Ace Of Base 'Beautiful Life'

Chart Peak: 15

YouTube

Swedish quartet Ace Of Base have sold a simple staggering 19 million copies of their debut album Happy Nation... This track, 'Beautiful Life', is the first big hit from their new project.

It seems like a fairly specialist definition of "big hit" that encompasses this Number 15 but not 'Lucky Love', which peaked at 20 and hardly seemed to be off MTV Europe back then. It was the first hit from the album in the US, though, where it also peaked at the same position as it did here.

Reading through the tracklisting, I thought this one would be a bit of a departure from the dance sound of the previous few tracks, but this is actually a lot more Eurodance than I remember it. It was apparently written on New Year's Day 1994 so maybe Jonas Berggren (the one with a beard who has nothing to do in the video) had been out clubbing the night before? It would certainly fit in with the happy-clappy mood of the song, even if it doesn't explain why that video shows them being coughed up from a blonde woman's mouth.

Also appearing on: 25, 27, 28, 41, 42
Available on: The Bridge

Ken Doh 'I Need A Lover Tonight'

Chart Peak: 7

YouTube

'I Need A Lover Tonight' is the lead track from the Ken Doh EP due for release 18th March 1996... It is already huge in clubland and may well disturb the higher echelons of the pop chart in the near future.

I promise I didn't intentionally plan for this song title to show up on this date, but it is sort of neat. Although this track is more commonly known as 'Nakasaki', also the EP title; that is of course a reference to the masked wrestler Kendo Nagasaki who was later sensationally revealed to be... somebody you'd never heard of.

It's handy to have that angle to work on, because this is really just another big-voiced dance anthem, albeit a male voice on this occasion. I suspect that again this vocal was a later addition to the track but it doesn't seem as well-documented as the last couple of numbers. It's definitely the vocal edit on Now 33 this time, anyway. As these sort of efforts go, it's pleasant in the way of, say, 'I Love U Baby' by The Original, but doesn't seem a real standout as either dance or soul.

Available on: The No.1 90s Album

Gusto 'Disco's Revenge'

Chart Peak: 9

YouTube

New Jersy 's happening DJ Gusto flew into the UK chart at No. 9 on 25th February 1996 with the magnificent 'Disco's Revenge'... He will be 25 in July this year.

Another one-off dance appearance, though Gusto did at least manage a second minor hit with a version of 'Let's All Chant' - you'll notice that the record company rather economically used the same footage for both videos. 'Disco's Revenge' itself is presumably so called because it's based on a sample from 'Groovin You', a crossover disco hit by jazz drummer Harvey Mason. Though as so much 90s dance was funk and disco based anyway, it's not really that remarkable a thing to do. Still it makes for an enjoyable if not vastly memorable track with a good bassline (that probably sounds even better through a serious sound system).

Although what we have here is the original near-instrumental version, a more commercially-oriented mix with a full vocal exists and had a video, although how commercial it is to accuse somebody of having a small penis I'm not sure. At least adding a bit of humour makes it more enjoyable than most vocalised dance hits and more engaging than the previous track.

Available on: Anthems 90s

Gat Decor 'Passion (Do You Want It Right Now Edit)'

Chart Peak: 6 [original version: 29 in 1992]

YouTube

'Passion' has been huge in the clubs for the last 4 years... March 1996 will see it finally hit the UK Top 10 in a very large way indeed.

You know, as ways to hit the Top 10 go, peaking at 6 is only slightly big really. The massiveness of this track  in clubs had in all honesty eluded me, but by all accounts it was being spun regularly ever since its original release back in 1992. According to people who understand this stuff it was a pioneering example of the progressive house sound, and thus progenitor of those piano loops we non-clubbers were so tired of by the mid-90s.

At some point bootlegs began to circulate with the vocals from 'Do You Want It Right Now' by Degrees Of Motion featuring Biti, another club hit that hadn't translated to the Top 20 (itself a cover of an old track recorded by Taylor Dayne and Seidah Garrett). Eventually chief Gat Decorator Simon Slater responded to the demand with a legal version, the vocal re-recorded yet again by session singer Beverley Skeete. Two club hits made one pop hit, apparently, although strangely only one other Gat Decor single has ever emerged, and even that seems not to have charted at all. One reference book claims that this was also used as the theme to Ski Sunday, which I don't really believe. The lyric made another reappearance with Armand Van Helden in 2007, but what Gat Decor have added is not obvious to me.


