Songoftheday 10/1/19 - He came to town like a midwinter storm, he rode through the fields so handsome and strong...
from the album Sex & Violins (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #25 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11
Today's song of the day comes from the Swedish dance-pop act Rednex, who were the creation of producers Janne Ericsson and Örjan Öban Öberg in the early 1990s. Their name came from their "gimmick" of mixing techno and Eurodance beats with American country and western themes and music. Recruiting "band members" that took on nicknames like GWAR and such, singer Annika Ljungberg ("Mary Joe"), plus Arne Arstrand ("Ken Tacky"), Patrick Edenberg ("Mup"), Jonas Nilsson ("Billy Ray"), and Kent Olander ("Bobby Sue") were the first of many incarnations of the act, and the lineup for their debut single "Cotton Eye Joe" in 1994. Based on the folk song "Cotton Eyed Joe" from the 1800s, with original verses sung by Annika, the song was a speed-induced trip to a place where few Europeans had gone before, and somehow the record became like a novelty hit and a smash all over Europe. Eventually, the song found a home in America, where pop radio found a fleeting fascination with it, while the then-huge fad of country line-dancing in the clubs guaranteed an audience that made the song a new standard even in that genre...
Rednex's "Cotton Eye Joe" became the act's first and only charting hit on the American pop chart, reaching the top-30 in May of 1995. The remixes on the single also helped it rise to #5 on Billboard magazine's Dance Club Play chart as well. But it was internationally where the record would have massive success. It topped the singles chart in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland. The track also made the top-40 in Ireland (#2), Australia (#8), Spain (#8), France (#10), Canada (#18), and Iceland (#22).
For the act's next single, which came out after "Mup" left, to be replaced by Urban Landgren ("BB Stiff"), the band basically copied "Cotton Eye Joe" nearly note for note for "Old Pop In An Oak". It wasn't a remake, but rather a creation of producer Pat Reiniz, who helmed "Cotton Eye Joe", but the public didn't seem to mind at all. Rather, it was another big hit, topping the chart in almost all of Scandanavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, in Iceland it was #6), while also going to #1 in Austria, #2 in Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland, and #12 in the UK. In their third try, they actually went a little serious, with the straight-ahead pop ballad "Wish You Were Here". Referencing her "country man", and in return scored a #1 hit in Germany, Austria, Norway, and Switzerland, while peaking at #3 in their native Sweden and #6 in neighboring Finland and #10 in Denmark. Then came the frenetic dance track "Wild 'N Free", which just missed the top ten in Finland (#11) and Austria (#12), while stopping at #37 in Sweden. Finally, the midtempo ballad "Rolling Home" got the act a fifth top-40 hit in Austria (#18) and Sweden (#32).
In the few years between "Rolling Home" and their next phase, Annika left the band due to creative differences, to be replaced by Mia Löfgren ("Whippy") for Rednex's next single "The Way I Mate", which returned them to the top ten in Sweden (#7), while hitting the top-40 in Austria (#22), Germany (#34), and Switzerland (#37). Arstrand also jumped ship after that single but before the release of the act's sophomore effort Farm Out.
But then, on the release of Farm Out, they took another huge "left turn" with the second single from the set, "Spirit Of The Hawk". Not a Pat Reiniz Eurodance thrasher, but rather an Enigma-style ethnopop excursion that quotes Native American leader Chief Joseph, "Spirit Of The Hawk" was taken seriously both by the band and surprisingly by the public, giving Rednex a short new breath of life in their career, and topping the chart in Germany and Austria, hitting #2 in the Netherlands, and peaking at #3 in Switzerland and #10 in Sweden. A third single from the set, the ballad "Hold Me For A While", did respectably in Austria (#16), Switzerland (#19), and Germany (#25), signalling the fortunes of the band weren't so dire.
Well, that didn't happen. Trouble between the producers and band caused the entire lineup to be fired and replaced, with "new" singer, Englishwoman Julie-Anne Tulley from the British band Dreamhouse. After one single "The Chase" which missed the top-40 in their best market of Austria (#44) and their own Swedish chart altogether, and a rework of "Cotton Eye Joe" which did manage to scrape up to #32 in Austria (both from a "hits" compilation Best of the West), Tulley fled the group.
Annika returned to Rednex, basically fired the replacements, brought in new people, and created a third album, The Cotton Eye Show. They tried out for the national finals for Eurovision with "Mama Take Me Home" in 2006 (they didn't get it, coming in sixth place). But interest in Rednex with Annika returning stirred up in Sweden, and they ended up taking that song to #3, followed by four more top ten hits in that country, ending with the #1 single "Football Is Our Religion", which was adopted by FIFA fans all over Europe.
The problem was Annika only temporarily "rented" the Rednex name, and when that expired in 2009, she and the band were again summarily fired and replaced, with producers bringing first Tulley, then Löfgren returning before a complete chaos where different versions of Rednex existed and multiple singles flopped, including the act's most recent single in 2018, "Manly Men". They also notoriously put themselves as a band up for sale, which naturally nobody has taken them up on. But with their brief but substantial success, Rednex did make a mark on Eurodance music as well as in America, where country and dance music were before then unheard of, and "Cotton Eye Joe" remains a line dance staple.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
"Cotton Eyed Joe" (it's original incarnation) has been a standard of folk music since the 1800s. In fact, here's jazz vocal great Nina Simone with the song from way back in the day in 1959...
In 1985, the country act the Moody Brothers won a Grammy award for their rendition of the song...
The Grammy-nominated version from Irish band the Chieftains featuring Ricky Skaggs from 1992 possibly may have inspired Rednex's version...
And here's the band making a TV appearance in 1994...
In 2002, a new version of the single, featuring Tulley, went to #32 in Austria and #83 in Germany...
And lastly, Rednex (for what it was then) on an oldies show in Russia in 2013...
Up tomorrow: Techno duo resurrect their earlier dancefloor hit for the mainstream masses.
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