Rhythm Is a Dancer

"Rhythm Is a Dancer" is a 1992 song by German Eurodance group Snap!. It was released in March 1992 as the second single from their second studio album, The Madman's Return. Written by Benito Benites, John "Virgo" Garrett III (aliases for German producers Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti) and Thea Austin, the song was released as the second single from The Madman's Return album on 30 March 1992.

"Rhythm Is a Dancer"
Single by Snap!
from the album The Madman's Return
Released30 March 1992
Recorded1991
Genre
Length5:32
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
  • Benito Benites
  • John "Virgo" Garrett III
Snap! singles chronology
"Colour of Love"
(1991)		 "Rhythm Is a Dancer"
(1992)		 "Exterminate"
(1993)
Music video
"Rhythm Is a Dancer" on YouTube
Alternative cover
2008 version

The song was an international success, topping the charts in France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. It also reached the top-five on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Dance Club Songs chart.[2] It spent six weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart, becoming the second biggest-selling single of 1992, surpassed only by Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You".[3][4]

"Rhythm Is a Dancer" was originally never planned to be released as a single. Good club reactions on that track, however, made Snap!'s German label, Logic, change their minds. Logic arranged a private test on its own discotheque, the Omen, to see how well the public responded on the new song. This is where the instant club appeal of "Rhythm Is a Dancer" first came to notice. In fact, rapper Turbo B rejected the song after he first heard it, but accepted after he had added a few new lines to the track.[5]

Snap! won the 1992 Echo award for the Best Selling Single of the Year with "Rhythm Is a Dancer".[6]

Lyrics and music

In the 7-inch version edit of "Rhythm Is a Dancer", it features a rap verse by Turbo B.

According to Miz hit. tubes, a book which analyses the French pop charts, "This discotheque song alternates female singing in the chorus with fluid, set black male raps in the verses. These are tinted with a resonant sonority, which gives them an astonishingly melancholic softness, for a dance hit. That gives the whole track a particular colour, almost nostalgia."[7]

The rap lyrics on the album version (not the 7-inch version) are a slightly modified version of the following lines from an essay by John Perry Barlow called "Being in Nothingness Virtual Reality and the Pioneers of Cyberspace" and were performed by studio engineer Daniele Iribarren.[8]

How very like the future this place might be: a tiny world just big enough to support the cubicle of one Knowledge Worker. I feel a wave of loneliness and head back down. But I'm going too fast. I plunge right on through the office floor and into the bottomless indigo below. Suddenly I can't remember how to stop and turn around. Do I point behind myself? Do I have to turn around before I can point? I flip into brain fugue.

The song was originally released as a bonus track on "The Madman's Return" CD, and did not appear on the initial vinyl release. The rap was replaced by Turbo B when it was decided that it would be released as the second single off of the record.

It also contains what one critic called the worst lyric of all time, "I'm as serious as cancer when I say rhythm is a dancer".[9] The original album version of the song did not contain the line, which is found on the more widely known 7-inch version edit of the song that was later added to the album. Although Snap! were criticized for the lyric, the line had been used in hip hop music since the late 1980s.[9]

"Rhythm Is a Dancer" contains the hook/riff sample from the 1984 song "Automan" by Newcleus, written in the key of A minor with a tempo of 124 beats per minute[10] in common time. The song follows a chord progression of F–G–Am, and the vocals span from A3 to C5. The bassline groove repeats an A-F-G-A pattern with anticipation quavers. During the rap break the music hangs on Am/A chord/bass combination.[11]

