My Top 500 Songs (complete!!)

Agneeta said:
14 JX - There's Nothing I Won't Do (1996)

JX have a small but glorious back catalogue - You Belong To Me, Son of A Gun, Restless, Close To Your Heart... but sitting on the top of the pile, there's no question it's this top 5 smash from 1996.

By now you'll realise desperation is one of my favourite genres in pop, and this brings it in droves. It brings joy and fear in equal measure as all good dance tracks should. With just a nod to N-Trance, with an eye on the burgeoning trance movement, this was a glorious pop dance blast that ticked all the right boxes.

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Ok NOW WE’RE FUCKING TALKING

I owe many of these a write up.
 
straightorbroken said:
And the album remains unreleased. I really hope he'll release it one day.
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I had no idea there was an LP. I mean by all rights there should have been. I mean the Nightcrawlers had a top 15 album.

Speaking of whom, I never knew this until today, it's not absolutely terrible:



It's by the same team as Believe.
 
Agneeta said:
I had no idea there was an LP. I mean by all rights there should have been. I mean the Nightcrawlers had a top 15 album.

Speaking of whom, I never knew this until today, it's not absolutely terrible:



It's by the same team as Believe.
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A single Supersonic was due 9 September 1997 and the album was meant to be released later that year.

And speaking of Believe team gems:



Pandora also got her grubby mits on it, but Tat did it first and best.
 
Oh I tried flagging it with who owns the JX backcat and nothing so assuming they don’t have it in the archives (they acquired JX’s label way back). It was planned for 96 rather than 97 (eg quicker follow on to There’s Nothing I Won’t Do).

Nightcrawlers - I’m trying to get that online. There was an album sampler too.
 
Ridiculous that JX was coming up with one insanely good banger after another at the tender ages of 21/22. I definitely WOULD too, despite the boyband aping mid 90s curtain hair.

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He was also behind Bullet In the Gun and is Rex the Dog of many remixes fame. What a wonderful musical sensibility :disco:
 
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aquaplex said:
Oh I tried flagging it with who owns the JX backcat and nothing so assuming they don’t have it in the archives (they acquired JX’s label way back). It was planned for 96 rather than 97 (eg quicker follow on to There’s Nothing I Won’t Do).

Nightcrawlers - I’m trying to get that online. There was an album sampler too.
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Was the single Supersonic planned for 1996 too?
 
He's still active and has an Instagram. Does loads of big DJ sets including Berghain and Burning Man.

He's done alright.
 
Not to be all "over on Pop Square", but I tried to PM him on instagram before asking about the Supersonic song over there a few days ago and I doubt it will get read TBH. So fingers crossed the more professional approach from Aqua is effective.

For years I overlooked Bullet In The Gun, but now I'm obsessed. I just want more of that sound.
 
12 Snap! - Rhythm is a Dancer (1992)

The absolute mother of 90s Europop, with an opening rift so familiar they must live on the sample money.

Elegant, dramatic, a little ridiculous and definitely thrilling, it had the longest run at no.1 of any eurodance track of the era in the UK (6 weeks). It demonstrated the scale you could make tracks within the genre. Despite the sheer size of it, it never dipped in quality, although the cancer lyric has some explaining to do.

The cathedral scale gospel of it all, still causes sparks to this day, a haunting spiritual affair - it still echoes down the years. Praise at the alter of Snap, for you have been blessed.

 
11 Black Box - Ride On Time (1989)

Speaking of mammoth dance classics that set a standard for the incoming decade, here come the original masters of sample now, pay later.

Another six week number one, this was my introduction to europop, wailing divas and more specifically, Italian house, a love affair that lasts to this day.

You could dwell on the contentious issues that surround it, stealing from Loleatta Holloway, using a gorgeous young model to mime to her sampled vocals and then getting Heather Small no less to re-record. It continued being somewhat murky with Holloway remaining rightfully bitter, a lot of regret from Black Box, who now own the full rights to it all.

