‘Music For The Dancers’ N°118 – Vintage 90s Music Videos

1 . Beats International – Dub Be Good To Me

“Dub Be Good to Me” is a meticulous patchwork stitched together by Norman Cook, a.k.a. Fatboy Slim, during his transitional phase from Housemartins bassist to sample-savvy producer.

Taking the skeleton of SOS Band’s “Just Be Good to Me,” Cook reanimates it with Lindy Layton’s re-recorded vocals that manage to sound both feathery and insurgent, grounding the track in a simmering tension.

The borrowed bassline from Johnny Dynell’s “Jam Hot” lends an urban swagger, while the infusion of The Clash’s “The Guns of Brixton” injects a rebellious, almost ghostly undercurrent.

All of this happens alongside a nod to Ennio Morricone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West,” which adds cinematic gravitas where others might have settled for conventional hooks.

The result is a song less interested in cohesion and more in conjuring a mood—half dub-scene diasporic party, half inner-city lament.

Released on “Let Them Eat Bingo” in January 1990 by Go Beat Records, the track’s eclectic DNA resonated globally, claiming the top spot on the UK’s Singles Chart for four weeks and charting in the upper echelons across Europe, Israel, and the U.S. dance scene.

It’s fair to say its minimal U.S. Billboard Hot 100 peak at 76 reflects a cultural gradient: brooding dub rarely fares as well in brighter American soundscapes.

While David John-Baptiste’s (DJ Deejay) drum sample from “God Make Me Funky” anchors it rhythmically, what elevates the song is how it refuses to sink into pure nostalgia, instead reimagining familiar fragments with crisp irreverence.

The accolades—from MTV Dance’s “Biggest 90’s Dance Anthems” to *Mixmag*’s “The Best Basslines in Dance Music”—signal an enduring respect, but longevity does not shield it from critique.

Layton’s airy delivery can feel thin against the track’s thick layering, and the production risks losing itself in its own self-referential collage.

Still, as both a chart phenomenon and a bricolage of disparate influences, it thrives on its contradictions.

Featured on the 1990 album “Let Them Eat Bingo”.

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2 . Wes – Alane

“Alane,” the debut single from Wes’s 1997 album “Welenga,” navigates a territory where traditional African chants intersect with mid-’90s dance-floor sensibilities, courtesy of Michel Sanchez’s production.

Sung predominantly in the Duala language of Cameroon, the track makes no concessions to mainstream pop by way of translation—except for the Tony Moran remix, which sprinkles in English lyrics, somewhat undermining the original’s linguistic integrity. Yet, the decision to keep the core version in Duala lends it an air of authenticity that feels both refreshing and deliberate in the era of globalized but homogenized world music trends.

A commercial juggernaut, “Alane” lodged itself at number one on charts in Austria, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands, and tantalizingly stopped at number two in Germany, where its 40-week chart run hints at both the stickiness of its hook and its cross-demographic appeal. Its European success aligns with an era hungry for “exoticized” yet approachable sounds, though the blend of African polyphony with sanitized dance beats might prompt questions about who benefits from such cultural crossovers.

Wes’s live performances, including a G7 concert alongside Deep Forest in Lyon, add a layer of credibility, showing that “Alane” was not just a studio confection but a living, breathing anthem. The song’s naming by TF1 as summer 1997’s definitive tune is somewhat apt—bright, kinetic, and inescapable.

By 2020, Robin Schulz’s remix introduced “Alane” to a new generation under slicker, modernized production, but the original’s charm arguably lies in its imperfect collision of rooted tradition and polished dance music. While some might view this dichotomy as a strength, others might see the edges as a necessary friction lost in later iterations. Wes’s untimely passing in 2021 might now lend “Alane” an unintended poignancy, wrapping its upbeat rhythms in an elegiac sentiment difficult to untangle.

Featured on the 1996 album “Welenga”.

