Trainspotting '96 - a collection of relevant club & pubfloor "anthems"

[Willie Oleson]

The relevance already starts with the fact that trains were my main transport for the weekend getaways, and I still dream about reading the various train schedules and the fear of missing a connection.
The things that happened to me crisscrossing the country (including Belgium and Germany) I could write a book about it.
Like, being the victim of a wanted-criminal mistaken identity, and literally always being the first passenger to be picked out for drug trafficking, foreigners approaching me hoping to score, sad girls hitting on me...but I digress.

Rather than going through a list of most successful club hits I'll take my cue from my own personal collection so it's partially a music thread and partially a trip down memory lane.
Chronological order isn't possible because the exact release dates are mostly unknown, and I've always found the alphabetical order kinda boring so it's going to be purely shelf-like, from left to right.
Starting with...

 

[Willie Oleson]

Azúcar Moreno – Solo Se Vive Una Vez (The Mediterranean Remixes)

Source: a 5 track CD-single still in its original case with the sticker "Nummer 1 Hit Aus Spanien" which suggests it's a German release.
It's the second of the two Azúcar Moreno singles I have, the first one being a remix of their 1990 ESC song "Bandido".

Kinda lame that the very first entry starts with a very short trip down memory lane since I've bought it from an online marketplace seller after I discovered the song on youtube, meaning that it happened in the last 10 or 15 years rather than the year 1996.
Nevertheless, if it's on the shelves it counts.
The most club & pubfloor flavoured version is the House Remix as shown in this video.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Btw, I never did any drug trafficking but coming from the Netherlands I was the usual suspect. So racist.

 

[Willie Oleson]

The next one is a remix (quelle surprise) of Always Something There To Remind Me by Viola Wills

Source: 6 track UK CD-single (that would be called CD Maxi Single on the continent) ordered from the Music Beat Records Birmingham printed catalogue which means that it was not possible to sample it before buying it. Thankfully, the hits have always outnumbered the misses.
It certainly wasn't a remix that happened by chance as the influence of the Todd Terry sound of the smash hit "Missing" by Everything But The Girl is strongly apparent.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Kristine W - Land Of The Living



I was kinda blown away when I saw the video for the first time on television, and I liked it much better than her previous international hits Feel What You Want and One More Try.
Initially I had the CD single with all the remixes that was released in many countries but it always bugged me that it didn't have an extended version of the one that was used for the video.
All the remixes strip the melody and drama from the song therefore I never played them, but later I discovered that the album version is a longer mix of the video and this track is available on (naturally) the album and also the promo CD which I used to replace the CD single.

I don't recall Land Of The Living ever being played for any club or pubfloor, but maybe I always just missed it. After all, I couldn't be in all places at the same time.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Dina Carroll - Mind Body & Soul

First heard in an establishments of sorts. By 1996 I had conditioned myself in such way that, wherever I was and whatever I did, my ears pricked up as soon as I heard a great choon.
I bought this single soon afterwards but the strange thing is that Mind Body & Soul was only released on promo vinyls and I have no idea how I found out that the mixes were included on Escaping. Just luck, I suppose.

It sounds like a Mai Tai song, and as a matter of fact two of Mai Tai's biggest hits - Body & Soul and History - had gotten a similar house remix treatment in 1995.
It's become sort of a sub-hobby to play the sleuth and figure out how it all connects or how it can be traced back to a previous release.
Those DJs and musicians were the real influencers, and instead of bla-bla videos they gave us great records to play.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Irene Cara - You Need Me (Ti Sento)

An Italian/American collaboration that came out of nowhere and is not connected with an album or anything else, although she had already recorded a (rubbish) eurodance single in Germany in 1995.
I don't know what "Ti Sento" means but "you need me" sounds like someone who won't take no for an answer. It's crying out for a restraining order and now we can dance to it.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Holland's best contribution to this year (and thread) is the dancefloor remake of Ready Or Not, the 1996 SMASH hit by Fugees (they're like Bee Gees and Carpenters, without the "The") which in itself was based on two samples from other songs most noticeably Enya's Boadicea. That song would make another comeback in the early 2000s courtesy of R&B singer Mario Winans.

The sound of this coverversion seems to be inspired by one of the Rollo & Rob D projects (e.g. The O.T. Quartet) and that's certainly not a bad thing.

Obviously, the B-side is the other Fugees hit but I have no idea what it sounds like.