You could dwell on all that, but you could celebrate what an infectious motherfucker of a track it is, the scale of a rock track with synths instead of guitars, and a gorgeous black women instead of gross white men leading the charge.

The actual best selling track in the UK of 1989, they went on to have huge success in the USA. It changed my life!

 
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Coming up the top 10 ( :disco: :() and then it's all over. Included in the top 10... well you'll just have to wait and see.

I welcome those who have joined me on this mission to predict what's in the top 10.
 
I would have bet money on Ride On Time being number 1. AGOG that it didn't even finish top 10. The first TOTP I ever watched featured this TOWERING CLASSIC at number 1. Do love catching people out with the Heather Small factoid.

What more could be said about it that hasn't already been said? Set the template for countless dance hits over the next decade, not to mention the (rather ugly) way Black Box went about the sampling issues changing all sorts within the industry. Along with Soul II Soul, I credit Signores Limoni, Davoli & Semplici with providing the sound of 1989, with further successes under pseudonyms like Starlight & Mixmaster, along with various similar acts like the 49ers following them up the HIT PARADE.

I do wonder what Katrin Quinol is doing these days. She might not have provided the voice of 1989, but she certainly was one of its most striking images.
 
When you get the right version of Ride On Time, it absolutely obliterates everything that came before it. Also love I Don't Know Anybody Else, Strike It Up and the much more mellow eurogrooves of Be What You Want.

Snap! similarly went europop after Rhythm. As much as I love The First The Last Eternity and Welcome to Tomorrow, I personally think they were briefly up there with KLF in terms of berserk, dance lord wizardry.
 
Katrin appears to still mime to Black Box tracks around Europe, particularly in Italy where the miming thing is less frowned upon.
 
I am predicting there will be one song I have either never heard or have entirely forgotten existed. 50/50 it’s then an iTunes purchase.
 
Agneeta said:
11 Black Box - Ride On Time (1989)

Speaking of mammoth dance classics that set a standard for the incoming decade, here come the original masters of sample now, pay later.

Another six week number one, this was my introduction to europop, wailing divas and more specifically, Italian house, a love affair that lasts to this day.

You could dwell on the contentious issues that surround it, stealing from Loleatta Holloway, using a gorgeous young model to mime to her sampled vocals and then getting Heather Small no less to re-record. It continued being somewhat murky with Holloway remaining rightfully bitter, a lot of regret from Black Box, who now own the full rights to it all.

You could dwell on all that, but you could celebrate what an infectious motherfucker of a track it, the scale of a rock track with synths instead of guitars, and gorgeous black women instead of gross white men leading the charge.

The actual best selling track in the UK of 1989, they went on to have huge success in the USA. It changed my life!

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THANK THANK THANK YOU BABY
 
10 Alice Deejay - Better Off Alone (1999)

Into the obese dogs now.

Honestly do they make irrestible dance rifts anymore? At best they make pastiches of the classics (hi Calvin Harris, David Guetta), which absolutely won't be sampled and acknowledged by almost anyone who cares in 25 years? No.

Well Judith Pronk (find me a better pop star name) and friends certainly did. Least we not forget DJ Jurgen (who?). They got the pager message - irresistible rift, memorable simple lyrics - and they ran with it.

Along with Wamdue Project and Artful Dodger among others, they saw the saw the new millennium in - on the dancefloor. It hasn't aged a bit and stands proud as one of the great of the trance/ commercial club sound.

All together now - beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep...

 
Just double checked to see if Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart were ever given any kind of co-write credit as the refrain is most definitely identical to Here Comes The Rain Again.

It wouldn't be until Back In My Life that I paid them attention. Then they just got gayer and gayer.
 
Alice is Benidorm 1999 for me all over - along with Turn Around, Boom Boom Boom Boom, The Launch, Blue, Mambo No 5 & a bunch more. I'd never been properly out before at 16 years old & what a summer of dance to experience it for the first time.

