It’s hard to muster much love for “Please Don’t Go” – a barely adequate trot through a good song. “Begging” has never sounded so thoroughly rote. It’s a good example, though, of one of the nineties least-regarded, most revival-immune style, the generic dance cover version.
Dance music is notorious for its stylistic interbreeding, its rapid mutation: a music constantly in flux. Tracks like “Please Don’t Go” are what happens when dance stands still: the basic chassis of house music turned into a plastic mould that can be applied to any old song. From KWS to Mad House’s Madonna versions, any given 90s chart seemed to have a handful of these things in it. Pundits now complain about the effects of instant access to (almost) anything on popular culture, but let’s not forget that when people can remember something and not access it, the resulting gap doesn’t always produce productive mis-rememberings. It also produces cheap knock-offs. “Please Don’t Go” isn’t quite as deathly as the king of the dance cover version, Undercover’s formica take on “Baker Street”, but it’s never memorable. That this nullity got five weeks at the top says more about the immobile singles chart than any double-digit run.
A quick shout-out, though, to its notional double A-Side, the unremembered “Game Boy”, which is as near as we’re ever going to come to a hardcore track in Popular. As ‘ardkore goes, it’s poor, a collection of five years of weary dance tropes in search of even one good hook – Beltram-style hoover noises, house piano, cut-up vocal samples, a dubby bassline, none of them sticking around long enough to make an impact. It reminds me more of cover-mounted CD-Rs (“100 Banging Sounds”) on computer music mags than any kind of clubbing experience. But it’s there.
Score: 3
[Logged in users can award their own score]
Welcome back, Tom! I’ve missed Popular this last month.
As for the song, it’s not just an assembly-pack cover version, but an identikit copy of an assembly-pack cover version – i.e. this one, which was a hit all over Europe but didn’t get released in the UK quickly enough and got pipped to the post by KWS. KWS have a much better singer, so no loss at all there.
Hate to be a pedant, but I’m pretty sure you mean Undercover, not Underworld. Although I would be keen to hear Messrs Smith, Hyde and Emerson take on Jerry Rafferty…
On the topic of cheap knock-off dance versions, though, surely these records were just as opportunistic as Jive Bunny and the like, and with the same audience in mind: aimed at children, who would think the tracks were originals (as I did when I first heard Undercover’s Baker Street), rather than teens and grown-ups who might be indulging in some nostalgia?
One of the more regrettable, and therefore one of the most profitable, aspects of the early nineties dance music boom was the trend for excavating old AoR staples, squaring them off rhythmically and speeding them up to make them danceable. An offshoot of the Hi-NRG approach to ballads, but without any of the latter’s deliriously delicate subtexts, this enabled such 1992 hits as East Side Beat’s “Run Like The Wind,” Rage’s “Run To You” and worst of all Undercover’s approach to “Baker Street” (Rafferty, sensibly, shrugged it off and counted the royalties).
This entry not only falls into this category but also confirms that, with the commercial ascent of dance music, a venerable tradition returned to life, namely that of the quickfire soundalike British cover version cash-in of an international hit. “Please Don’t Go” was of course originally a hit, and a rare ballad, for KC and the Sunshine Band right at the end of the seventies, but its 1992 dance reconstitution was due to Italian duo Double You, whose version was that year’s big Eurodance smash, topping the charts everywhere in the Continent apart from Britain, where Midlands opportunists KWS rush-released their Woolworths xerox reading and bagged the domestic number one.
That having been said, there really is nothing to get excited about here; the words are flatly sung in strangulated, regulated voices, the beats are flaccid and the record essentially sits there, on permanent loop repeat (that’s why I thought Popular took so long to come back; Tom must be listening to the 12-inch, which lasts approximately 85 years). “Game Boy” is a forgettable two-peas-and-a-chip-core instrumental whose meme replicated itself in a couple of other 1992 tack-dance top tenners; “Tetris” by Doctor Spin (another Andrew Lloyd Webber project) and “Supermarioland” by the Trades Description Act-invoking Ambassadors Of Funk, and you’ve probably guessed where both of these go, viz. nowhere.