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3 . Vanilla Ice – Play That Funky Music

Vanilla Ice’s “Play That Funky Music” attempts to reimagine Wild Cherry’s 1976 chart-topper through a hip-hop lens while channeling the early rap aesthetic of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Released as part of his debut album “To the Extreme” on November 19, 1990, the track finds itself overshadowed by its more infamous B-side, “Ice Ice Baby.” The song’s eventual chart success—reaching number 4 on the US *Billboard* Hot 100 and number 10 in the UK—owes much to a radio DJ giving its reverse side unintended spotlight. It’s a curious case of a B-side upstaging not through inherent greatness but happenstance.

While Vanilla Ice injects fresh lyrics and remixed drums into the original funk framework, the song lacks the raw energy that made Wild Cherry’s version timeless. Where Rob Parissi’s 1976 anthem thrived on unabashed swagger, Ice’s interpretation feels like a calculated, if uneven, attempt to graft rhythmic innovation onto a hit from a bygone era.

The accompanying music video, benefiting from strong rotation on MTV Europe, helps to fortify the song’s visual appeal, though it cannot entirely mask the uneven qualities of the track itself. “Play That Funky Music” underscores the growing pains of hip-hop in the mainstream, its commercial sheen indicative of the compromises needed to bridge genres.

Notably, the song sparked a copyright debate. By failing to credit Parissi at its inception, Vanilla Ice found himself embroiled in a lawsuit resulting in a $500,000 settlement. A striking reminder that even reinvention needs a dose of respect for its roots.

While the original’s infectious groove and relatable spirit remain undeniable, Vanilla Ice’s take teeters between homage and opportunism, offering more curiosity than conviction.

Featured on the 1990 album “To the Extreme”.

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4 . Chic – Chic Mystique

Released in 1992 as part of the album “Chic-Ism,” “Chic Mystique” attempts to bridge Chic’s disco origins with the evolving soundscapes of early ’90s dance music.

Its chart performance underscores its dual identity: peaking at number 48 on the US R&B charts, it found a stronger footing on the dancefloor, hitting number 1 on the US Dance charts. If nothing else, this contrast signals its niche appeal—functional as a party catalyst but perhaps less resonant elsewhere.

The song benefitted from the remixing prowess of Masters at Work, the duo’s reworkings lending additional credibility and polish to its club-ready ambitions. While Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards undeniably injected their signature grooves, one wonders if the track fully captures the alchemy that made Chic a defining force during their 1970s-1980s apex.

Rodgers’ guitar remains unmistakable, a thread that weaves through the band’s legacy like a designer print on vintage couture, but here it feels more subdued, less groundbreaking. Edwards’ bass adds depth, providing a pulse that compels movement but rarely surprises.

Interestingly, “Chic Mystique” served a second life in their 2013 performance medley on “The X Factor” during Disco Week—a nod to Chic’s evergreen appeal yet a reminder of the gap dividing their late-period work from their classic era.

The track’s release during a period of resurgence is both its strength and its limitation. It reflects Rodgers’ ongoing adaptability and collaborations while highlighting the struggle to retain the original spark amid industry evolution.

Featured on the 1992 album “Chic-ism”.

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5 . Kicks Like A Mule – The Bouncer

“The Bouncer,” released in 1992 by the British electronic duo Kicks Like a Mule, crafts a swaggering slice of early ’90s rave culture with its no-nonsense delivery and speaker-rattling energy.

Peaking at No. 7 on the UK Singles Chart, the track carves its identity from vocal samples embodying the archetypal club bouncer. Phrases like “Your name’s not down, you’re not coming in” capture the exclusionary veneer of nightlife authority, grounding the song in an ironic but iconic simplicity. The repetition of lines such as “Not tonight, you’re not on the list” operates less as lyrical storytelling and more as a rhythmic cudgel against the throbbing backdrop.

Musically, the track cleaves to a raw and unvarnished aesthetic. Anchored by a keyboard riff sampled from Frank De Wulf’s 1990 track “Moribund,” the production opts for a stripped-back, almost mechanical energy. This choice lends the song its memorability but also limits its range, trading complexity for brute-force appeal.

Written and produced by Nick Halkes and Richard Russell, the track’s unapologetic minimalism extends even to its variations: its Tribal Bass Records single release features three mixes—Original, Housequake, and Raw—that remain within the same industrial sonic palette. The original mix delivers the track at its most primal, while the Housequake and Raw Mixes tweak the formula without pushing boundaries.

