its particular uplifting instrumentation style, especially Falling Stars, and Give Me Your Love is an early/mid 00s reminiscent nu disco track imo (although I wish they didn't use those awful pitched voices in it)

Edited February 25, 20178 yr by The Wise Sultan

I had thought both versions featured Tara McDonald but she was credited only on the latter (as verses had been added to it)? Hazy memory though!

 

The latter release is fantastic but is a bit sad for me listening to it in the knowledge that, being in mid 2006, the uplifting disco house era was soon coming to an end in the charts (like when I listen to Now We Are Free by Gladiator and Izzy for the trance era).

 

Also Tough Love must have been inspired for the video for My My My for So Freakin Tight, down to the binoculars, the dancing man and water being sprayed into peoples faces and everything it is quite similar to the My My My video. Both videos are humorous but a bit cringeworthy tbh.

Edited February 25, 20178 yr by The Wise Sultan

I actually liked this at the time, unusual for a trancepop tune. I think I liked the vocal in it and that the vocal and drop sounded quite rock influenced to me at the time for some reason.

 

Number 23 during Lola's Theme's reign at dance number 1. Definitely my favourite Clubland/trancepop tune of 2004 and one of my favourite trancepop songs in general.

 

 

Actually now listening it I think it has some future bass sounding synths in the drop and at the very start! I wonder is this what trancepop would sound like now if it did come back into chart popularity soon, with the weird sound effects in the drop.....

Edited February 28, 20178 yr by The Wise Sultan

Can we call on danG to give us the info about our next dance number 1?

Eric Prydz - Call On Me

 

 

Date 19th Sep 2004

9 Weeks

Official Chart Run 1-1-1-2-1-1-2-8-8-13-17-21-23-24-21-20-24-35-40-49-58-57-63-71-x(23)-75-x (25 weeks)

 

 

Following 'Lola's Theme' and 'Babycakes', 'Call On Me' by progressive house producer Eric Prydz became the third consecutive shared Dance/UK #1. This was a significantly bigger hit than both of the previous two however, spending five non-consecutive weeks at #1. It also topped the charts in Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway and Sweden, and charted highly in numerous other countries.

 

After three weeks it was kicked off by Robbie Williams' 'Radio' before returning to #1 for two more weeks, however these weeks were with record low sales for a chart-topper at the time (selling 23.5k the week it returned to #1, and 21.7k the following week) although it had great overall sales and was the 4th best selling song of the year. On its 7th week in the chart it was replaced with Ja Rule's 'Wonderful', itself one of the lowest selling #1 singles of all time. Indeed we are now very much in the period of low sales as physical CDs were being gradually replaced with the download, which wasn't chart eligible yet.

 

Spending nine weeks at #1 in the Dance Chart, it is the longest runner we have seen so far. It narrowly missed out on spending ten weeks there due to a new release entering at #7 as it fell to #8. That song will be visited next in this thread.

 

'Call On Me' was Prydz' first of three top 40 hits, followed by 2007's 'Proper Education' and 2008's 'Pjanoo' - both #2 hits (more on those when they eventually make their appearance in the thread). He is still a prominent and respected DJ and producer now though, and has since released two artist albums; 2012's 'Eric Prydz Presents Pryda' and 2016's 'Opus'. Neither feature 'Call On Me', and Prydz himself does not play the song in his DJ sets anymore.

 

The song features a prominent sample of 'Valerie' by Steve Winwood (#51, 1982 / #19, 1987 re-release) and lead a new trend of 'looped house', commercial house tracks based off of samples of old songs (typically 80s hits) - though of course this was not the first hit of its kind, see Boogie Pimps and LMC from earlier this year. Winwood himself was impressed with the re-working and prior to its release re-recorded his vocal to fit the track better.

 

Prydz was perhaps inspired by a previous re-working of 'Call On Me' by French production duo Together; made up of DJ Falcon and Thomas Bangalter (of Daft Punk fame). Listen to their version

. They played the song in their DJ sets but had no intention of releasing it as a single, possibly giving Prydz the idea to remake the song. Both versions do sound very similar anyhow. Another song of Together's ('So Much Love To Give') would be covered and become a #9 hit for the Freeloaders in 2005, we may well see it become a Dance #1 too.