#2 haha FREUD TO THREAD, I don’t like Underworld at all but yes I like them more than Undercover.
#3 I have a terrible feeling I HAVE been listening to the 12″, not that it would change the mark much.
Second ever Nottingham Number One! The first being Paper Lace, and (arguably) the third coming in eight years time. As I recall, this was meant to be a plea, directed at a Nottingham Forest player who was thinking of leaving the club? His name escapes me – which is a bit bad, as I once enjoyed a hilarious night out on the Nottingham gay scene with his ex-wife. KWS got a “best new act” Brits nomination on the back of this, you know – going head to head with Undercover – clash of the Titans!
I was debating whether or not to add Undercover’s ‘Baker St’ to the playlist on Friday! You’ll all be sad to hear it has not made the cut.
But what’s on Friday, you ask? WELL:
HOPTIMISM PRESENTS: HANDPUMP THE VOLUME
DJ Chlorine and The Barnet Ape present an evening of rave classics, chart bosh and euro bangers at Mason & Taylor E1 (near Shoreditch High St tube). M&T do good beer, hence the laboured booze puns. I will endeavour to play as much stuff off Rave ’92 as possible.
All the info here: Friday 19th August, 9pm-2am, free entry and all the 2 Unlimited you can drink! All welcome!
Great to have you back, but I’m going to have to be another pedant and tell you that Mad’house made the charts in 2002. (Sorry.)
I don’t actually mind this, though I prefer the Double You version it was copying.
I think I bought the KC version of the song when it first came out and it’s the original melody which earns this any points from me. There’s a distinct lack of invention in the arrangement but they seem to be having fun in the video.
TOTPWatch: KWS performed ‘Please Don’t Go’ on Top Of The Pops on five occasions. Details of the Christmas edition shall be provided anon;
7 May 1992. Also in the studio that week were; Curiosity, 2 Unlimited, Kim Wilde and Morrissey, plus a live appearance by satellite from ZZ Top in Texas. Adrian Rose & Femi Oki were the hosts.
14 May 1992. Also in the studio that week were; Shakespeare’s Sister, Del Amitri, Kriss Kross, Celine Dion & Peabo Bryson and Ce Ce Peniston. Mark Franklin & Claudia Simon were the hosts.
21 May 1992. Also in the studio that week were; Ce Ce Peniston, Richard Marx and Elton John, plus a live performance by satellite from The Levellers in Paris. Tony Dortie & Adrian Rose were the hosts.
4 June 1992. Also in the studio that week were; Take That, Lionel Ritchie, Utah Saints and Erasure. Tony Dortie & Claudia Simon were the hosts.
This was the most dismal of #1s. There’s nothing to prompt so much as a listen here, let alone five weeks at the top. Even the meaningless three-initial name is pure generic 90s fodder. I remember earlier ‘I Got You Babe’ keeping ‘Running Up That Hill’ (well) off the summit, one suspects and hopes there weren’t such riches below KWS.
‘Ride Like The Wind’ though, that were a bangin’ tune.
I was 11, so I ask the following questions in all seriousness:
The sleeve proclaims this as a “Dance Club Classic ’92”. For those that were there, was it?
If yes, what were you all thinking?
If no, what was a “Dance Club Classic ’92”?
Welcome back Tom.
This track and several other upcoming number ones make that common mistake of 90s dance music (actually scrap that this goes for 90s pop and indie as well) the assumption that a positive vibe will cover for weak material.
