Swings and Roundabouts | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 31 July 2000 | |||
Recorded | 1998–2000 | |||
Genre | UK garage, dance, R&B | |||
Label | Jive Pepper Records [1] | |||
Producer | Steven Meade, Danny Langsman [2] | |||
Shanks & Bigfoot chronology | ||||
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Singles from Swings and Roundabouts | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [2] |
NME | [3] |
The Times | 4/10 [4] |
Swings and Roundabouts is the only album by the British dance duo Shanks & Bigfoot. [5] The album was released on 31 July 2000 but failed to break the UK top 75 despite the success of its two singles. It is best known for the 1999 hit single "Sweet Like Chocolate", which reached No. 1 in the UK as well as being a top 10 hit in Australia and New Zealand. [6]
Released a year after the runaway success of "Sweet Like Chocolate", the follow-up single "Sing-A-Long" failed to meet popular expectation, reaching No. 12 on the UK Singles Chart. The majority of the female vocals for the album were provided by Terri Walker. [7]
The Guardian called the album "surprisingly palatable", writing that the duo "offer amiable kid's-party fare, now and then sneaking out a great pop song such as 'Like You'." [8] The Scotsman wrote that "Walker's vocals are clear, vivid pop treats, but the album as a whole is so obviously directed at the commercial rewards of a string of top-ten hits that it loses all credibility." [1]
All songs written by Steven Meade and Danny Langsman.
The Manhattan Transfer was an American vocal group founded in 1969 in New York City, performing music genres like a cappella, Brazilian jazz, swing, vocalese, rhythm and blues, pop, and standards. They have won eleven Grammy Awards.
The Hollies are an English rock and pop band formed in 1962. One of the leading British groups of the 1960s and into the mid-1970s, they are known for their distinctive three-part vocal harmony style. Singer Allan Clarke and rhythm guitarist/singer Graham Nash founded the band as a Merseybeat-type group in Manchester, although some of the band members came from towns further north, in east Lancashire. Nash left the group in 1968 to co-form Crosby, Stills & Nash, though he has reunited with the Hollies on occasion. As well as Clarke and Nash other members have included lead guitarist Tony Hicks, rhythm guitarist Terry Sylvester, bassists Eric Haydock and Bernie Calvert, and drummers Don Rathbone and Bobby Elliott.
"Chocolate Salty Balls " is a song from the American animated sitcom South Park, performed by the character Chef and featured on the soundtrack album Chef Aid: The South Park Album. The song's vocals are performed by Isaac Hayes, the voice actor for Chef. The song as it originally appeared was in the 1998 episode "Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls", in which Chef creates a confectionery treat, the eponymous Chocolate Salty Balls. He then begins to sing the lyrics that became the basis for the single.
China Black were a British pop-reggae duo, consisting of Simon Fung and Errol Reid (singer-songwriter).
"Chocolate" is a song by Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue, taken from her ninth studio album Body Language (2003). It was written and produced by Johnny Douglas, with additional writing by Karen Poole. The song is a ballad that uses a chocolate simile to describe Minogue's obsession with love. It is a quiet storm song that contains elements of disco and funk and employs breathy and whispery vocals. It was released as the third and final single from the album on 28 June 2004 by Festival Mushroom Records and Parlophone.
Shanks & Bigfoot were a British duo of UK garage producers Steven Meade and Danny Langsman, known principally for their single "Sweet like Chocolate", which topped the UK Singles Chart in 1999. They were originally known as Doolally, recording the pirate anthem "Straight from the Heart" under this name in 1998. Upon its first release, "Straight from the Heart" peaked at number twenty on the UK chart. It was subsequently re-released in 1999 on the back of their chart success with "Sweet Like Chocolate", and reached number nine on the chart.
"Sweet like Chocolate" is a song by British garage music duo Shanks & Bigfoot with vocalist Sharon Woolf. It was released as a single on 17 May 1999 and was included on the duo's debut album, Swings and Roundabouts, the following year. Vocals on the track are sung by Sharon Woolf, who had also sung on their track "Straight from the Heart", which was released under their previous band name, 'Doolally'.
