25 Years Since....April 1999

Wow 25 years since the last year of the 20th century, these were the tunes I was enjoying then:

Underworld - Push Upstairs

Underworld became a household name outside of the dance music world when they did "Born Slippy" which remains their biggest hit. They wouldn't be in the Top 40 again with a new release until this entered the charts in 1999.

Dance music was the biggest it had ever been in 1999 and it only seemed right that Underworld were a part of that. 

Mr Oizo - Flat Beat

This chart topper was the only Top 40 hit for Mr Oizo. It topped the charts after appearing on the Levi's advert and the face of this record was a puppet who appeared in the advert called Flat Eric.

Because of this some regard it as a bit of a novelty record but if you put all this to one side and simply listen to the tune it sounds like a credible dance record to me. Mr Oizo may have had no further chart success but was very much a name in the French house scene.

The New Radicals - You Get What You Give

One day in 1999 I was in HMV in Derby and asked to listen to a CD from a listening post in there. When I went to the post the person who had presumably just been listening on it told me it was The New Radicals on there, but of course it wasn't anymore it was the CD I wanted to listen to.

It wouldn't be long before I became familiar with who The New Radicals actually were, well one of their songs at least. It was their only Top 40 hit and then main man Gregg Alexander started writing hits for other artists. To this very day this record still reminds me of Derby city centre, the fact the video is in a shopping centre probably helps with that.

System F - Out Of The Blue

One thing that made me like dance music getting into the charts in 1999 more than I ever had done before was the fact it seemed to be speeding up. OK nowhere near as fast as happy hardcore, but this was possibly the fastest dance record to make the Top 40 that year.

System F was yet another alias of Ferry Corsten who incidentally produced happy hardcore prior to making trance records.

Phats And Small - Turn Around

The biggest dance record of 1998 was "Music Sounds Better With You" by Stardust. It was a disco inspired house record that was basically a repetition of the same thing in terms of both vocals and backing track.

That must have inspired this record which follows pretty much the same formula. Yet it works and takes on an identity of it's own. It's very commercial but that's not always a bad thing.