Admittedly were I the person leaving I would find Mr Kws’ cajoling pleas more persuasive than KCs stark emotional fascism but I would say that’s what makes the original superior. On the KC and the Sunshine Band version the listener is put in the lovers position (in a manner of speaking) the neediness feels uncomfortable and so a relatively song stays with you. This cover is not so much simple as
perfunctory.
re: Undercover. Mid-92 was one of those periods where there was some comment on the amount of covers in the charts and this dull band were among the main culprits blithely attempting to build a chart profile on such weedy versions of old tunes that they inevitably made listeners that bit fonder of the originals
Have to say that Mike’s story about the Forest players wife is a darn sight more entertaining than KWS’s work. It wasn’t Teddy Sheringham’s wife by any chance?
It was inevitable that we would encounter the domain of the “plastic raver”. It’s an elitist term within the ‘ardkore community, which sounds disingenuous, when you consider some examples of chart-friendly club bangers which endure. This example is extremely beige and unengaging. And in a way, you’d have to reappraise KC and The Sunshine Band’s distinctly average PDG as er…pretty damn good in comparison.
We’re only a few weeks away from Vision at Popham airfield with 40,000 hardcore ravers causing 20 mile tailbacks along the M3. I’m pretty certain KWS didn’t grace any turntables there.
#11 The #2Watch for KWS’ 5 week reign of terror spans four runner-up records; the second and third week of three for SL2’s ‘On A Ragga Trip’, a week of Guns ‘N’ Roses interpretation of ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’, a week for Shut Up & Dance’s ‘Raving I’m Raving’ which might possibly have replaced them if it hadn’t been immediately deleted, and finally one week of Kris Kross’ ‘Jump’. I’d say that two of those records are classics that tell you quite a lot about 1992, one is a silly bit of harmless pop fizz and the other is a howling abomination on every level – but which is which?
Oh wow, that’s horrific – who the hell would buy KWS when On A Ragga Tip was next to it in the racks? Even the worst GnR track of all would’ve at least given us something to talk about.
Come on Tom, invoke the ‘special circumstances’ rule and give us an entry for Shut Up And Dance. I’ve had it in mind for quite a few popular years now, and I’m frankly appalled that it was KWS who got the cream that week.
Nostalgia overkill reading the indie arse end of the charts. nibbling at the edge of the chart are Flowered Up, St Et (Join Our Club), Arrested Development. more chart-successful stuff slipping out of top 10 (under the RSF era) include Sisters of Mercy and Carter, with Weddoes at 10 (the week ^^ went to #1) with one of the better songs from their year of singles.
#16 ‘Raving I’m Raving’ is another AOR cover, of course, albeit with new words. And it is a classic.
1992 is the early period of the charts being cluttered up with cover versions, but the trend hadn’t yet become so dominant or pervasive as it went on to be. Also in the top 40 when ‘Please Don’t Go’ was number one;
Marc Almond – The Days of Pearly Spencer
Curiosity – Hang On In There Baby
ZZ Top – Viva Las Vegas
Alison Jordan – The Boy From New York City
Guns ‘N’ Roses – Knocking On Heaven’s Door
Take That – It Only Takes A Minute
Incognito – Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing
Tia Carrare – Ballroom Blitz
In every single instance, I’d suggest that the artist had a greater hit with an already half-familiar song of proven quality than they would have had with original material. Almond and Take That strike me as the only ones who both chose their material carefully and did good things with it out of this lot.
And then there’s the next number one, of course…
Well, SUAD (and indeed their label) had real talent and a knack for the (mostly) successful experiment and mixture of sounds, still remembered affectionately 20 years on.
It was £10 to get in… nah it’s ‘ad a remix… and Rum & Black (the sampled chorus line of their single “F**k the legal stations” – “Turn OFF that motherf**kin’ radio!” being the natural response to this take on “Please Don’t Go”, while it’s AA side, “I’m Not In Love” wedded one sampled line and intro of Joan Armatrading with a low bass surprisingly effectively). And (oh yeah) The Ragga Twins…”‘ooligan sixty-nine” Nicolette “I’d like to wake you up…”… all this was the sound of East London to my teenage ears
KWS though…just make me want to turn their initials into an obscene acronym. Terrible, charmless, dross. Just why why why?