Critical reception

AllMusic picked "Rhythm Is a Dancer" as one of the "standout tracks" on The Madman's Return album.[12] Linn Gjerstad from Bergensavisen noted that the song is "a good example" that Snap! "can handle" computer music.[13] Bunte called it "The mother of all Eurodance songs".[14] Entertainment Weekly commented that the "dance-floor anthem became the stuff sweet Club MTV dreams were made of."[15] Tom Ewing from Freaky Trigger noted its "stateliness and spaciousness" and described it as "higher minded, more spiritual".[16] Dave Sholin from the Gavin Report wrote, "Two years ago, "The Power" dominated radio both here and abroad. Snap! kind of dropped out of sight since then, and they mark their return with a Euro-Dance sound that's a mega-hit internationally. Sparks fly from start to finish."[17] James Arena, writer of Stars of '90s Dance Pop: 29 Hitmakers Discuss Their Careers wrote, "From its distinctively electrifying opening chords to its powerful rolling beats, unusually poetic lyrical depth and robust vocals, "Rhythm Is a Dancer" (...) is one of the most recognizable success stories of the '90s."[18] Lennox Herald noted in their review, that the song is "more house oriented than their previous hits."[19]

Chart performance

"Rhythm Is a Dancer" was the second single by Snap! to reach number one in the United Kingdom, the single remained six weeks at the top position in 1992, from 2 August to 13 September.[20] It is their biggest hit single to date, with 492,175 sales during the original UK chart run. A massive hit across the world, it also topped the chart in Germany for ten weeks. In the United States, it peaked at number five in early 1993, and spent a total of 39 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.[21] In France, "Rhythm Is a Dancer" debuted at number five on 8 August 1992, before climbing to number one four weeks later (where it stayed for six weeks). The song thus became the first dance single to hit the number one position on the French Singles Chart.

Snap! themselves re-recorded their own song in 1996 and 2003, the latter with CJ Stone (as "Rhythm is a Dancer 2003"). It reached number 17 on the UK Singles Chart in May 2003. On 25 May 2008, "Rhythm Is a Dancer" re-entered the UK Singles Chart at number 36, climbing as high as number 23 two weeks later. BBC Radio 1 DJs Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates theorized it was based on download performance, due to its inclusion in a television advertisement for Drench water.

Music video
Austin wearing a latex jumpsuit in the music video for "Rhythm Is a Dancer".

The music video was directed by Howard Greenhalgh and premiered in July 1992.[22] It shows singer Thea Austin and Durron Butler (Turbo B) playing a bass guitar in the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex's rocket garden filled with smoke. Austin and her group perform the song on elevated platforms while a group of dancers dance on a closed ground platform below them. Interspersed throughout these scenes are animated shots of flickering astronomy/aviation maps and animated figures dancing.

Impact and legacy

In the 2017 book Stars of 90's Dance Pop: 29 Hitmakers Discuss Their Careers by James Arena, singer Thea Austin said about "Rhythm Is a Dancer":

I believe "Rhythm Is a Dancer" resonates so powerfully because it is spiritually and creatively blessed. The producers and I had amazing energy and great intent in our creative process. The melodies are hypnotic and make people feel good, like a nursery rhyme that people gravitate towards. The music is so unique in that there was and is no other song that sounds like "Rhythm Is a Dancer". To me, it was a perfect marriage of music and voice. (...) People wanted a song like that back then—something to kickstart their day, free them up. It was a time in life that people were being liberated, like in South Africa or for the LGBT community in the States, and the song represents that liberation for many people.[23]

VH1 placed "Rhythm Is a Dancer" at number 36 in their list of "100 Greatest Dance Songs" in 2000.[24]

MTV Dance placed the song at number four in their list of "The 100 Biggest '90s Dance Anthems of All Time" in November 2011.[25]

On 31 March 2012, "Rhythm Is a Dancer" was chosen "Best Song of the Nineties" in the Nineties Top 99 on the Belgian Radio MNM for the fourth year in a row.

BuzzFeed listed the song number 30 in their "The 101 Greatest Dance Songs Of the '90s" list in 2017.[26]

In 2020, The Guardian ranked the song at number 69 in their list of "The 100 greatest UK No 1s". They added,

"Dance-pop in the 90s often traded in profound melancholy – Haddaway’s What Is Love and Corona’s Rhythm of the Night being other classic examples – and Rhythm Is a Dancer is one of the saddest of all. With its gospel vocals and cathedral-ready chords, it makes raving feel like a serious spiritual quest rather than something to do on a Friday."