Terri Walker is an English R&B and soul singer-songwriter. Walker has released four albums in the United Kingdom, Untitled, L.O.V.E, I Am and Entitled. She also provided the majority of the vocals for Shanks & Bigfoot's debut album Swings and Roundabouts.
"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" is a song by British synth-pop duo Eurythmics. It was released as the fourth and final single from their second album of the same name in January 1983. It was their breakthrough hit, establishing the duo worldwide. It reached number two on the UK Singles Chart in March 1983, and number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 six months later; it was their first single released in the US.
"Vulnerable" is a song by Swedish pop music duo Roxette, released in February 1995 by EMI as the fifth and final single from their fifth studio album, Crash! Boom! Bang! (1994), while simultaneously acting as the lead single from the duo's 1995 compilation album, Rarities.
"Something in the Air" is the debut single by British rock band Thunderclap Newman, written by Speedy Keen who also provided lead vocals. It was a No. 1 single for three weeks in the UK Singles Chart in July 1969. The song has been used for films, television and advertisements, and has been covered by several artists. The track was also included on the band's only album release Hollywood Dream, over a year later.
"Make It Easy on Yourself" is a popular song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David which was initially a hit for Jerry Butler in 1962. The best-known version is the 1965 recording by the Walker Brothers, for whom it was a No. 1 UK and Canadian hit. Dionne Warwick, who made a demo of the song in early 1962, later had a hit with it in 1970.
"All Out of Love" is a song by British/Australian soft rock duo Air Supply, released as a single in 1980 from their fifth studio album Lost in Love. The song was written by Graham Russell and Clive Davis. The song's lyrics describe the emotional state of a man desperately trying to win back the love of his life after the couple's separation caused by a wrong done by the man against the woman he's in love with. In the United States, it reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 5 on the Adult Contemporary chart. In the UK, the song reached number 11 on the UK Singles Chart and is their only top 40 hit in that country. It placed 92nd in VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Love Songs" in 2003.
Polly Brown is an English singer from Birmingham. A member of Pickettywitch and Sweet Dreams - and with each group lead singer on a Top Ten hit, respectively "That Same Old Feeling" and "Honey Honey" - Brown had an international solo hit in 1975 with "Up in a Puff of Smoke".
"Sing-A-Long" is a song by UK garage duo Shanks & Bigfoot, released on 17 July 2000. The song did not match the success of their previous UK number-one hit, "Sweet like Chocolate", but was still a hit single, peaking at number 12 on the UK Singles Chart and number one on both the UK Dance and Independent charts. Terri Walker provides vocals on the song.
"Straight from the Heart" is the debut single of UK garage duo Doolally, later known as Shanks & Bigfoot, with vocals provided by Sharon Woolf. The song was first released in 1998, and reached the top 20 in the United Kingdom, peaking at No. 20. After the success of their UK number-one single "Sweet Like Chocolate" the following year, "Straight from the Heart" was re-released and peaked at No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart. The song also reached No. 1 on the UK Dance Singles Chart in both 1998 and 1999.
UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house and jungle production methods, but also incorporates elements from dance-pop and R&B. It is defined by percussive, shuffled rhythms with syncopated hi-hats, cymbals, and snares, and may include either 4/4 house kick patterns or more irregular "2-step" rhythms. Garage tracks also commonly feature 'chopped up' and time-stretched or pitch-shifted vocal samples complementing the underlying rhythmic structure at a tempo usually around 130 BPM.
This is a summary of 1999 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.
"Mood Swings" is a song by American rapper Pop Smoke featuring fellow American rapper Lil Tjay, from the former's posthumous debut studio album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon (2020). The song was written by the artists alongside producers Beat Menace and Dizzy Banko with additional production from Kiwi. The song was released as the third single from the album on August 21, 2020, by Victor Victor Worldwide and Republic Records. A remix that features Summer Walker was released as a single and an extended play (EP) was released for the song.