I have remembered the name of the Nottingham Forest footballer!
(Clue: it rhymes with “Bez Stalker”.)
Whereas the B-side was a portent aimed at Dave B(ph)easant.
#20 That is a pretty dismal clutch of covers. Makes 2011 look positively Futurist by comparison. Am I the only one who likes G’n’R’s ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’, though? It is totally punk in its ugliness, and resonates with an echo of “Dylan goes electric” fury. I always wonder whether they heard Television’s version on ‘The Blow-Up’, which is not entirely dissimilar. Certainly with Slash I would think it was possible. It is pretty amazing that it got to number 2. What was the British public thinking?
Welcome back Tom, and a friendly nudge to Mike as we’re awaiting his Number 4s…
Trying to be fair, which I wasn’t particularly minded to be at the time, this sounds OK for a short while when the groove kicks in (and again when that nice little bubble of bass brings it back in midway through the track) but soon outstays its welcome, although it’s not the worst culprit among rave hits of the time. Then again I was never the target audience for rave. I turned 30 while this was number one, and my party featured plenty of Blondie as I recall, and me and my buddy Paul singing along drunkenly to the Pogues’ version of “Dirty Old Town” well before we were even drunk.
The performance video shows the frontman in full “touch me I’m an idol” mode, whereas the TOTP performance shows him in regrettable shorts and the keyboard player on the left looks like a Forest steward off-duty. Speaking of which, Bez Stalker left the club for Sampdoria after Euro 92 and Forest were relegated a year later in Cloughie’s last season.
Yep, a flavorless redundancy this one. 3/10 for the pretty excellent original song which does still shine through sounds about right I suppose.
I’d add that ‘slap a house beat on it’ travesties were also something that lots of artists effectively did to themselves. The supposed ’empty space’ at the end of cd versions of (originally 35-45 minute) albums led to encrustations of lame-o, house-d up new versions of original danceables. You’d be hard pressed to find a ’70s or ’80s pop act that didn’t scar up its legacy in this way. Even people’s greatest hits packages often drowned in this muck. (Chaka Khan did a 1989 album that doubled down, containing nothing but unlistenable house/dance remixes of her danceables. Ouch.)
Cumbrian at 12: I suppose it was played in mainstream clubs and people danced to it so it sort of satisfies the trades desription act. However as for being played in more underground clubs or at raves I think there would have been the same chance of hearing it as hearing 2 Unlimited/Ebenezer Goode/Oceanic/Trip To Trumpton/Sesame Street/N-Trance etc etc – ie no chance.
It was dance music for the under 15s and also those who got pissed and went on the pull at High street pop nightclubs.Nothing wrong with that but not really part of the rave culture.
I see – I imagine we’re going to run into quite a few of these sorts of records over the coming years (across different genres) that would be looked on fairly sniffily by the hardcore who were into whatever it was the record in question was diluting for the mainstream audience (UK garage being the main one from when I was old enough/young enough to go to clubs).
Yes, it was a mainstream nightclub record, nothing more and nothing less – as evidenced by the video location: the Black Orchid in Nottingham (later renamed Isis), which was never even remotely a part of underground club culture.
Yet another in a very long line of records I either don’t remember or remember with contempt (the latter for this one) which was making me think I must have given up on the UK charts long before I moved to the States (in October of ’92) but the mention of ‘Join Our Club’ above lifted my spirits.
memorable only for soundtracking a gaggle of teenish boys at manchester airport that summer who were chanting along like football fans to their battery-powered beatbox and doing the straight-arm pointy thing in unison on the ‘PLEASE’, each time
it set the tone for a pretty dismal holiday, if I remember rightly
Echoing the general opinion on this one. This bunch of chancers had a go at Rock Your Baby as a follow-up, and duly ruined that as well. It’s hardly believable that this tedious cover, of a song that’s hardly Casey and Finch’s best work, spent five weeks at the top of the charts. It’s even less believable that On A Ragga Tip was one of the records it blocked (although I can remember that being No1 on the ITV chart show) and credibility is stretched to breaking point by the fact that in its last week at the top, this still had the legs to outsell what would have been one of the all-time great number ones. Not only is Raving I’m Raving a staggeringly brilliant record from a group, and genre, that produced more than its fair share of them. But like Ghost Town and Two Tribes, it’s a record that tells you everything about the scene and the times that produced it, all in five minutes.
