Robbed hit of the week 10/2/23 - Paul Oakenfold's "Starry-Eyed Surprise"...

 

 

"Starry-Eyed Surprise" - Oakenfold

from the album Bunkka (2002) and Happy Love Sick (2004)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #41

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from British club DJ, remixer, and producer Paul Oakenfold, who grew up during the "British invasion" of the 1960s, then spun soul records at various clubs in England before moving to New York at the start of the 80's. Accumulating the knowledge of the hip-hop culture in the city, Paul returned to the UK and for a while was a music scout. By the end of the decade, however, Paul had branched out, forming the group Electra, who's debut single "Jibaro" reached #54 in 1988. Also that year, Oakenfold and collaborator Steve Osborne put together Perfecto, which was not only a record company but also a remixing unit, reworking songs for the likes of U2's "Even Better Than The Real Thing". 

In the mid-1990's, Oakenfold and Osborne formed Grace with singer Dominique Atkins, and went to #6 on the British Singles chart with the trippy house music of "Not Over Yet", which also topped Billboard magazine's Dance Club Play chart in 1995. Despite scoring five top-40 hits in the UK from Grace's If I Could Fly album, instead of continuing on that success, Paul concentrated on remixing and playing clubs live. He would put out a couple one-offs from time to time, and in 2000 his theme song for the reality show Big Brother (listed as "Big Brother UK TV Theme") under the moniker Elementfour rose to #4 on the British singles chart. That was followed by a redone version of "Bullet In The Gun" under the alias Planet Perfecto which landed a second British top ten hit at #7. Both were included on the compilation Perfecto Presents: Travelling.

After having a huge reception for a DJ CD set for Global Underground Records in America, and commandeering the soundtrack to the movie Swordfish, Oakenfold was signed onto Madonna's vanity label Maverick Records. His debut album Bunkka, named for the studio it was recorded at, came out in the summer of 2002. The lead single from the set, "Southern Sun" coupled with "Ready Steady Go" for the UK release, rose to #16 on the British Singles chart, while "Southern Sun" hit #9 on Billboard's Dance Club Play list in America. 

The album not only had female pop singers like Nelly Furtado, Emiliana Torrini, and Carla Werner (who sung on "Southern Sun"), but a lot of rock singers out of their milieu, like Grant-Lee Phillips of Grant Lee Buffalo, Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction, and Clint Mansell of Pop Will Eat Itself. Oakenfold had remixed a previous track for the American rap-rock act Crazy Town, who ended up being one-hit-wonders with their chart-topping single "Butterfly" in 2001. Paul recruited Crazy Town lead singer Seth "Shifty Shellshock" Binzer for what would be the second single from Bunkka, "Starry-Eyed Surprise". The track was written by Oakenfold and Binzer with Perfecto team member Andy Gray and using a sample of Harry Nilsson's 1969 hit 'Everybody's Talkin'", giving that song's author Fred Neil writing credit as well. The lyrics are a stream of consciousness in a presumed outdoor rave under the stars on presumed many illicit substances. But instead of the house thump Oakenfold is known for, the production is more of Shifty's old band, with a record-scratching whiteboy hip-hop theme. The sample is used subtly and effectively, while the spacey keyboards frame Shifty's stoned but fluid delivery. The result was something more akin to the radio than the club, but both approved and found room for them. The music video of course has the pair at a makeshift outdoor gig...

While "Starry Eyed Surprise" climbed to #13 on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Top-40 radio chart, the single stalled just under the top-40 on the Hot 100 in November of 2002 (no doubt hindered by the lack of a commercial single sales points). The remixes of the track, done by Josh Wink and Oliver Lieb, helped it land a second top ten hit from Bunkka on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart at #10. Internationally, the single was a big success, peaking at #6 in Oakenfold's native Britain, and reaching the top-40 in New Zealand (#19), Ireland (#21), and Australia (#37). The Bunkka album, released in June of that year, crested at #65 on the Billboard 200 sales tally. 

The third single taken from the album, the soulful "The Harder They Come", featured Furtado and trip-hop king Tricky on the album and substituted Keshia for Nelly on the single release, which went to #38 on the British singles chart. That would be followed by the sublime electrotrance of "Hypnotised", which featured singer Tiff Lacey, which popped on to the American Dance Club Play chart at #41, while peaking at #57 in the UK and #17 in Finland. 

 

In 2004, Oakenfold released the DJ mix set on record, Creamfields, which got to #180 on the Billboard 200 and was nominated for a Grammy Awards for Best Electronic/Dance Album in the category's first year, losing to Basement Jaxx for their Kish Kash. 

Paul returned in 2006 with his second proper album, A Lively Mind. The lead single from the set, "Faster Kill Pussycat", also paired Oakenfold with an unlikely partner, actress and singer Brittany Murphy (most known for Clueless). The song spent a week at #1 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart, and went to #7 in the UK. A second offering, "Sex 'n' Money", had the DJ joining forces with multi-hyphenate music guru Pharrell Williams, and landed a second top ten club hit in the States at #10.  The album spent a single week on the Billboard 200 at #145. It also garnered a second Grammy nomination for Best Electronic/Dance Album, which went to Madonna for her Confessions On A Dance Floor. 

Since then, Oakenfold had put his own recording on the backburner in lieu of making music for movies and games, remixing others' track, and resting on his DJ laurel at the clubs. In 2009, another DJ set Perfecto Vegas, landed at #66 on the Billboard 200. A year later, his work on Madonna's "Celebration" single got him nominated for a third time, this time out for Best Dance Recording, which Lady Gaga took home for "Poker Face". The DJ returned to Billboard's Dance Club Play top ten in 2012 with "Surrender" featuring J. Hart, which peaked at #3. 

 

Most recently, he had been putting out one-off singles, with 2016's "U Are" with BRKLYN and Amba Shepherd reaching #29 on Billboard's Dance Airplay chart, and "Only Us" with Little Nikki rising to #15 two years later. Paul's most recent studio album, Shine On, came out in 2022.

As for 'Shifty Shellshock', his solo album (by then just under "Shifty"), Happy Love Sick, was released in 2004, and a second single from the record, "Slide Along Side", missed the Hot 100 but made it to #38 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay list. Perhaps from the bigger success overseas, it was also a decent hit internationally, making the top-40 in Italy (#11), Poland (#22), The Netherlands (#24), the United Kingdom (#29), and Sweden (36). 

(5/10)

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Here's Oakenfold and Shifty performing live...

and lastly, the Josh Wink remix of the track that helped it go top ten on the American Dance chart...