The song’s cultural afterlife further underscores its impact. It inspired a 2006 cover by Klaxons on their “Xan Valleys EP,” prompting Kicks Like a Mule to respond the following year with their take on Klaxons’ “Gravity’s Rainbow.” Vocal snippets from “The Bouncer” have resurfaced in works like Zomby’s “Hench” from *Where Were U in ’92?* and Dimension’s “UK Border Patrol” from *Organ*, cementing its role as a referential touchstone within electronic music.

Ultimately, “The Bouncer” encapsulates both the strengths and limitations of a bygone rave ethos. It is brash, visceral, and repetitive—qualities that secured its chart success but might leave modern listeners craving deeper substance. Its charm lies in its raw immediacy, even if it plants its feet firmly on the surface of an evolving genre.

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6 . Submerge – Take Me by the Hand

“Take Me by the Hand,” released in 1997 by Submerge featuring Jan Johnston, casts its lot with the melodic trance and progressive house wave that swept clubs in the late ’90s.

The track’s polished production, issued under Greenlight Records, aligns comfortably with the lush, emotive tendencies of the era’s electronic music. Johnston’s vocals step in as the focal point—her delivery, neither overly theatrical nor detached, adds a soulful weight that heightens the song’s uplift. Whether you’re hearing it in its Vocal Mix or trimmed Radio Edit, the intent seems measured: to amplify feeling without tipping into melodrama.

Commercially, its peak at #28 on the UK Singles Chart hints at decent resonance but stops short of cultural ubiquity. That said, the supporting music video lends visual flair to its trajectory—though in a saturated field of club anthems, this addition barely edges it above standard fare.

The single’s variety of mixes, including a Club Mix optimized for late-night sessions, broadens its use case but doesn’t revolutionize its core. The production plays it safe; beats glide smoothly, melody unfurls predictably, and the structure adheres to genre norms without undue risk-taking. As nostalgia pieces go, “Take Me by the Hand” scratches an itch but may lack the staying power to rise above its peers beyond its era. Solid, but hardly seismic.

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7 . Sharon Redd – Can You Handle It

Released on May 21, 1980, Sharon Redd’s “Can You Handle It” confidently declares its allegiance to disco’s bold, unrestrained ethos.

Clocking in at 6:26, the track fuses rhythmic precision with the genre’s characteristic hedonism, crafted under the Prelude label in the U.S. and Epic in the U.K. Its production coincided with the cinematic release of *The Empire Strikes Back*, a theatrical pairing that, in hindsight, feels like an oddly mismatched marriage of escapism: sci-fi grandeur meets a nightclub’s sweat-drenched pulse.

Commercially, the song found moderate success on both sides of the Atlantic. Peaking at No. 5 on the US Hot Dance Club Songs, it proved ideal for the rhythmic demands of late-night DJs, though its No. 57 placement on the Hot Soul Singles chart suggests limited crossover appeal. Across the pond, its modest No. 31 peak on the UK Singles Chart indicated a similar restraint. The track’s performance is intriguing—too urgent for soul purists, perhaps, yet not transformative enough to transcend its disco framework.

Vocally, Redd—once a member of Bette Midler’s Harlettes—delivers with her hallmark control and energy, a residue of her background in ensemble and session work. Yet amidst layers of glittery production, her voice occasionally feels less protagonist, more supporting character. The shadow of groove-driven repetition looms large here; six minutes of swirling basslines and synths leave little room for depth or reinvention.

A remix by DNA in 1992 revived the track, placing it firmly in the realm of nostalgia-drenched reinterpretation. Its inclusion on the duo’s debut album *Taste This* and live rendition on BBC One’s *Top of the Pops* tugged the track into a new era of chart relevance, climbing to No. 17 in the UK and testing legs in territories like Finland and New Zealand.