But it wasn’t to be. However many copies were pressed before Marc Cohn and his lawyers stepped in, it seems they weren’t enough to shift KWS, and the next bunnied No1 was straight in at the top the following week.
But rave will have its day at the top of the charts. It’s another two and a half years on Popular before we get there, does anyone know which record I’m talking about?
It was about Des Walker and it didn’t work. He was transferred to Sampdoria, and the following year Forest were relegated and Brian Clough retired.
#32 It is indeed a real injustice that ‘Raving I’m Raving’ never got there. Anyone know why Marc Cohn (or, presumably, his record company) was such an arse about it? Surely they could have worked something out. By this point the law on sampling had become reasonably well-established, hadn’t it?
Just to point out that, while this was at number one, what is quite probably my favourite single of all time, ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’ by Manic Street Preachers came out. It got to number 17. Hey Ho.
Obvs there’s more to be said about that later.
#33: They hadn’t obtained clearance to use the song before putting it out.
Yes, but they did at least allow SUAD to release and sell the already produced records/CDs so as not to go bust, and I’d assume they’d have got 100% of the publishing in any case.
There was a bunch of people yelling “hypocracy” when Cher did a straight cover version of “Walking in Memphis” which has a (ahem) disco feel not unlike the SUAD version. Then again, she didn’t change the lyric so maybe that was the deciding factor. Songwriters are funny like that. See Bruce Springsteen/Kevin Rowland for an example.
re36 yes as far as I know anyone can do a cover version but as in the case of the Wurzels being stopped doing there version of one of Oasis’s hits you have to have permission to change the words and in that case Noel Gallagher refused. So instead the Wurzels just put it out in their usual style with his words.
I’m surprised with all the love for “On A Ragga Tip” on here – I always thought it was a particularly annoying novelty record and the worse thing SL2 ever did – something that might be born out by its absence from the average oldskool site or mix.
re36 and changing lyrics, you might be on to something there. I quite like this era of dance music but even I wince when I hear the phrase “raving shoes”.
Which one?
“Some moight say, the plough follers the tractor….”
In a zoider zupernova in the skoi?
Can somebody please explain something that has long puzzled me, at least ever since I visited the Virgin Megastore in Bristol trying to find music to practice lerocing to and failed to find anything suitable in the section labelled “Dance Music”?
As far as I can see, all popular music is intended for dancing to whether a medieval galliard, a classical minuet, The Dark Town Strutters Ball, Johnny B Goode or Help Me Make It Through The Night. So what makes Dance Music more dance music than the rest? It’s about the least erotic kind of dancing ever devised.
Ah – Google reveals it was “Don’t Look Back In Anger” and someone commented “look, this is just better than the original”.
#41 – It’s a wonder that in a quest for “Dance Music” you weren’t directed to the Victor Silvester section. Now that’s REAL dance music for you!
#41 Now there’s a thing, “dance” as a catch-all kind of term, sort of usurped “disco” after it fell from grace in the early ’80s. I think the dance music of the pre-rock & roll era was big-band/ballroom which most of my grandparents’ generation would have understood dance music to be. I remember the “Now! Dance” compilation coming out, pre-House, with gussied-up New Pop 12″ remixes as well as Brit-Soul and club-mixes.