Me realising that this thread will be all over in a few days:

1LQqWT.gif
 
Sardonicus said:
Alice is Benidorm 1999 for me all over - along with Turn Around, Boom Boom Boom Boom, The Launch, Blue, Mambo No 5 & a bunch more. I'd never been properly out before at 16 years old & what a summer of dance to experience it for the first time.

Me realising that this thread will be all over in a few days:

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Don't. It's kept me sane (on Moopy) for months.

*banned in a week*
 
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I'm expecting (apologies if it's already featured!) 2 Unlimited - No Limits in the top 10.
 
9 Robyn - Dancing On My Own (2010)

The song that launched a thousand sad bops. I'm not using hyperbole when I state this was as important to dance-pop as I Will Survive, I Feel Love, Believe, Can't Get You Out Of My Head, Show Me Love. Sure it didn't scale the heady heights of international charts, but what a legacy.

We'll pretend the dreary white boy acoustic guitar cover doesn't exist forever and focus solely on the original masterpiece. Uplifting sadness, or sad bops, really began here, or more specifically from the lines

"I'm in the corner, watching you kiss her, I'm over here, why can't you see me"

A devastating tangible moment/ feeling, we've probably all experienced at some point. Yet we are serenaded with some of the most lovely, euphoric glittery explosions, coming in pulsing synth waves. It's a fully realised experience, it's the soundtrack of a heartbreak red letter day, it's the warmth of a nightclub and the chill of heartbreak. It's everything all at once.

 
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Agneeta said:
9 Robyn - Dancing On My Own (2010)

The song that launched a thousand sad bops. I'm not using hyperbole when I state this was as important to dance-pop as I Will Survive, I Feel Love, Believe, Can't Get You Out Of My Head, Show Me Love. Sure it didn't scale the heady heights of international charts, but what a legacy.

We'll pretend the dreary white boy acoustic guitar cover doesn't exist forever and focus solely on original masterpiece. Uplifting sadness, or sad bops, really began here, or more specifically from the lines

"I'm the corner, watching you kiss her, I'm over here, why can't you see me"

A devastating tangible moment/ feeling, we've probably all experienced at some point. Yet we are serenaded with some of the most lovely, euphoric glittery explosions, coming in pulsing synth waves. It's a fully realised experience, it's the soundtrack of a heartbreak red letter day, it's the warmth of a nightclub and the chill of heartbreak. It's everything all at once.

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WHERE IS THE LOVE?
 
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Agneeta said:
20 Everything But The Girl - Missing (1994/1995)

Step off the train...

What a way to start the top 20. The song which moved R Trace and R Ben from folksy sophisti-pop bores to purveyors of house and drum n' bass. A highly unlikely jump, but Missing was such a track that it seemed to link the two versions of EBTG with ease.

Of course it was Todd Terry that elevated Missing into the humble megahit that it became. Suddenly that singer-songwriter sound, was sharing the dance music space where not long prior, N-Trance and others had occupied. It was a game changer, a year later a similarly coded remix of Un-Break My Heart became a huge hit.

It is of course a personal favourite, the simple lyrics hit hard, even more when paired with the deep house beat. It's quite shocking, that it doesn't really have the same legacy in the way that say Believe does, but time will tell.

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Definitely would be in my Top 20 songs of all time. I think. What amazes me is that this song has aged well, considering how ubiquitous it was at the time.

There's something quite unique about this song. Although it's the "Todd Terry sound", which was everywhere in the second half of the 90s, most of the descendents were actually uplifting pop-dance songs - this is moody, melancholic, deep, haunting and grounded in singer-songwriter sensibility.