Speaking of Holland in 1996, this was the year I made the switch from trainspotting Antwerp to trainspotting Amsterdam and other Dutch cities.
After frequenting the same spots for four years non-stop (I had to skip one weekend because I was sick, I'll never forget it) I felt it was time to refresh the scenery although that decision wasn't made very consciously.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I Am What I Am by Respect (featuring Hannah Jones, but not credited on this first release)


It comes in two very different styles and although I love the tecno-NRG version by Ian Stephens - the man behind the Hazell Dean/Marsha Raven/Paul Parker hits - the Man On A Mission mixes are specifically relevant for 1996 because it borrows the sound from Full Intention's I Love America, a big dancefloor hit in Europe at that time.
I bought the 12" vinyl first but at some point I replaced most of the vinyls with CDs because the bedroom was getting a little crammed.
A re-release with additional mixes would follow in 1998 but that's neither here nor there.

Ian Stephens provided most of the output for rival label Klone Records but he had already collaborated with Almighty in 1995 so I guess he was more of freelance producer. And that "rivalry" mostly existed in the heads of passionate fanboys who loved to stir up trouble on fan forums like these.
On the other hand it should be noted that there never appeared any Almighty remixes on Klone releases, maybe they weren't asked?
The people behind the Man On A Mission mixes have affiliations with the famous PWL records and this makes it an Almighty release with very little Almighty in it. And I find that very very funny.

 

[Willie Oleson]

The Love Boat by The Pacific Prince

No idea where this idea came from, it couldn't have been inspired by Love Boat The Next Wave because that happened two years later.
Regardless, it would sound very odd on a Trainspotting soundtrack and speaking of chronology I really need to rectify my criticism of using a song from 1994 because Trainspotting wasn't made in/during the year 1996. It was made in 1995 and released in early 1996.
Like this thread is going to be made in 2024/2025 and released in 2026. Now that I'm doing it myself I know what it means.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Barbara Tucker - Hot Shot

Not as great as the original by Karen Young (and that would be way too much to ask) but I feel it offers enough variation for a cool 1996 playlist.
Barbara has been a very busy lady and had several hits in the US hot dance club chart but I don't recall watching any of those music videos. I'm sort of talking to myself now because what it really means is that I no longer relied on music info from television or radio.
I just popped into various record stores and checked out the new releases, in addition to ordering from catalogue (UK and Italy). Yes, I was a junkie and always craving for the next shot.
Barbara is going to sing it now.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Next CD single

This harks back to the gay dance themes of the 1980s (Weather Girls, Divine) but it also continued the new gay mainstream that started a few years earlier in the 1990s. Songs like Hold That Sucker Down / Can't Get A Man, Can't Get A Job / Get Your Hands Off My Man all charted as pop and club hits.
I don't know if they still make these kind of tunes.

 

[Willie Oleson]

What also happened in 1996 was a coverversion of Yarbrough & Peoples' Heartbeats, recorded by an Italian project called B.S. Project (sorry, can't make it sound more interesting than it is)

Apart from Italy it was also released in the US and The Netherlands. Singles by popular acts like Cappella and Alex Party were usually released worldwide, but the one-offs were treated in a much more random fashion, and connecting the countries where these obscure singles were released commercially makes no sense whatsoever.
But I like that.

As for the familiarity, I think it sounds kinda similar to the Dancing Divaz remix of I Luv You Baby by The Original (1995).

 

[Willie Oleson]

One of the last singles by famous house act Black Box is a cover version of Native New Yorker.

The vocals are not as sweet and lovely as the original but you hardly notice that on a club or pubfloor.
I remember thinking when I was browsing the new releases, "hey, someone's done a cover version of Native New Yorker", and then "hey, that's Black Box".
The best mix is made by Miami based producer Mitchell Dupre (who may be related to countess Nathalie Du Pré) and I guess that's close enough to the real New York.

 

[Willie Oleson]

The second entry from Canada (after Barbara's "Hot Shot") is Laurell's "For Your Love" from 1994, re-released in 1996 with additional new mixes.

It's the kind of reliable no-nonsense dance choon that can easily fly under the radar but perhaps some American/Canadian tellytalkers recognise it?

Either way, now the whole world will know about it.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Let's do another one.
This World Today Is A Mess is a cover version of the Spanish hit by American singer Donna Hightower.

Happy new 1996 everybody!

 

[Willie Oleson]

Usually, singles by best-selling artist are not released without a specific reason and yet I can't find anything that connects it with the promotion of an album or compilation sold in 1996 (and the same goes for the 1995 remixes of I Feel Love).
Maybe it had become relevant again because it featured in a film sountrack or something like that...

State Of Indepence isn't a song that lends itself to a four-to-the-floor remake but of course that didn't stop anyone in the remix-hungry 1990s. Incidentally, it was also remixed in the year 1990 but those mixes are rather similar to the original version.

Yes, it's an odd one, but the Jules & Skin remix sounds as if they've actually put some thought into it. It's playful with just enough dramatic touches.
Or you can hate it, if you like.

 

[tommie]