Songoftheday 7/23/18 - Lift your hands and voices free your mind and join us. you can feel it in the air...
from the album The Madman's Return (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 30
Today's song of the day comes from the German dance act Snap!, whose debut album World Of Power had scored two top-40 pop hits in America with "Ooops Up!" and the #2 classic club jam "The Power". Lead singer Penny Ford left to pursue a solo career, and since these type of dance acts are frequently one-hit-wonder fizzlers, it would be expected for the band to fade into the galaxy of club killers from yore. But Benito Benites and Virgo, along with remaining rapper Turbo B, kept on, recruiting singer Thea Austin for their second album The Madman's Return. Their first single from the record, "Colour Of Love", was a respectable hit internationally, reaching the top ten in Italy (#3), Austria (#4), Switzerland (#4), Sweden (#6), the Netherlands (#7), and Germany (#9), the single tanked in the UK at #54 and failed to enter the American charts at all. That all changed with the follow-up, which not only did better than "Colour" but surpassed even the success of "The Power". "Rhythm Is A Dancer", written by Benites, Virgo, Turbo B, and Austin, would become the dance radio song of the year...
"Rhythm Is A Dancer" became Snap!'s second top ten hit as well as their final pop Hot 100 chart entry in America in January of 1993. The song also spent one week at #1 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, the single was massive, spending ten weeks on top of Germany's singles chart, six weeks at #1 in the UK, and six weeks there in France. It also topped the chart in Spain, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, and Austria (surprisingly it stalled at #19 in Canada).
The act's third single from Madman's Return, the Dr. Who name-checking "Exterminate!" featuring Madonna back-up singer Niki Harris, climbed to #29 on the American dance chart, hit #1 in Spain, and reached the top ten internationally in the UK (#2), Ireland (#2), Switzerland (#2), Greece (#2), Germany (#3), Belgium (#3), Italy (#4), the Netherlands (#4), Norway (#9), and Portugal (#10). The fourth and final release from the record, "Do You See The Light" (also featuring Harris), made the top ten in Belgium (#4), Austria (#8), Denmark (#9), Ireland (#9), The Netherlands (#9), Switzerland (#10), and the UK (#10).
Turbo B exited the act, leaving Benites and Virgo to bring on American singer Summer for their third record Welcome To Tomorrow. The title track "Welcome To Tomorrow (Are You Ready)" reached #4 in their home of Germany, and peaked at #6 in the UK (Their last top ten hit there). As they were closing down shop on "Snap!", they issued a hits set. The pair got the moniker back working in 2000 and have sporadically issued remakes and mixes of their previous work that have made the charts in various countries. Meanwhile, Thea Austin earned herself another #1 dance club play hit in 2001 with Pusaka's "You're The Worst Thing For Me".
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Here's the extended mix of "Rhythm Is A Dancer" that topped the dance chart in America...
...and the act live in Europe in 1992..
In 1996, "Rhythm Is A Dancer" was re-released with new remixes including one by rave faves Faithless. It climbed to #27 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart, and hit #58 in Sweden...
Seven years later, the classic was again given a rework from CJ Stone, and did much better, peaking at #7 in Germany, #10 in Austria, and making the top-40 in the UK (#17), Australia (#32), and Switzerland (#35)...
And in 2008, they returned with new mixes and got to #23 in the UK and #84 in Germany...
And finally, Snap! live in Moscow in 2010...
Up tomorrow: Soul-pop vocal group have a long-lasting romance.
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