Rhythm Is a Dancer

Infobox Single
Name = Rhythm Is a Dancer

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Artist = Snap!
from Album = The Madman's Return
B-side =
Released = 1992
Format = CD single
CD maxi
7" vinyl
Recorded =
Genre = Dance
Length = 3:41
Label =
Writer =
Producer = Benito Benitez
John 'Virgo' Garrett III
Certification = Gold (US)
Platinum (UK)
Gold (France)
Last single = "Colour of Love"
(1991)
This single = "Rhythm Is a Dancer"
(1992)
Next single = "Exterminate"
(1993)Extra album cover
Upper caption = Alternate cover
Background = khaki


Lower caption = 2008 remixes

"Rhythm Is a Dancer" is a song recorded by the act Snap!, released as a single in the second quarter of 1992, from the album "The Madman's Return". It was written by Benito Benitez, John 'Virgo' Garrett III (aliases for German producers Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti), Thea Austin and Durron Butler and produced by Snap! It achieved a huge success in many countries, topping the charts in France, Ireland Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and UK.

Lyrics and music

The track features lead vocals by Thea Austin, and a rap from Turbo B, containing the line "I'm serious as cancer when I say rhythm is a dancer". The line, widely felt to be somewhat tasteless, has become infamous as it regularly features in polls to find the worst song lyric of all time. However, this line has been used extensively in hip hop since at least 1987 (J.V.C.F.O.R.C.E.'s 1987 release 'Strong Island' features the lyric) - an album of the same name was released in 1989 by Red, Black and Green, and Rakim has used it more than once ("I Ain't No Joke", "Eric B is President").

"Rhythm Is a Dancer" is based on the main melody of the track "Auto-Man" from the early 1980s electronic hip-hop band Newcleus.

According to "Miz hit. tubes", a book which analyses the French chart, "this discotheque song alternates the female singing of the chorus with the fluid rap and set back from the verses. These are tinged with a resonant sonority, with astonishment melancholic relents for a hit dance. That gives to the whole a very particular colouring; almost nostalgia [Elia Habib, "Muz hit. tubes", p. 246 (ISBN 2-9518832-0-X)] ".

Music video

The music video for "Rhythm Is a Dancer" was directed by Howard Greenhalgh and shows singer Thea Austin and a backup band at a rocket-type factory 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. Interpersed throughout these scenes are animated shots of flickering astrology maps and animated figures dancing.

Chart performances

"Rhythm Is a Dancer" was the second single by Snap! to reach #1 in the UK, spending six weeks at the top from August 1992. A massive hit across the world, it also topped the chart in Germany, and peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S in early 1993. In France, "Rhythm Is a Dancer" debuted at #5 on August 8, 1992, before climbing to #1 four weeks later (where it stayed for six weeks). The track thus became the first dance single to hit the number one position on the French Singles Chart.

In May 2003 a re-mix reached number 17 on the official UK Top 40.

On 25 May 2008, "Rhythm Is a Dancer" re-entered the official UK Top 40 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.

Cover versions

"Rhythm Is a Dancer" has been covered by numerous artists including:
* La Bouche
* Berk and the Virtual Band
* Chic Flowerz feat. Muriel Folwer
* Leone di Lernia
* Max Deejay (1997)
* System Drivers (2002)
* Superb (Brazilian rock n roll act produced by Chilean DJ Sokio) [http://www.last.fm/music/The+Superb] (2005)
* Sagi Rei (acoustic version) (2007)

Snap! themselves recovered their own song in 1996 and 2002/3, the latter with CJ Stone.

Uses in the media

The song featured on a 1995 TV advert for the Ford Escort on German television.

In 2008, an edited version of the original Rhythm is a Dancer appeared on a TV commercial in the UK for "Drench" spring water, bringing the song back into the UK singles chart on June 9, 2008, at number 23.

Track listings

; 7" single
# "Rhythm Is a Dancer" (7" edit) — 3:41
# "Rhythm Is a Dancer" (purple hazed 7" mix) — 4:31

; CD maxi
# "Rhythm Is a Dancer" (7" edit) — 3:41
# "Rhythm Is a Dancer" (12" mix) — 5:12
# "Rhythm Is a Dancer" (purple hazed mix) — 6:49

; CD maxi - Remixes
# "Rhythm Is a Dancer" (rhyth kid version) — 5:38
# "Rhythm Is a Dancer" (tee's choice mix) — 6:19
# "Rhythm Is a Dancer" (instrumental rhythm) — 5:30; CD single - 2003 remixes
# "Rhythm Is a Dancer 2003" (radio edit)
# "Rhythm Is a Dancer 2003" (CJ stone remix)
# "Rhythm Is a Dancer 2003" ('92)
# "Rhythm Is a Dancer 2003" (video)

; CD maxi - 2003 remixes
# "Rhythm Is a Dancer 2003" (video version) — 3:20
# "Rhythm Is a Dancer 2003" (CJ stone radio mix) — 3:49
# "Rhythm Is a Dancer 2003" ("check this out" remix) — 7:06
# "Rhythm Is a Dancer 2003" (CJ stone club mix) — 7:45
# "Rhythm Is A Dancer" ('92) — 3:42

Certifications

¹ "Rhythm Is a Dancer '96"
² "Rhythm Is a Dancer 2003"

Year-end charts

References