A fairly unusual rock track is followed on top of the charts by a fairly generic dance track. Standard January fare for the late ‘90s…
You Don’t Know Me, by Armand Van Helden (his 1st of two #1s) ft. Duane Harden
1 week, from 31st January – 7th February 1999
We should though prepare to meet more and more of these one-off dance tracks in the coming months, to the point where there will become commonplace. This is the sound of 1999, really: ATB, Eiffel 65, Mr. Oizo… All kicked off by Armand Van Helden. Whom we have met before in this blog, with his uncredited remix of Tori Amos’ ‘Professional Widow’ (another January number one!)
And unlike some of those dance hits soon to come, ‘You Don’t Know Me’ has a nice retro-house feel, with a disco groove and soulful vocals from Duane Harden. It feels like something that could have been a hit much earlier in the decade. Which might be explained by the fact that this is, naturally, a mish-mash of samples, with strings that date from the seventies and drums from 1992. The eight-minute original version also features a spoken intro from ‘Dexter’s Laboratory’. As in, the cartoon.
Although Duane Arden has an excellent, soulful growl to his voice, the lyrics are standard ‘living my best life’ dance fodder. I’m tired and I’ve had enough, It’s my life and I’m living it now… But really, nobody wants to think too much on the dancefloor. Arden wrote the words by himself, once Van Helden had finished the music, like a dance version of Elton and Bernie.
Like many of the previous dance number ones, I don’t hate it. It’s fine. It washes over me pleasantly enough, and has caused me to do a couple of involuntary shoulder shimmies. But at the same time, like many dance tunes, after the first minute I start to find it a little repetitive. Dance music is not made for a guy sitting at a desk to analyse. Duane Harden’s week at the top was the pinnacle of his pop career; while Armand Van Helden will continue to produce and write hits throughout the 2000s, until his final #1 in a decade’s time.
For a fairly innocuous and forgotten chart-topper, this is a big one for me personally. I turned thirteen on the day this entered at number one (though I am a bit peeved that I just miss out on having the Offspring as a birthday #1). I apologise in advance for all the teenage nostalgia that will inevitable cloud my judgement as we cover the coming seven years’ worth of number ones…
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Just when my hopes were getting high because of Offspring…here we go again. You have proved me wrong though in one way…I DID like more in the 80s than I did in the 90s…but as far as #1’s go anyway.
No need apologise for teen nostalgia – music is a part of life, and I cant separate music from my life (and I wouldnt want to) and nowt wrong with anecdotes and memories of what any given record means to one-self! Me, I was 41 and loving this dance track, play loud and immerse in it, pretty exciting I thought at the time (topped my charts) and still do, even though I havent been to a club for, ooh, 6 months now 🙂 I think people who aren’t into dancing and loud clubs sometimes miss the point about dance music – but it’s not designed to be late-night self-introspective, or trying to save the world through some in-depth words of wisdom and poetry, if it doesn’t make you want to shuffle along with a drink in your hand, or go wild flailing your arms then it’s failed to be a good dance record. Great lyrics are a bonus, but it’s not essential – see Pet Shop Boys for the smarter side of dance lyrics (among every other genre they dabble in). I wasn’t quite into my clubbing phase in 1999, but there’s only two years to go before I was….
Oh I’m ready to reminisce away… I prefer when dance lyrics go down the ‘bump and grind, gonna make you sweat’ road than the ‘live your best life’ road, but that’s just me… I was in a club for the first time in a while this weekend past, and it was fun to get out on the dancefloor (minus the Sunday hangover…)