Available on: Floorfillers Old Skool

Baby D 'So Pure'

Chart Peak: 3

YouTube

'So Pure' was the third consecutive Top 5 smash for Baby D... It was a No. 3 monster in January 1996 following 'Let Me Be Your Fantasy' and 'I Need Your Lovin'.

Fans of 90s dance video cliches will enjoy the fact that the one for this features both non-singing members of the band trying to look hard and people dancing in a scrapyard. I also rather love the fact that the uploader's thought to mention that this peaked at 38 in Sweden.

In an interesting chart career, Baby D had three consecutive Top 3 hits in three consecutive years, although this is by far the least-remembered of them. They scored a fourth Top 40 later in 1996, though their only chart appearance thereafter was a 2000 remix of their chart-topper 'Let Me Be Your Fantasy'. Apparently they've continued to perform but not added to the discography. I can't have heard 'So Pure' for over 15 years before I bought my copy of Now 33 but I was pleased with how it had aged, a combination of their usual house and trance sounds with drum & bass, and a surprisingly good fit too. Maybe not a masterpiece and certainly not their finest work but a track that deserves to be remembered.

Also appearing on: Now 31
Available on: Deliverance

Shaggy featuring Grand Puba 'Why You Treat Me So Bad'

Chart Peak: 11

YouTube

'Why You Treat Me So Bad' was Shaggy's 4th big UK hit... It followed 'Oh Carolina', 'In The Summertime' and 'Boombastic' inot the UK chart in January 1996.

Because Shaggy seems to have been around forever, it's hard to believe he'd only had as few as four hits at this point. Especially since he has had so many hits that failed to stick in the memory, including this utterly forgotten number. As far as I can tell it has no connection to the Club Nouveau song sampled by Luniz a couple of tracks ago, but does contain elements of Bob Marley's 'Mr Brown'. And of course it also features US rapper Grand Puba, a sometime member of Brand Nubians.  I presume his stage name is meant to be pronounced like "poobah", though my brother couldn't resist pronouncing it like the start of the word "pubic"; to be honest, neither version is really optimal for a British audience. But then, this sounds very like an attempt to attract a US audience, although as it turned out it only got 108 over there. Still, it doesn't appeal to me either much.

Also appearing on: Now 24, 31 [with Rayvon], 32, 34 [with Maxi Priest], 48 [with Rikrok], 51 [with Ali G]
Available on: The Best Of Shaggy

Kaliphz featuring Prince Naseem 'Walk Like A Champion'

Chart Peak: 23

YouTube

The mighty Prince Naseem teams up with the mighty Kaliphz for 'Walk Like A Champion'... It is due for release around 18th March 1996.

Yes, this happened. Although I suppose if you were working at a record company and Prince Naseem came in with this track, you wouldn't tell him if you didn't think it was any good, would you?

The few sport-related tracks that appear on Now albums are a bit of challenge to me, as one with little sporting knowledge, but Naseem Hamed was one of those stars who even I'd heard of at the time, such was his success and personality. So at least I knew who he was when he showed up on TotP with underground hip-hop collective Kaliphz, although I can't say it made a huge amount of sense. Sadly that footage isn't on YouTube and neither is the promo video (if indeed there was one), so I can't be sure exactly who performs which lines; however logic suggests that it's the Prince himself who raps "I'll make your whole world crumble like a biscuit, don't risk it". He apparently didn't write any of the lyrics though.

Most of the record buying public seem to have been as confused as I was, hence the underwhelming chart performance. If it was a last-ditch attempt to save their major-label contract, it didn't succeed. They later changed their name to Kaleef and signed up with Pete Waterman(!), scoring their biggest hit with a rap version of 'Golden Brown'. According to YouTube they also covered 'Downtown', if that's the same Kaleef. Prince Naseem himself retired from the ring just over a decade ago, though he seems to have resisted the temptation to return to the recording studio. I'm OK with that.

Available on: WALK LIKE A CHAMPION CD UK PAYDAY 1996