Interestingly, “Now! Dance 92” throws up some good examples of the commercial stuff that filled up the charts at this time:
LP/Cassette 1, side 1
1.Was (Not Was) : “Shake Your Head” (12″ Mix)
2.Undercover : “Baker Street” (Extended Mix)
3.East 17 : “House of Love” (Pedigree Mix)
4.BUNNIED
5.Utah Saints : “Something Good” (12″ Mix)
6.U96 : “Das Boot” (Techno Version)
7.Bizarre Inc : “I’m Gonna Get You” (Orig. Flavour Mix Radio Edit)
LP/Cassette 1, side 2
1.U2 : “Even Better Than the Real Thing” (The Perfecto Mix)
2.Stereo MCs : “Connected” (Full Length)
3.BUNNIED
4.Neneh Cherry : “Money Love” (The Perfecto Mix)
5.Inner City : “Pennies from Heaven” (Kevin’s Tunnel Mix)
6.Wag Ya Tail : “Xpand Ya Mind” (Hendrix 7″ Mix)
7.Soul II Soul : “Joy (Brand New Heavies Remix)”
LP/Cassette 2, side 1
1.CeCe Peniston : “We Got a Love Thang” (Silky House Thang)
2.Shanice : “I Love Your Smile” (Driza Bone Club Thang)
3.Dina Carroll : “Ain’t No Man” (Lowmac 12″ Mix)
4.Incognito : “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing” (Album Version)
5.Loose Ends : “Hangin’ on a String” (Frankie Knuckles Radio Edit)
6.Brand New Heavies : “Don’t Let It Go to Your Head” (12″ Version)
7.Innocence : “One Love in My Lifetime” (7″ Edit)
LP/Cassette 2, side 2
1.KWS : “Rock Your Baby” (Boogaloo Investigator Mix)
2.Salt-n-Pepa : “Start Me Up” (Radio Edit)
3.SL2 : “On a Ragga Tip” (Original Mix)
4.Messiah featuring Precious Wilson : “I Feel Love” (7″ Mix)
5.K-Klass : “So Right” (Pearl Edit)
6.Bassheads : “Back to the Old School” (Desa Basshead Edit)
7.2 Unlimited : “Twilight Zone” (7″ Version)
8.Dr Spin : “Tetris” (7″ Mix)
9.Rage : “Run to You” (Vital Organs Mix)
I don’t remember “Rock Your Baby” at all, by the way.
I have an awfully big soft spot for ‘On A Ragga Tip’, but I can’t understand the serious love for ‘Raving, I’m Raving’. Maybe you had to be there.
Any thoughts?
FLD
#41: You could argue that medieval galliards, classical minuets, The Dark Town Strutters Ball, Johnny B Goode and Help Me Make It Through The Night weren’t conceived specifically with dancing in mind, whereas “dance music” is a good deal more functional in its purpose, i.e. it’s directly geared at club dancefloors.
#46 I think stuff like “On A Ragga Tip” has a direct link to something the raver community may already be familiar with (well, at least the London-based ravers will have rubbed shoulders with Ragga afficionados). With “Raving, I’m Raving”, the connection is more obscure, but perhaps the tendency was to assimilate a lot of AoR within the “dance” sphere as the means to an end, as if to deliberately choose the least likely (most uncool) candidates to cover and in turn lay over a 4/4 beat or sampled breakbeat and reinvent them anew. Or you could look at it another way, that even the most turgid and laboured AoR had at least 1 hook worth stealing, in order to poppify a repetitive beat/bassline and a DJ or producer could make some decent money off it (not forgetting the original songwriter either).
Also, in the case of “Walking In Memphis”, the lyrics transpose with the minimum of alteration to describe the whole balearic / rave scene. “Do I really feel the way I feel?” indeed!
Re #46 – is there a version of the original “pulped” Raving I’m Raving floating around on the web that someone can discreetly point me too? I think I only heard it once before the roof fell in on SUAD. I kicked myself for not picking up a copy when I had the chance. Memories can be faulty but I have a feeling half of the attraction of the track was the Cohn-b(a)iting. The reworked version on the Death Is Not the End LP is pants.