The Story Behind "I Beg Your Pardon" by Kon Kan

 80s, Canada, Flashback Fridays, Hi-NRG, House Music, Music, Retro, Synth-Pop, Video  3 Responses »
Mar 222013
 

Cana­dian synth-pop duo Kon Kan released “I Beg Your Par­don” in 1988. The first sin­gle from their debut album, Move to Move, peaked at #19 on the Cana­dian Sin­gles Chart, #5 on the U.K. Sin­gles Chart, and #15 on the U.S. Bill­board Hot 100.

Kevin Wynne sang lead vocals on all but two songs on Move to Move. Barry Har­ris also pro­vided vocals, key­board, and gui­tar. Har­ris recorded two more albums using the Kon Kan moniker before he formed Outta Con­trol. He gained his most suc­cess as Thun­der­puss 2000, one-half of a remix duo with DJ Chris Cox. Wynne left the band after the first album and worked on the busi­ness side of the music indus­try. Today, rumor has it he’s a semi-pro video golfer.

The song gen­er­ated con­tro­versy for Kon Kan’s sam­pling of “Rose Gar­den” by Lynn Ander­son, “Disco Nights (Rock-Freak)” by GQ, “Get Up and Boo­gie” by Sil­ver Con­nec­tion, “Call Me” by Spagna, and the open­ing bars of theme from movie The Mag­nif­i­cent Seven.

The band’s name is a play on the abbre­vi­a­tion for Cana­dian Cotent (Can­Con), which requires a third of all music played on Cana­dian com­mer­cial radio sta­tions must be Cana­dian in origin.

Ver­sions
I Beg Your Par­don [Radio Mix] 3’59
I Beg Your Par­don [Club Mix] 6’39
I Beg Your Par­don [In the Green — House Mix] [Theb-4We Re-Mixitmix] 7’43
I Beg Your Par­don [I Beg Your House] 5’16

Music Video
The music video for “I Beg Your Par­don” is rather straight for­ward. Wynne sings into the receiver of a pay phone while Har­ris dances about and plays a portable key­board. A 70s lounge lizard offers comic relief, while a cow­girl who resem­bles the love child of Roy Orbi­son and k.d. lang lip-syncs to the Lynn Ander­son sam­ple and plays an accor­dion. A group of young men and women pro­vide some arm motions dur­ing the bridge

Mem­o­ries
I remem­ber walk­ing into the Sound Ware­house on Hulen Street in Fort Worth after I fin­ished my shift at Tar­get and the Move to Move album was play­ing. I believe “Puss n’ Boots/These Boots (Are Made for Walk­ing)” was the song play­ing at the time I walked in. I browsed the record bins and by the time “I Beg Your Par­don (I Never Promised You a Rose Gar­den) [12″ Mix]” played, I decided to buy the CD.

When I first started hang­ing out with my col­lege room­mate, Chris, he kept ask­ing me if I had ever heard this cool song he wanted to find. He’d try to hum the melody, but he could never get it right. One day, months later, I put my Kon Kan CD on to lis­ten while I cleaned house and Chris came run­ning out of this bed­room as soon as “I Beg Your Par­don (I Never Promised You a Rose Gar­den)” began to play, shout­ing, “That’s it! That’s it!”

For my 23rd birth­day, Chris took me to din­ner and to see the movie adap­ta­tion of Car­rie Fisher’s Post­cards from the Edge. When we came back to the apart­ment, Kon Kan blasted from my stereo along to a strobe light. My friends Trixie and Susan were wait­ing to kid­nap me and take me to a com­edy club. It was a fun night!

What are your mem­o­ries of “I Beg Your Par­don” by Kon Kan?

 Posted by at 7:00 am

The Story Behind "Pump Up the Volume" by M/A/R/R/S

 80s, Flashback Fridays, House Music, Music, Pop Culture, Retro, Video  2 Responses »
Oct 212011
 


“Pump Up the Vol­ume” by M/A/R/R/S was con­sid­ered ground­break­ing when it was released on August 3, 1987, because of its use of sam­ples from other songs.  It’s also con­sid­ered a major influ­ence on British house music, which peaked dur­ing the Sec­ond Sum­mer of Love (1988–1989).  “Pump Up the Vol­ume” topped the charts in the U.K. and charted at #13 on the U.S. Hot 100.

The sin­gle was an awk­ward col­lab­o­ra­tion by Colour­box and A R Kane, two bands on the inde­pen­dent 4AD label, as they had both approached him (albeit sep­a­rately) about recorded a com­mer­cially ori­ented dance track.  The two groups work­ing styles and/or per­son­al­i­ties didn’t mesh well, so they each recorded a track, then turned it over to the other for addi­tional input.  The result was Colourbox’s “Pump Up the Vol­ume” on the A-Side and “Anitina (The First Time I Saw She Dance)” on the B-Side.  “Pump Up the Vol­ume” ended up being the more pop­u­lar track.

“Pump Up the Vol­ume” con­tains sam­ples from var­i­ous songs by other artists, but the title and vocal bit comes from “I Know You Got Soul” by Eric B. & Rakim.  This led to the sam­pling con­tro­versy in the music indus­try and an injunc­tion from British music pro­duc­ers Stock/Aitken/Waterman who objected to a sam­ple of “Hey!” being wailed at the begin­ning of their sin­gle “Road­block.”  It was sub­se­quently removed from “Pump Up the Vol­ume” before it was released in the U.S. mar­ket.  (Pete Water­man seemed to have for­got­ten that he had sam­pled the bass line from Colonel Abrams’ “Trapped” in Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” which had been released at the same time.)

Within a few months, imi­ta­tion seemed to be the finest form of flat­tery.  Sev­eral other sample-patched house songs became hits in the U.K.:  “Theme from S’Express” by S’Express, “Beat Dis” by Bomb the Bass, and “Doc­torin’ the House” by Cold­cut feat. Yazz and The Plas­tic Population.

Ver­sions
Pump Up the Vol­ume 5’07
Pump Up the Vol­ume [Radio Edit] 4’06
Pump Up the Vol­ume [Re-Mix] 6’27
Pump Up the Vol­ume [U.S. Remix] 7’10
Pump Up the Vol­ume [Bonus Beats] 4’49
Pump Up the Vol­ume [Instru­men­tal] 5’04
Pump Up the Vol­ume [Pump Up the Vol­ume [
Anitina (First Time I See She Dance) [Radio Edit] 4’20
Anitina (First Time I See She Dance) 6’39
Anitina (First Time I See She Dance) [Re-Mix] 7’40

Music Video
As inno­v­a­tive as “Pump Up the Vol­ume” was musi­cally, in con­trast, the video is rather for­get­table.  It con­sists of footage from NASA space mis­sions and astro­naut training.

Mem­o­ries
The first time I ever heard of “Pump Up the Vol­ume” was in a news brief by a V.J. that played between music videos on MTV.  (Yes, once up a time, MTV actu­ally played music videos.)  A short time later, I was danc­ing at Club Sparx with some friends when the D.J. played “Pumped Up the Vol­ume.”  I knew what it was imme­di­ately, because it sounded like noth­ing else at the time.  The per­cus­sion, in par­tic­u­lar, impressed me.  (I also like the sam­pled voiced that says, “Mars needs women.”)  I went out and bought the 45 the next day.

What are your mem­o­ries of “Pump Up the Vol­ume” by M/A/R/R/S?