25 Years Since....July 1992

Now we've entered the second half of 2017, here's what I was enjoying when we entered the second half of 1992:

Electronic - Dissapointed

This is a great one to put into a music quiz, play the clip ask who the artist is and you will inevitably have some people say the Pet Shop Boys. I  must admit I did thing this was a Pet Shop Boys song myself at the time.

It does feature the Pet Shop Boys, but as guests of Electronic who consisted of Bernard Sumner of New Order and Johnny Marr of the Smiths. It could be argued that this fits better amongst other Pet Shop Boys songs than other Electronic songs.

Altern 8 - Hypnotic St-8

Little did I know at the time was this would be the last we'd see of Altern-8 in the Top 40. It did seem a bit more low key than Activ-8 or Evapor-8 and that's reflected in it's lower chart placing of 16.

I was just getting used to Altern 8 regularly releasing hits and they did have a further 3 singles that charted outside the top 40 which I didn't know about.

As I said when posting about Evapor-8, if you had asked me at the time which rave act would still be massive in 25 years ago I would have said Altern 8 instead of the Prodigy. Despite it being nearly a years since the Prodigy first charted, they only had two top 40 hits by this point.

Smart E's - Sesame's Treet

I remember this being the opening record on Top of the Pops and there were a group of kids singing this and doing rave dancing. Being a kid myself, it was good to see, what I didn't realise was that the kids were just there for the performance.

It was actually three grown men behind this and it was the actual Sesame Street theme music which had been sampled, something which they hadn't got permission for.

The three men in question would go onto because household names in the rave scene, one of them being Luna C who started up the legendary Kniteforce records, and the other two members forming Bang! who had one of the best known Happy Hardcore records in "Shooting Star".

Urban Hype - A Trip to Trumpton

Another record that samples children's TV music. This was a record that my mum couldn't stand, so naturally I liked it.

Later on in the decade when the Ratpack started doing old skool sets at raves, they had a tendency to play pretty much the same set all the time. This was one of the records they would feature, but minus the vocal samples. Was great to hear it again in the beginning until I listened to one Ratpack set too many.

Roy Orbison - I Drove All Night

I heard the Cyndi Lauper version of this first back in 1989 which I quite liked.

I knew that Roy Orbison passed away in 1988, so when this version was released in 1992 I assumed that he did the original back in the 60s and this was a reissue.

I was wrong. It was written for Roy Orbison originally and he did record it in 1987 but wasn't made into the record we know when this amongst other recordings were remixed by his Travelling Wilbury's bandmate Jeff Lynne for his posthumous album "King of Hearts".