I was mostly listening to R&B and pop in the mid 90s, and my love of dance music didn't fully come back until about 1998, plus EBTG weren't really on my radar, so I missed the whole evolution of this song from flop single to worldwide monster, including the way it just organically exploded in clubs around the world. I've read a few things on this, including something on Instagram recently, where Ben Watt would talk about getting calls from people telling them they were #1 on dance charts in countries they didn't even know had dance charts. And how the song was nearly rejected by the label because "it didn't sound like EBTG". Todd Terry pushed back to say that was the memo - you wanted something different. Interestingly, the white label version sent to DJs first took hold in Italy and grew from there. It took almost a year before it exploded in Ibiza and the label decided to re-release it. They were probably hoping for a modest UK hit. What they got was a Top 10 around the world, including one of the best selling singles of 1996 in the US. It came at the right time, because Amplified Heart is a GREAT album and a return to form, and they deserved some recognition for it, and for their staying power in a fast moving pop market.
 
Agneeta said:
21 Rozalla - Everybody's Free (To Feel Good) (1991)

Like a spiritual awakening, it used to be my morning alarm clock.

An absolute ray of light from the happier more hopeful days, as the world gave up on the Cold War, and saw a bright new decade in, Rozalla came along, to soundtrack the momentous events with some commercial rave.

Ironically the 90s ended up in a big cynical mess and eventually lost the plot, but that didn't mean it always felt that way. This is earnest, utopian, sunrise dance music at it's absolute best.

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This one always hits me right in the feels. 1991 was a magical time for me and a magical time for music. There is a selction of songs which includes Gypsy Woman, Peace (In The Valley), Everybody All Over The World, 3am Eternal, Gonna Make You Sweat, Anthem, Insanity, You Got The Love, Where Love Lives, Always There, Keep Warm, Rhythm Is A Mystery and Such A Good Feeling, which all seemed to collide in the summer of 1991 to create the greatest dance playlist every assembled. :disco:

Agneeta said:
19 Alex Party - Don't Give Me Your Life (1995)

Alex Party tired of receiving lives :(

From the Haus of Livin' Joy came Alex Party with this very silly, very full on, surprising well-aged cut.

A rejection song implanted into a big old handbag house super smash, generously elevated with some of the least subtle piano house of the era.

I know from the Dance Rates we did, this unsurprisingly, has quite the fanbase on Moopy, paging @Kate.

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This was great - yes a bit of handbag nonsense but I agree, it has held up very well. 1995 was also a great years for music.

Agneeta said:
18 Livin Joy - Don't Stop Movin' (1996)

Livin’ Joy are an act mentioned so often in this topic, and yet here we finally find them. Their follow-up to the number one smash Dreamer featured a brand new singer: the wonderfully named Tameko Star.

Where departed singer Janice Robinson brought a soulful, gospel-style diva energy, Star had a wonderfully sleek pop-dance voice, making for a far glossier, more streamlined affair — a joyous, relentless dance smash.

The piano house is just as prevalent; in fact, where Dreamer is a track you wail along to, the thumping kinetic energy here provides a track you'll really dance to. It commands you!

Very fond memories of this one — GCSE revision, home alone, with just MTV Europe as my friend, this was on almost every hour.

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I do prefer Dreamer (have we had that already? Possibly in the Top 10?) but this is great. Can we please bring back big gospel voices to dance music? Every time I hear a modern piano house track with a generic session singer whispering like Billie Eilish a little of me dies inside.

Agneeta said:
16 Gala - Freed From Desire (1997)

Dear ChatCPT what do homosexuals and heterosexuals have in common? Freed From Desire by Gala.

We should have known the straights would appropriate it from us. She gives off a sapphic aura, it has a chant ripe for the terraces, and it turns out straight people also like 90s dance music.

It anything this one is for them. While it's entirely appropriate in a homosexual establishment, the radiant Sheila Diamond recently proved it's also entirely appropriate for the likes of Benidorm and Wigan.

Of course I love it. On the surface it’s a hypnotic, euphoric rush, but underneath there’s a distinctly Nietzschean strain running through the lyrics, giving it an existential weight that sits just below the gloss.

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I do have to apologise, but I never really cared for this.

