Outhere Brothers 'Don't Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)'

Chart Peak: 1 [1 week]
YouTube

'Don't Stop' has been a Top 10 hit all over Europe for the Chicago-based manic oddball Outhere Brothers... It charted at No. 9 in the UK on 12/3/95.

Chronologically the newest of the four Number One singles on Now 30, 'Don't Stop' (which loses its subtitle in the sleevenote but has it in the credits, back cover and disc label) entered the chart the very same week as 'Love Can Build A Bridge' but had to wait a week longer to climb to the top. In 1995 it wasn't unprecedented for a new unknown act to have a near-instant Number One - Whigfield had entered at the very top the previous September - but it was still unusual, and the Brothers went a stage further by topping the chart with their second single as well, a then-rare achievement that was soon to become almost unremarkable. Yet if they were in the forefront of one change in the music industry, they were one of the last acts to find themselves in legal trouble over obscenity when the CD single found its way to the Crown Prosecution service because some of the remixes contained references to oral sex. Imagine such a thing happening in popular music!

It's certainly true that the original version does contain some non-family-friendly lyrics, to say nothing of the rather seedy video, but needless to say that's not the version featured here, which is apparently the "Townhouse radio edit". That version plays down the hip-hop aspects of the song and boosts the Eurodance elements for something a little more radio-friendly, though I can imagine it wasn't the version attracting most attention in school playgrounds - my fellow sixth-formers were probably a little too old for this and in any case many were already into "serious" rap (or, like me at the time, had no interest at all in it) so the song made little impact on me at the time. I just remember seeing the broadcastable cartoon video (rather passe by those days) on the telly a couple of times. I didn't like it much then and I don't particularly like it now either, though it sometimes catches me in the right mood when I can admire the energy of it.

Also appearing on: Now 31, 32
Available on: D.J. Mix '97, Vol. 1

The Outhere Brothers 'La La La Hey Hey'

Chart Peak: 7

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'La La La Hey Hey Hey' was the third Top 10 UK hit in 1995 for Chicago's Outhere Brothers... It made No 7 In September and followed 'Boom Boom Boom' and 'Don't Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)'.

Of course those first two hits were both Number Ones. And they were both near-inescapable at the time, particularly in school playgrounds once word got around that some of the versions available were a bit naughtier than the ones you could hear on the radio. Indeed, their album 1 Polish, 2 Biscuits And A Fish Sandwich is the last one I can recall being actually seized by the authorities due to obscene content (it was later replaced by the sanitised Outhere Brothers Party Album).

In contrast, I don't remember this record at all. And now I've listened back to it I know why. Apparently there are some rude words in the original edit of the track, but I couldn't even tell where they've been cut out of this version. It's a slightly more Eurodisco sound than their two biggest hits, but that's about the most there is to be said about this very uninspired track where even the call-and-response vocals fall flat. In fact, I think I might have spent longer writing this post than they spent writing the song.

Also appearing on: Now 30, 31
Available on: Grandmix: the 90's...II