Sharon Redd’s legacy, marked by her distinct voice, is both celebrated and somewhat obscured within “Can You Handle It.” The track crystallizes disco’s allure, yes, but stops shy of breaking new ground. It grooves tightly within its time—a vibrant, if fleeting, echo of 1980’s club culture.

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8 . Perfecto Allstarz – Reach Up [Papa’s Got a Brand New Pig Bag]

“Reach Up (Papa’s Got a Brand New Pig Bag)” by Perfecto Allstarz doesn’t merely revisit Pigbag’s 1982 dance-punk hit—it retools it for the mid-’90s dancefloor with the precision of Paul Oakenfold at the helm.

The survival of the original brass riff is crucial, grounding this remix in its source material, but the new layering of percussion and vocal samples offers just enough modern flair to keep the nostalgia in check.

Released on January 23, 1995, the track captures the zeitgeist of its era, peaking at number six on the UK Singles Chart and dominating the UK Dance Chart, a testament to Oakenfold’s grip on electronic music trends.

While the original Pigbag track was minimal and raw, the Perfecto Allstarz version feels busier, albeit polished—a sonic update that caters to the rave generation’s appetite for high-energy production. The various remixes, including the Indian Summer and Perfecto versions, broaden its appeal, though none stray far from the central hook that powers the song’s lasting appeal.

The track’s impact isn’t confined to charts alone; its adoption as Middlesbrough FC’s club anthem and darts player Adrian Lewis’ walk-on music hints at its persistent versatility—equal parts celebratory and communal.

Yet, for all its energy, “Reach Up” stops short of offering anything unexpected. The relentless repetition of its brass motif borders on exhaustion, leaving one wondering if the song leans too heavily on inherited elements rather than truly innovating. It’s undeniably catchy, but its allure rests more on familiarity than evolution.

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9 . Blockster – You Should Be…

“You Should Be…” by Blockster is a polished late-’90s attempt to transform the Bee Gees’ disco classic “You Should Be Dancing” into a club anthem tailored for Ministry of Sound’s dancefloor ideals.

Released on January 4, 1999, it trades the sweat-drenched urgency of its 1976 predecessor for a sleek, mechanically precise sound that feels as much a product of DJ Blockster’s mixing desk as the era’s obsession with reworking the past for contemporary ears.

The track found quick favor in the UK, reaching #3 on the UK Singles Chart and staying in the Top 100 for 10 weeks, including 2 weeks in the Top 10. This success can be attributed less to innovation than to timing—the ’90s were ripe with nostalgia-driven reinventions, and Blockster capitalized neatly on this trend’s waning years.

Listeners are offered multiple takes on the track: the truncated Radio Edit (3:30), the sprawling Original Mix (8:08), and the aptly named Vocal and Blockster Club Mixes, cut and polished for DJ sets. Yet even across these variations, there’s little risk of anyone mistaking this update for the original’s uninhibited energy; what feels invigorating in a sweaty nightclub might scan as sterile elsewhere.

The accompanying music video, available on YouTube, pairs the track with visuals that exude the turn-of-millennium aesthetic: think glossy production with none of the grime that makes disco itself compelling.

Sharply executed but lacking the quirkiness that often renders remakes essential, “You Should Be…” works more as a competent floor-filler than anything particularly revelatory. It’s the kind of song that feels perfectly at home sandwiched between other hits on a Ministry of Sound compilation, satisfying but rarely lingering in memory once the lights come back up.

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10 . Cappella – Move On Baby

“Move On Baby,” released in February 1994, captures Cappella’s Eurodance formula at its most effective, offering a sleek, polished slice of high-energy escapism.

The track, lifted from their second studio album “U Got 2 Know,” flaunts all the hallmarks of early ’90s dance-floor engineering: a relentless bassline, hypnotic melodic loops, and vocals delivered with a crisp, almost mechanical precision.

Its creators—Gianfranco Bortolotti, Ricardo Overman, Diego Leoni, Lorenzo Carpella, Alessandro Pasinelli, and Bruno Guerrini—opt for a predictable but sturdy assembly of club-ready components, with Bortolotti’s production ensuring everything lands exactly where it’s supposed to.

