The intro to our next number one kicks in, and I’m struggling to tell if it sounds like something we’ve already met in our journey through the early 90s, or if it was simply copied into ubiquity in the years that followed…
Mr. Vain, by Culture Beat (their 1st and only #1)
4 weeks, from 22nd August – 19th September 1993
On the one hand, ‘Mr. Vain’ is cheesy, throwaway Eurodance – the soundtrack to many a summer holiday in Ibiza (the 1990s is littered with dance hits that made the higher reaches of the charts in early autumn, after everyone had returned home from a fortnight in the Med). On the other, it’s an astute slice of dance-pop so of its time it could be in a museum.
It follows a tried and tested formula: one girl who sings, one boy who raps, over a throbbing beat. It’s amazing how successful this was, over and over again, between 1990 and 1994. Snap!, 2 Unlimited, Culture Beat… ‘Mr. Vain’ is a both a cheap and cheerful rehash of ‘Rhythm Is a Dancer’, especially in the portentous intro, and a slightly less stupid take on ‘No Limit’, with its techno riff and juddering drum machine. It takes what was great about both those records, and creates a streamlined, optimised dance hit – perhaps the epitome of its genre.
Call him Mr Raider, Call him Mr Wrong… Away from the pulsing beat, there are lyrics that just beg to be chanted en masse. I know what I want and I want it now… A decade later, when I started going to nightclubs, this record would still get a regular spin, and girls would pick out their own personal ‘Mr. Vain’ among the strobes and the dry ice. Meanwhile, Mr. Vain responds in the rapped verses: Call me what you like, As long as you call me time and again…
I’m going to take bets on where Culture Beat were from. Place your chips…. There’s no way they were British – the thought didn’t even cross my mind, given that this is dictionary-definition Eurodance. I was tempted to go Dutch, or maybe Belgian… But no. They were a German creation, of course, from a producer with two rent-a-voices, keeping up a grand tradition that stretches all the way back to Boney M. For ‘Mr. Vain’, though, the large-lunged vocals are from a Brit – Tanya Evans – while the rap is supplied by an American – Jay Supreme.
They’d had a couple minor hits previously, but this one sent them into the stratosphere: a number one in eleven countries across Europe, setting them up for a year or so of follow-up Top 10s. In Germany their success lasted the better part of a decade, until a remake of their biggest hit, ‘Mr Vain Recall’, in 2003. Culture Beat remain a going concern, presumably touring festivals across central Europe every summer, with a completely different line-up, Evans and Supreme having left way back in 1997.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
One of those dance records that rather passed me by, I’m afraid, but I remember hearing at the time that someone said it was the first single to make No 1 in the UK without being available on seven-inch. This Music Week article more or less confirms it, though I’m puzzled at it being called ‘the first for 30 years’ not in that format, leading to the question, ‘which chart-topping single in 1963 was not released on 7 in?’ I thought they all were!
Yes, I did wonder, as when I went to search for a picture of the record sleeve to use in the post, Discogs had it listed as 12″, CD, cassette, but not 7″… An interesting milestone, then. I’ve still not been able to discover which #1 was the first to not be released on any form of vinyl (though that record may not exist, or it may not occur until well into the digital era, as some limited form of 12″ would usually have been released for DJs etc…)
Weirdly, I have this on 12″.
(Oops! Did I say that out loud …?)
Wow! This was a big tune at weddings for a long time!
Yep….it’s a dance number…damn where are all the cool 90’s songs that I like? Hmmm…somewhere not number 1!
It was always more Milli Vanilli than Snap! to me, catchy but disposable and I couldnt hum any of their follow-ups – this one lingers in the brain though. I wouldnt turn it off on the radio…. 🙂
This was the summer of Radio 1 Roadshows incorporating humorous little plays, with the DJ getting the audience to sing pop songs as part of the dialogue. One of the plays included a man being jilted by a young lady, whereupon, as the DJ recited :
“And another pretty girl came in and sat next to him, and said “Hello, my name’s Sarah de Vane”. And she said…”
Cue the audience singing “I know what I want and I want it now, and I want you, cos I’m Miss de Vane”…
Great memories.