Taking a look back at the hits from the year Cold Feet debuted on ITV, and when Nigella Lawson published her debut cookbook How To Eat, this is The Story of Pop: 1998. This week: one of the year’s biggest dancefloor fillers…
- Artist: Mousse T. vs. Hot’n’Juicy
- Song: Horny
- Released: 25/05/1998
- Writers / Producers: Mousse T. / Errol Rennalls / Reegan King
- Highest UK Chart Position: #2
- Weeks on Chart: 21
Now is when you’ll start to realise the time of year we’re entering on this series, as the songs that soundtracked the dancefloors and beachside bars that summer make themselves known – the artist behind this week’s featured hit included.
Known as Mustafa Gundogdu to his mum, the German-Turkish DJ and record producer Mousse T. started his career way back in 1990, when he was a keyboard player in the short lived band Fun Key B.
It was around about the same time he set up his own home studio and started DJing in and around his hometown of Hannover. Fast forward to 1993, and together with his production partner Errol Rennalls, they founded Peppermint Jam Records, specialising in house and acid jazz music.
Lifting a sample of the horn riff from Earth, Wind and Fire’s 1983 song “Something Special”, the instrumental of a song called “Horny” had been a big underground club hit in 1997, before it had a vocal added onto it, firstly with a chorus sung by Inaya Day that was literally not very subtle, with its randy proclamation “I’m horny / Horny horny horny / So horny, I’m horny horny horny tonight”.
And then additional verses came on board thanks to Emma Lanford and Nadine Richardson, otherwise known as the British soul duo Hot’n’Juicy, which turned what was already quite a huge dance anthem into something with a bit of knowing sauce lyrically. Coupled with additional remixing and production by Boris Dlugosch, and it was obvious that a monster hit was in waiting.
After building up a head of steam with dance aficionados in Italy and Germany, it would perhaps go some distance to explaining why, upon its release at the end of May, “Horny” crossed over from the continent, and slammed straight into the top 3, ascending to its peak of #2 on its second week, but staying around all summer long in the UK top 40, selling over half a million copies in the process.
After being featured on the soundtrack to foul mouthed animated comedy South Park for Chef Aid: The South Park Album, it also then crossed over to the States, and became a top 40 hit on the Billboard dance charts.
Mousse T. himself would continue releasing and producing songs, even finding time to remix Tom Jones‘ similarly lusty “Sex Bomb”, which hit the top 10 in 2000 when released as a single off of Jones The Voice’s chart topping duets album from 1999, Reload. And whilst “Horny” is one of those records you admittedly either love or hate, it is the sound of the summer of ’98 to a tee.
Don’t forget to follow our brand new playlist on Spotify – updated weekly so you never miss a song from the story of pop in 1998. And you can leave your memories of the songs below in the comments, Tweet us or message us on Instagram, using the hashtag #StoryofPop1998.
The Niche Reference 