It's still a banger right?? It'll be 25 years on 19th July since the track was released in the UK and in March this year it went 2x Platinum. Arguably one of the best dance and trance tracks of all time, let's share some love for the track and any positive memories you might have that you associate with it.

 

Maybe you bought the single? Maybe you were obsessed with the video watching it on The Box? Perhaps the first time you heard it was when you got your hands on the epic Now 43 compilation that summer?

 

and Maybe I discovered it in the early 2010s cos I was too much of a baby to hear it at the time :kink:

 

although at least I was well aware of it before Guetta’s rip off

 

of course it’s a big tune!

It's undeniably a classic.

Still one of my top five songs of all time.

 

I very vividly remember the first time I ever heard it. It was the weekend it charted, we were driving on a very hot day up for a summer holiday in Great Yarmouth, and this came on Radio 1 in the car I believe on the Saturday (the day before the chart). I was absolutely bowled over by it, a song had never made such an immediate first impression on me. The next time I heard it was on the chart the next day when it debuted at No.4. I don't recall the song getting very much airplay beforehand, certainly I had never heard it until just before it charted so it must have been big in the clubs for its high top five debut.

 

And then the day after that we went to Woolworths in Great Yarmouth so I could buy Now 43, I was so excited that this song was on it because the CD single didn't feature the radio edit??

 

Despite that handicap it just grew from there in peak and sales (unusual for 1999), and it was such a shame it was held from the top by three different songs in the end as clearly it has outlasted all of them in people's memory. I still hear this on the radio constantly.

 

Such a simple but effective vocal and lyric, and that production and melody is almost unrivalled for Eurodance. A majestic masterclass. Unbelievable that it's 25 years old.

Edited July 4, 20241 yr by gooddelta

Never understood the 'UK Short Cut' being below 3 mins when the true radio edit is the 3:30ish in length let's be honest. We were a country obsessed with needing edits/shorter songs for whatever reason but the version we got here didn't resonate (I don't think). I always source out the longer radio edit when I listen.

Me too, and thank god Now 43 used the longer radio edit.

 

The UK Short Cut was on the cassette single I believe. How odd that the best known version wasn't available on either the cassette or CD single.

 

Maybe some of the sales lost to weird formatting and Now stopped it edging past Westlife and their 450 copies deficit to get to No.1.

Random question but who was DJ Jurgen who "presented" Alice Deejay, and did he ever do anything else noteworthy?

He was responsible for the original instrumental of Better Off Alone and then also a part of the collective that became 'Alice Deejay'

I'm not sure I ever knew that about the radio edit not being available on the CD single. That's truly bizarre (and stupid)

 

I wonder why?!

One of the most iconic dance songs of all time!

I'm not sure I ever knew that about the radio edit not being available on the CD single. That's truly bizarre (and stupid)

 

I wonder why?!

 

Seemed to be a UK only thing as it was available on European CD singles.

 

This was the UK CD:

 

https://www.discogs.com/release/6968-DJ-Jur...etter-Off-Alone

 

I remember my brother buying it and blasting the club mix in his car constantly but I refused to get the UK single as it didn't hit the good parts quickly enough. I expect a lot of potential sales were lost to Now 43 (or just lost altogether).

Edited July 8, 20241 yr by gooddelta

The club mix was probably where my initial exposure came from. My dad had some Kiss Ibiza 99 CD that had the full version which I recall him playing a lot

I also remember hearing this for the first time, it was on the radio and the DJ introduced it as being a song with only 10 words in the lyrics. I was 8 and had little to no prior exposure to dance music, so it was a bit of a novelty for me, as was 'Blue' by Eiffel 65. And of course I thought Alice Deejay was the singer and thought that was a clever name for her. :P It wasn't quite as enduring of a hit in the US, so I forgot about it for most of the 2000s until I became a chart geek and realized how big it truly was.

Love it <3

 

I used to be in a band and did play a guitar version of it and it was great