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M People are DJ/remixer/producer Mike Pickering, keyboardist/bassist Paul Heard and the wonderously emotive emotive vocalist Heather Small. The euphoric 'One Night In Heaven' was the second of three Top 10 hits so far this year and made No. 6 in July.
So the first song on the album was written in the Sixties, the second in the Seventies, the third in the Eighties and now we finally get a number from the Nineties. SPOILER: the next track isn't from the 2000s though.
Though not their first Top 10 single, 'One Night In Heaven' marks the start of their of their peak phase, which wasn't as long as you might think: their last studio album was as long ago as 1997, although they have toured since then. They packed a lot of hits into those few years though, largely by sticking fairly rigidly to a winning formula, so much so that even the cover versions fit in seamlessly.
It's probably a bit harsh to criticise dance music for being formulaic when that seems almost to be the point of it, but M People seem to get it in the neck especially because of the success they had in converting the club sounds of house music into something people listened to in actual houses (and cars). This was the first single from the album Elegant Slumming, which even had a lot of sofas on the cover to underline the point. Doing that seems to set a somewhat tougher standard, and although few of their records are honestly dislikeable individually, the cumulative effect does become somewhat tiresome. And apparently Juliet Roberts sings the actual "One night in heaven, one night in heaven" bit that is the most memorable part of the song but isn't fully credited for it.
Available on: One Night In Heaven: The Very Best Of M People
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