Agneeta said:
15 Robert Miles - Children (1996)

They called it dream trance. That's fine but I'm here to rename it BLEAK TRANCE. It's either so severe or so traumatic throughout.

I knew this point would come, I have nothing else to say about a well loved, famous, "instrumental" track. Why would I?

Okay, let's forget Angel City mashed it up with Michelle Gayle's Do You Know. NEVER FORGET.



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The start of commercial trance? This was massively influential. It hit around the same time as another big track - I think it was Belissima but I might be wrong. If felt like they were everywhere. I much prefer this to the Alice Deejay / Lasgo / Ian Van Dahl sound that came later. More melodic. I don't mind vocal trance at all, but I would rather the tracks that started as proper trance and added a vocal, like Agnelli & Nelson, Blank & Jones, Space Brothers, Paul Oakenfold, etc.

Agneeta said:
13 Nightcrawlers - Push the Feeling On (1994/1995)

HURNING THEIR LIVES AGAIN

It was always a giddy thrill when I picked up a single it's initial release, only for it then to become a hit months later. From memory there was Love Fool, Professional Widow, Insomnia and this.

Of course MK, who to everyone's surprise is a current chart force, was the real talent on the track. John Reid who was the Nightcrawlers was essentially a dull soul singer, before MK got his mitts on this and turned it into a horny, intense house megahit.

In a twist bigger than The Sixth Sense I don't really care for the 95 mix with the female vocals, feed me the original pure hit with the vocals that never quite sounded like what they were. I'm glad R Di lived to see this become a hit.

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I ALWAYS got this guy mixed up with Toni Di Bart. They look like the same person, they sound like the same person, they came out around the same time. It was WEIRD. Anyways, nothing that Nightcrawlers did was as good as "The Real Thing", but this was great, and the album (which I only really discovered in recent years) is fab. They had quite a lot of other singles besides the two biggies, which I definitely don't remember at the time.
 
Oh and on JX - I love how both of their big tracks ("Song Of A Gun" being the other) are such commercial, noisy pop dance songs that a snob like me would normally either hate or like in a throwaway sort of way, but they are both FABULOUS. Great hooks, great vocals, sound great with the volume turned way up.

I covered it in my 90s thread but it BLEW MY MIND when I stumbled across a random R&B song from a US girl group to find the original vocal from "There's Nothing I Won't Do". There are so few 90s vocal house songs that have original vocals, it seems!
 
Agneeta said:
12 Snap! - Rhythm is a Dancer (1992)

The absolute mother of 90s Europop, with an opening rift so familiar they must live on the sample money.

Elegant, dramatic, a little ridiculous and definitely thrilling, it had the longest run at no.1 of any eurodance track of the era in the UK (6 weeks). It demonstrated the scale you could make tracks within the genre. Despite the sheer size of it, it never dipped in quality, although the cancer lyric has some explaining to do.

The cathedral scale gospel of it all, still causes sparks to this day, a haunting spiritual affair - it still echoes down the years. Praise at the alter of Snap, for you have been blessed.

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Also covered in my 90s thread, I am now fully aware of how massively influential this song was on the 90s.

I don't mind this, but it's a bit too Europop for me, and I remember thinking it was at #1 for way too long at the time :D

I also much prefer The Power, but of course 1989-1991 is MY ERA.
 
funky said:
Oh and on JX - I love how both of their big tracks ("Song Of A Gun" being the other) are such commercial, noisy pop dance songs that a snob like me would normally either hate or like in a throwaway sort of way, but they are both FABULOUS. Great hooks, great vocals, sound great with the volume turned way up.

I covered it in my 90s thread but it BLEW MY MIND when I stumbled across a random R&B song from a US girl group to find the original vocal from "There's Nothing I Won't Do". There are so few 90s vocal house songs that have original vocals, it seems!
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I feel like I read and reacted to this (old) news in your 90s topic. Sometimes dogs are just best left sleeping.
 
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