Our slow meander around the year 2000’s many, many chart-toppers continues, and we find another interesting stop along the road: the lost Barry White number one.
You See the Trouble With Me, by Black Legend (their 1st and only #1)
1 week, from 18th – 25th June 2000
First, we do have to state that it is not Barry White’s voice on this record, though vocalist Elroy ‘Spoonface’ Powell does a mighty fine impersonation. He even manages to make this sound like a live sample, introducing it with a spoken In 1975, we brought you an album, With a song… backed with lots of crowd noise.
Is it too early to suggest a mini disco revival, after Geri, Madison Avenue, and now this? (I’m also sneaking a peek at the record which replaced Black Legend at the top.) Though what dominates this record is not so much disco strings, but a naggingly insistent, thoroughly modern, house beat. On the radio edit the producers toy with us for the opening two minutes, teasing snatches of ‘You See the Trouble With Me’ (a #2 hit in 1976) that cut in and out, before finally letting ‘Barry White’ loose. For a bit. When the house beat kicks back in for the third or fourth time, it officially becomes annoying.
Barry White had refused the use of his original vocals for this remix, as he felt it ‘was cheap and had no soul’. I can understand his point, as the song uses the sample as bait, almost, to lure you to the dancefloor. The choppy nature of this song, the insistence on falling back on that irritating beat, means that there’s no release, no climax. You’re left with blue (disco) balls…
Black Legend were a very short-lived Italian production duo, with the aforementioned Powell on singing duties. They were together for three singles, and their only other appearance on the UK singles chart is with the #37 peaking ‘Somebody’. They fall agonisingly short of verified one-hit wonder status.
While I don’t much care for this remix, I am being won over by the year 2000’s fast turnover, which allowed curios like this to make number one, records that may not have made the top at any other period in chart history. Speaking of which, Black Legend are the first chart-toppers in a run of twelve one-weekers, from mid-June to mid-September 2000: a record-breaking stretch. Let the frantic fun begin!
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Plus-side: Barry White gets a much-deserved second-song chart-topper that he was cruelly denied in 1976 pipped at the post by the UK’s Eurovision-winning pap. Down-side, Bazza was right to refuse permission to sample his disco classic to push an annoying, repetitive piece of European dance pap. I’m curious to check how this did in my personal charts, as memory of it is not that flattering. Hang on a mo…ah, it peaked at 60 over a 4-week run. That sounds a bit generous as I quite liked it for at least 4 weeks! Mostly, I’m sure, due to the Barry White bits. So I’ll play it now and compare.
Yes, you’re right the first minute or so is quite promising. The Barry White song bits aren’t too bad. The instrumental bits are annoying, plodding and brain-rotting. A mixed bag!
I like Barry White of course…but this seems more like a novelty song. I can understand why he said no.
Yeah I respect that he didn’t want a feature, even if it would have given him a hit record after so long.
Yea…I was expecting a tribute or something.