 

The song probably would have been a big hit in any case but arguably it was its iconic music video that really turned it into the huge smash it was. The video, featuring women in very little clothing in an aerobics class performing sexually suggestive gym routines much to the enjoyment of the one man in the class. It would inspire a lot of future music videos in the dance genre, and for a while many of the big dance hits had very sexualised music videos. The video was named the 'sexiest music video of all time' by Thump, and became one of the most downloaded music videos of all time.

 

Due to the popularity of the video, an aerobics DVD was released later in the year, titled Pump It Up – The Ultimate Dance Workout, featuring the dancers from the video performing aerobics routines to popular dance songs. You can watch the whole thing

if that's your thing. :lol:

 

On a final personal note, this is definitely one of my favourite dance songs of the decade, and is rightly remembered as an iconic dance classic. Eric Prydz himself is one of my favourite dance producers of all time too and this still remains a proper tune. It has the edge over other songs of its kind for me because Prydz' amazing production just can't be matched by the likes of LMC, Sunblock and Sunset Strippers. It says a lot that he's still going strong today whilst the others are long gone and generally forgotten.

 

Apologies for the massively long post, but I think such an iconic producer and hit single deserves one.

Trashy song but a classic. Everytime I hear it, I want to dance to it :lol: :wub:

 

Also I find it a interesting that it wasn't forgotten in fact I still can hear it here and there :D

Call on Me is iconic, I have gone through several phases of this song. I liked it at the time, even though I thought it was some weird exercise music song because of the video but hated it later about 2009 when someone in my school class said they had Eric Prydz on their iPod (probably because I was my indie cool music phase). I have grown to like it again, not as much though as some of the other looped house ones, I still prefer Out Of Touch, Say Say Say (Waiting 4 U) and Somebody's Watching Me for some reason (probably because they are more disco influenced than Out Of Touch) as well as Falling Stars and my two favourites PATT and We Close Our Eyes.

 

About Sunblock, I am not really a fan of 'I'll be Ready' compared to some of the other 80s remixes but 'First Time' is brilliant I think.

 

Call on Me along with the other 80s remixes of the mid 00s are much better for me than the Philip George or Joe Stone looped house songs of 2015, they aren't as cold or emotionless as those ones. It's much better than Proper Education I would say, which I am not really a fan of, but Pjanoo is a great tune.

 

The video is a bit trashy I would agree but there are worse dance videos in the mid 00s I would say.

 

I will post a list of the other tracks in the charts during Call On Me's reign in about an hour - there are some classics! :dance:

Edited March 5, 20178 yr by The Wise Sultan

Other tracks during the charts at the time Call On Me was dance number 1

 

Groove Armada - I See You Baby - #11 - I assume this is the most well known non top 10 dance track of the 00s because of THAT car advert. I did like it at the time. Not the only dance track to make the charts because of an advert for a French car in the 00s there will be two more, one in 2005 and one in 2006.

 

Fatboy Slim - Slash Dot Dash - #12 - Don't remember this from the time, another big beat track from Fatboy Slim with weird spoken lyrics about 'slash.dash.dot.com'

 

Deep Dish - Flashdance - #3 - Remember this from the time, thought it was yet another exercise music song like Call On Me because of the progressive house repetitive sound of the instrumental track. I liked it because of the rock influence at the time, although I thought it was a bit repetitive. Now I do really like this tune (we will be seeing another rock influenced dance tune (that was very big at the time) by the way in mid 2005 perhaps making dance number 1). Deep Dish came back with an excellent chilled dance track (by mid 00s dance standards) in 2005 with Say Hello, which reached number 14 as well as a new trouse version of Fleetwood Mac's Dreams with Stevie Nicks, also reaching number 14.

 

Alcazar - This Is the World We Live In - #15 - Don't remember this but it is a decent funky house cover of the Genesis song Land Of Confusion, although not as good as the original of course. It's another one to add to the growing list of 80s dance covers in the charts in the 00s that every popular genre tended to spawn.

 

Danny Howells & Dick Trevor - Dusk till Dawn #37 - Funky house tune, I know the chorus somehow (is it sampled from something else)

 

Angel City - Do You Know (I Go Crazy) - #8 - I think I remember it from the time but I wasn't a fan as it was too Clublandy for me. Really like it now, it is a nice vocal eurotrance track sampling Robert Miles' Children.