Charting at number seven in the UK Singles Chart and topping the Eurochart Hot 100, the song’s global success speaks to its ability to cross borders with formulaic efficiency.

It dominated charts as far afield as Finland, Israel, and Switzerland while also placing respectably in Canada and the United States, peaking at number seven on the “Billboard” Hot Dance Club Play chart.

What separates “Move On Baby” slightly from its competitors is its effortless use of session singer Eileina Dennis, whose uncredited vocals lend the song a texture absent in many of its contemporaries.

Even so, the choice to rely on uncredited studio talent—while Kelly Overett and Rodney Bishop mimed the material live—adds a layer of artifice to Cappella’s image, a theme consistent with the group’s calculated approach to fame.

The accompanying music video, directed by B. Smith and Wayne Holloway, fits comfortably within the expectations for the era: saturated visuals bathed in early MTV aesthetics, designed more for repeated airplay than artistic innovation.

It managed heavy rotation on MTV Europe and landed on Germany’s VIVA A-list, further extending the track’s reach.

Still, beneath the glittering surface, “Move On Baby” sits squarely within the boundaries of its genre, neither challenging the Hi-NRG conventions nor transcending them.

Its status as one of Cappella’s most commercially successful singles reflects more about the group’s peak momentum in the mid-1990s than any lasting artistic resonance.

Featured on the 1994 album “U Got 2 Know”.

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11 . Amen UK – Passion [Running Through My Veins]

“Passion [Running Through My Veins]” by Amen UK feels like a time capsule from the electronic dance music scene of the early 2010s, though it lands without much historical weight.

Released in 2011 and distributed via Central Station Records, the track’s presence on platforms like Spotify and YouTube makes it accessible, but accessibility alone doesn’t strike relevance.

The song operates within the familiar contours of trance and hard dance, with its synthesized melodies and high-energy beats straining to keep pace with the genre’s titans. Yet, in a world where electronic music is often an arms race of sonic innovation, “Passion [Running Through My Veins]” lacks any distinguishing rupture in its formula.

While Amen UK’s identity remains shrouded in anonymity, suggesting a focus on community rather than individual stardom, this obscurity doesn’t translate into intrigue here. The absence of documented chart success, collaborations, or notable live performances renders the track more like background ambiance designed for DJ sets rather than an object for critical dissection.

Included in various remix compilations, the song might find a home amid the playlists of niche hard dance aficionados at late-night festivals. But without any cultural or sonic landmark to its name, it struggles to elevate itself beyond its role as a genre placeholder.

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12 . Jimmy Ray – Goin’ To Vegas

“Goin’ To Vegas” by Jimmy Ray occupies an interesting space in the pop-rock landscape of the late ’90s, blending the rockabilly charm of his debut single with an alternative rock edge, yet never quite grasping the same commercial spotlight.

Written alongside Con Fitzpatrick, the track carries forward the collaborative energy evident across Ray’s debut album. Its instrumentation aligns with the retro-pop ethos Ray cultivated in his earlier work, yet the song struggles to deliver the infectious hooks that made “Are You Jimmy Ray?” a more enduring hit.

Charting at No. 47 on the UK Singles Chart, the single failed to break into the UK Top 40, making it a footnote rather than a highlight in Jimmy Ray’s career. While his debut single soared to No. 13 in both the UK and U.S., “Goin’ To Vegas” feels more like a follow-up act that never quite takes off, lacking the immediacy to resonate widely.

A music video was produced but never aired in the U.S., underscoring its limited promotional push beyond British shores. Ray’s televised performance on “Live and Kicking Friday” attempted to drum up enthusiasm, though it did little to lift the song’s trajectory. Compared to his debut, both the production and reception suggest an artist momentarily stuck in second gear.

Produced during a time when Ray was under the management of Simon Fuller—best known for guiding the Spice Girls and masterminding “American Idol”—the song highlights a curious gap between star power behind the scenes and the muted impact in practice. In a year where Ray was riding the high of a U.S. tour with the Backstreet Boys, “Goin’ To Vegas” feels more like a missed opportunity than a proper encore.

Featured on the 1998 album “Jimmy Ray”.

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