On to another number one with a disco groove, albeit a more family-friendly record than its predecessor ‘Nasty Girl’…
Thunder In My Heart Again, by Meck (his 1st and only #1) ft. Leo Sayer (his 2nd and final #1)
2 weeks, from 12th – 26th February 2006
It’s been a while, but it’s nice to have a tacky dance song back at #1. This sound was all the rage back in 2003 and ’04 (also known as handbag house, but my woke self thinks that’s a bit misogynist), it usually involves an old disco or dance track tarted up with a modern beat by a young, preferably European, DJ. Think ‘Make Luv’, think LMC, think ‘Lola’s Theme’ and, of course, ‘Call on Me’. And anyway, ‘tacky dance’ can’t be much of an insult, as I quite like most of those songs. They remind me of nights out in my provincial hometown.
‘Thunder in My Heart Again’ ticks (almost) all the tacky dance boxes. A sample from Leo Sayer’s 1977 #22 hit ‘Thunder in My Heart’, a basic, pre-set rhythm, lots of swooshes and vocal effects… The only thing lacking is that Meck was British. I’d have sworn he’d be German or Dutch.
Meck didn’t have to work too hard to turn this into a nu-disco track, as Sayer’s original was pretty darn disco to start with. I do love the commitment with which he belts out the Do just what you wanna do with my love… line. In fact, listening to the original now, you start to think that Meck was a little cheeky in getting a credit on this record… I like Sayer’s quote from the time, in which he claims this remix “kept all (the original’s) integrity”. Leo, mate, it sounds almost identical…
Though Sayer had little reason to complain as his credit on the single brought an unexpected return to number one, exactly twenty-nine years after his sole previous chart-topper ‘When I Need You’. (Fun fact: Leo Sayer has only ever made #1 in February.) At the time it was a record, beating the twenty-six years between Cher’s ‘I Got You Babe’ and ‘The Shoop Shoop Song’. He didn’t hold the record for long, and it has since been beaten by three acts with longer gaps between their number ones. Answers on a postcard, or in the comments, if you know who they are…
After this, we’ll continue on a disco groove. From hip-hop, to tacky dance, to a pop legend showing everyone how to do dance music properly…
This video is a masterpiece of the tacky dance genre. Gloriously cheap looking!
I’m not normally that enthusiastic about remixes, but I like this one. It was fun, and I think it reminded me of that Leo made a lot of rather good hits that I wasn’t always keen on at the time but now realise they were decent unpretentious pop records that bring back some good memories of the 70s. And like Rick Astley, he always comes across as a very likeable guy. Oh, long gaps between No 1’s. Without resorting to google AI, er, the Fab Four who put Liverpool on the map come to mind…
I saw Leo in concert a few years back expecting a variety show cheese-fest, but in fact he was energetic and buzzed with a hot band well-rehearsed, fairly typical Leo all in all. Thunder In My Heart was a deserved number one, although I still prefer the original version and was mightily miffed it was just a minor hit in late 1977 when it was clearly his best record since, oooh, errr, The Show Must Go On! I put it down to being one of those periodic pending music-genre changes as New Wave was about to hit big, and there were still loads of big classic disco hits, not to mention pioneering synth of I Feel Love, Magic Fly and Oxygene IV, so I think it was just 6 months too late!