 

DJ Casper - Oops Upside Your Head - #16 - A mix of Oops Upside Your Head by the Gap Band from the 80s and the a similar organ bassline as the one from Cha Cha Slide. Decent enough track. I remember the video with him dressed in white clothes from the time rather than the song.

 

Mylo - Drop The Pressure - #19 - remember this I think from the time and I think I did like it. I certainly I had heard the robotic voice part of Doctor Pressure when it was released from another track! Minimal tech house track, would have been as big if it was released in 2015 as 2004.

 

Dannii Minogue vs Flower Power - You Won't Forget About Me - #7 - Remember this from the time and I did like it, although I didn't really consider it as dance back then, but it definitely is listening to it now.

 

Danzel - Pump It Up - #11 - Don't remember this from the time - it sounds like a great funky house tune though and actually sounds quite Radio 1 Dance Anthems rather than a commercial dance track.

 

Eyeopener - Hungry Eyes - #16 - Remember this from the time - very cheesy eurotrance cover of Hungry Eyes by Eric Carmen, I wasn't a big fan of it because it was cheesy and Clublandy, but I heard it in the gym a lot at the leisure centre my mum worked along with Flashdance and Call On Me so it was quite an iconic tune of the time for me.

 

Delerium - Silence 2004 - #38 - I think I remember this particular remix of Silence remixed by Above and Beyond and I quite liked it too.

 

Also one I forgot to post from Baby Cakes' reign in August 2004 - Marly - You Never Know - #23 - Don't remember it from the time but it is a great summery chilled funky house tune in a similar sort of style instrumentally as Cahill ft Nicki Belle's Trippin on You.

Edited March 5, 20178 yr by The Wise Sultan

Flashdance is the big one out of those I think....#3 was excellent for a dance song that doesn't very commercial at this time. Two dance songs top 3 that week too....we won't see that for a while on the thread.

 

Edited March 6, 20178 yr by The Wise Sultan

Michael Gray - The Weekend

 

http://assets9.capitalfm.com/2013/27/michael-gray---the-weekend-1373448097-view-1.jpg

 

Date7th Nov 2004

1 Week

Official Chart Run 7--13-17-22-25-26-32-31-26-29-42-54-72 (+19.02.2005 72-77-87 +30.04.2005 81-99-99) (19 weeks)

 

Funky house was definitely taking over by this point, and this can be heard in this top 10 hit for Michael Gray (although it does have some electronic trance style synths in the cooldown part). The chorus adapts a line from a 1983 Oliver Cheatham track called Get Down Saturday Night in which it states 'I can't wait for Saturday to begin'. Interestingly it wasn't the only top 40 dance track to have similar lyrics to these in late 2004 as another funky house song - 100% ft. Jennifer John - Just Can't Wait (Saturday) reached number 28 on 19/12/04 and stayed in the top 40 chart for three further weeks. That particular tune samples the same song as a certain theme tune for a popular Saturday night entertainment show and maybe that contributed to its success.

 

It was a moderate hit in Europe and Australia but only made top 10 in Hungary, where it reached number 1 and the UK where it reached number 7. It also reached number 7 in Scotland.

 

Michael Gray is a British house producer, also part of the production duo Full Intention, who amongst other things did the charting progressive/funky house remix of the Supafly vs Fishbowl song Let's Get Down which reached number 22 in 2005, one of my personal mid 00s dance favourites. He only started making songs under his own name with 'The Weekend'. The singer in this is Shena (pronounced Shen - na rather than Sheen-a) and she would make #20 in late February 2007 with Dare Me (Stupidisco) along with producer Junior Jack, by this stage funky house was dying out as a chart force though. :cry:

 

The video features female office workers robotically dancing around a photocopier at first in their office clothes, and then dancing normally with less clothes (in the sadly all too common mid 00s video style) by the end. I do remember this from the time and I found the vocal great and also found it quite atmospheric with the trance synth style cooldown I remember from the time and still do. However it has been much overplayed over the years and so I don't really like it as much as some of the other mid 00s funky house tunes. I am starting to appreciate it again more now though.

 

Michael Gray had another hit in the UK charts, Borderline (ft Shelly Poole), reaching number 12 in August 2006 which with its violin based nu-disco production I actually prefer to The Weekend.