Accolades
Year Publisher Country Accolade Rank
2000 VH1 United States "100 Greatest Dance Songs" 36
2005 Bruce Pollock United States "The 7,500 Most Important Songs of 1944-2000" *
2005 Süddeutsche Zeitung Germany "1020 Songs 1955-2005"[27] *
2010 Musikexpress Germany "Die 90er - Kritiker"[28] 20
2011 MTV Dance United Kingdom "The 100 Biggest 90's Dance Anthems of All Time"[29] 4
2017 BuzzFeed United States "The 101 Greatest Dance Songs Of the '90s" 30
2020 The Guardian United Kingdom "The 100 greatest UK No 1s"[30] 69

Covers and interpolations

"Rhythm Is a Dancer", which itself sampled the beat from a 1984-song called "Automan" by American electro, synth and old-school hip hop band Newcleus,[31] has been covered by numerous artists including German singer Key Biscayne (aka Lian Ross) in 1992, Italian radio host Leone di Lernia who recorded a parody of the song in Italian,[32] Max Deejay who recorded an instrumental cover in 1997, System Drivers in 2002, The Superb, a Brazilian rock act produced by Chilean DJ Sokio[33] in 2005, Israeli-Italian artist Sagi Rei for his 2005 album Emotional Songs, Chic Flowerz featuring Muriel Folwer in 2006. In 1993 Kids Incorporated covered "Rhythm Is a Dancer" in the Season 9 episode "Teamwork".

Bastille's 2013 single "Of the Night" was a mashup of "Rhythm Is a Dancer" and another 1990s dance classic, Corona's "The Rhythm of the Night".[34]

German House DJ Damon Paul covered “Rhythm Is a Dancer” [35] featuring Simone Mangiapane, on his album of the same name in 2014, under the Sounds United label.

Appearances in other media

The song was often used in films or series, including in an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 during its third season in 1993, in a scene of the 2010 comedy movie Cop Out. The song was also featured in TV adverts, including in the 1995 ad for the Ford Escort on German television, and in 2008, in a TV commercial in the UK for "Drench" spring water, which features Brains from the 1960s Gerry Anderson puppet series Thunderbirds and used an edited version of the original "Rhythm Is a Dancer", bringing the song back into the UK singles chart on 9 June 2008, at number 23. It was also used by Canadian banking company TD Bank in some commercials in early 2019.

Track listing and formats

Official versions
  • "Rhythm Is a Dancer" (Album Version) - 5:32
  • "Rhythm Is a Dancer" (7-inch Edit) – 3:41
  • "Rhythm Is a Dancer" (12-inch Mix) – 5:12
  • "Rhythm Is a Dancer" (Instrumental Rhythm) – 5:30
  • "Rhythm Is a Dancer" (Purple Hazed 7-inch Edit) – 4:31
  • "Rhythm Is a Dancer" (Purple Hazed Mix) – 6:49
  • "Rhythm Is a Dancer" (Rhyth Kid Version) – 5:38
  • "Rhythm Is a Dancer" (Tee's Choice Mix) – 6:19
  • "Rhythm Is a Dancer 2003" (Radio Edit)
  • "Rhythm Is a Dancer 2003" ("Check This Out" Remix) – 7:06
  • "Rhythm Is a Dancer 2003" (CJ Stone Radio Mix) / (CJ Stone Remix) – 3:49
  • "Rhythm Is a Dancer 2003" (CJ Stone Club Mix) / (CJ Stone Remix) – 7:45
  • "Rhythm Is a Dancer 2003" (Video Version) – 3:20
  • "Rhythm Is a Dancer 2019" (Dandy Deejay Remix) - 6:00

Charts

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[61][76] Gold 35,000^
Austria (IFPI Austria)[77] Gold 25,000*
France (SNEP)[78][79] Gold 250,000*
Germany (BVMI)[80] Platinum 500,000^
Netherlands (NVPI)[81] Platinum 75,000^
Italy (FIMI)[82] Gold 25,000
Sweden (GLF)[83] Gold 25,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[84] Gold 400,000^
United States (RIAA)[85] Gold 500,000^

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone
sales+streaming figures based on certification alone

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