Edited March 6, 20178 yr by The Wise Sultan

Love that Eric Prydz track - I wasn't too fussed at first (I wasn't so huge on all dance back at this point) but it did grow - it is just so addictive!

 

Never got the fuss with that Michael Gray track, I always found it quite dull somehow.

Love that Eric Prydz track - I wasn't too fussed at first (I wasn't so huge on all dance back at this point) but it did grow - it is just so addictive!

 

Never got the fuss with that Michael Gray track, I always found it quite dull somehow.

 

Yeah The Weekend wouldn't be one wouldn't be one of my favourite dance songs of the mid 00s, its been overplayed a lot over the years. Its like a certain remix that made top 10 in early 2005 which was later in the early 10s when I did watch Britain's Got Talent played nearly EVERY TIME an act got through as a soundbed and I got sick of it, even though I liked it in 2005.

 

The next tune on our list of dance number 1s hasn't been so overplayed over the years and I think it is great, definitely a classic of its time!

Prydz is making much better tracks nowadays that he did in 00s (Opus album is just incredible). Michael Grey had better, though, The Weekend is indeed ultimate dance classic.

Uniting Nations - Out Of Touch

 

 

Date28th Nov 2004

6 Weeks

Official Chart Run 12-16-13-15-13-7-10-9-8-13-10-13-16-22-24-33-42-61-67-65-76-69-84-90 (24 weeks)

 

Uniting Nations are a dance group consisting of members Paul Keenan and Daz Sampson and later vocalist Craig Powell, and like the other 00s dance production groups Ultrabeat and Cahill they are Liverpool based. Daz Sampson was going to be a footballer originally but became a radio broadcaster after an injury at 17 and he started producing dance music as part of Eurodance group Bus Stop in the 90s.

 

Out Of Touch is a funky house/eurodance looped house song, which uses the chorus from a Hall and Oates 1984 song, also called 'Out Of Touch'. The instrumental, accordingly, is heavily inspired by 80s synthpop. The vocal from the song was covered by session singer Jinian Wilde.

 

The song had an interesting chart run in the UK, almost reminiscent of streaming era chart runs, taking a while to become a big hit and it wasn't until it's fifth week that it reached its peak of number 7 in the UK. I wonder was this released OA/OS? :unsure:

 

It spent a total of 16 weeks top 40, leaving and re-entering the top 10 one more time before it went down the charts. It was everywhere at the time and I really liked it at the time and still do, it is one of the better 80s remixes of the mid 00s for me. :dance:

 

Uniting Nations had two further hits in the charts, both making top 20 in 2005, and I remember both of them from the time. One of them will be appearing on our thread as a dance number 1 later. They had no further hits after 2005 making the top 40 and split up in 2008. Daz Sampson had a further top 10 hit on his own in 2006 with urban pop song Teenage Life, the 2006 UK Eurovision entry.

Edited March 6, 20178 yr by The Wise Sultan

Another great dance hit. I think its chart run was partly due to the turn of the new year. It got further promotion as January came in - much like Katie Melua's 'The Closest Thing To Crazy' and OutKast's 'Hey Ya!' a year prior.

Great run indeed, fantastic and classic song for me.

Really like this, video is awful though :mellow: Great tune, definitely one of the soundtracks of the time!

 

Some slight vibes in the late 2015 99 Souls - The Girl is Mine of this instrumentally I think - similar style of synths in it, looped house element in the chorus of TGIM, and general uplifting feel, although that track is considerably slower.

Edited March 6, 20178 yr by The Wise Sultan

Sorry, again I don't see the similarities... other than they're both dance songs

Another great dance hit. I think its chart run was partly due to the turn of the new year. It got further promotion as January came in - much like Katie Melua's 'The Closest Thing To Crazy' and OutKast's 'Hey Ya!' a year prior.

 

Why would they get more promotion in the New Year, I don't really see how the New Year affected promotion much.....especially with loads more new songs entering the chart in the new year in the 00s as it was a busy chart back then!

 

Sorry, again I don't see the similarities... other than they're both dance songs

 

It's hard to explain but I think they both have a particular uplifting bouncy sort of sound to them as well as 'light' sounding synths which you don't get in all dance tracks. :D Of course there are many differences between them.

Edited March 6, 20178 yr by The Wise Sultan