Y'all are going to jail, period!
I wish someone would make an unauthorized Fiona Apple trip hop remix album.
I wish someone would make an unauthorized Fiona Apple trip hop remix album.
The 90's US One-Hit Wonders Rate: WINNER REVEALED - Goodbye, farewell and amen
- Thread starter Ironheade
- Start date
londonrain
Staff member
Years after the song's release, I used to listen to this all the time in uni with my best friend with the lights turned off and the red LED on my subwoofer as the only light in the room. It works very well. (Funnily enough I don't care for the video that much.)
I actually really like the Elizondo version of Extraordinary Machine. I agree that the title track is one of the highlights, but I do generally like the rest of it, and I particularly like the quirkiness of Tymps:
The Idler Wheel..., on the other hand, wasn't that impressive. It did, however, give us my favourite Fiona Apple song, Hot Knife:
I actually really like the Elizondo version of Extraordinary Machine. I agree that the title track is one of the highlights, but I do generally like the rest of it, and I particularly like the quirkiness of Tymps:
The Idler Wheel..., on the other hand, wasn't that impressive. It did, however, give us my favourite Fiona Apple song, Hot Knife:
he/him
Given your scores in the Kate Bush rate, I...am not surprised in the least by this
he/him
Honestly I don't know much about Fiona Apple at all, just really knew "Criminal" as a youth and loved the song and video as mentioned in my comments. So after this elimination with the information about her life, I'd like to apologize for the sexual commentary I provided as it probably comes off very cringe for those who are big fans of hers. I had no idea, and was simply talking about what 'Young Hazey' thought at the time and was most definitely ignorant.
Last edited:
he/him
If it's Haddaway, noooo. if it's the other two I think you're putting in this category than go right ahead.
she/her
I hope there's a secret Bopjustice Verve stan I don't know about.
Yeah, this is one that some of you guys have been wanting to go a long while - even some who I thought would be totally in its corner!
You silly guys. Didn't you heed the title?
7. SHOW ME LOVE
Average score: 8.471
Highest scores: 1 x 11 (@WowWowWowWow ); 14 x 10 (@CorgiCorgiCorgi , @Sprockrooster , @Ana Raquel , @berserkboi , @unnameable , @Seventeen Days , @GimmeWork , @Conan , @LPMA , @K94 , @4Roses , @AshleyKerwin , @Remorque , @Blond )
Lowest scores: 1 x 3 (@Daniel_O )
Chart positions: #5 Hot 100, #3 Radio Songs, #5 Mainstream Top 40, #1 Dance Club Songs, #7 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, #4 Rhythmic Songs
Year-End Hot 100: #17 (1993)
Who? Oh yeah, them...
It's rare, in the annals of the 90's teen pop explosion, that one comes across an artistic arc that is quite as interesting as that of Robyn. “Show Me Love” may have seemed like a mere bit of Britney-ish fluff when it came out in 1997, but Robyn would prove to have artistic ambitions far beyond those of her contemporaries come the 2000's; she blossomed into a brilliantly experimental yet accessible electropop songwriter, relatively reclusive and releasing only occasionally so her music is all the more special when it does appear, and one whose magnum opus Body Talk, I daresay, turned many a hipster on to pop music back in 2010. She's a PopJustice fave, of course, so I'm sure you guys will generate plenty of extra discussion as we cover...
*record scratch*
...Wait. Hang on. This isn't about that “Show Me Love”? This is about that house song from 1993, with the same title, by Robin S, who has almost the same first name? Well, OK then. I guess I could write about that...
No relation.
Before she was Robin S, internationally multi-platinum house diva with one of the defining hits of the early Eurodance era, she was Robin Jackson, a single mother who worked as a secretary at the mayor's office in her hometown of Hempstead, NY, and sang in an R&B cover band on the side. “Show Me Love” was recorded independently with a couple of local producers who took notice of her vocal talents at one of her cover band's shows. It was put out as a single in 1990, and for this she adopted the stage name of Robin Stone – taken from her father, a boxer who fought as “Stonewall Jackson”. The song was co-written by Fred MacFarlane, who before his death in 2016 the scribe behind Jocelyn Brown's 1984 R&B ballad smash “Someone Else's Guy”... and Jason Derulo's 2011 hit “Don't Wanna Go Home”. (Man, I love looking at further songwriting credits for the guys behind the hits in this rate. You always find the most random connections possible!) Anyhow, the original version of “Show Me Love” is linked down below. As you can hear, there is nothing particularly wrong with it; it is a perfectly acceptable piano-driven diva house tune that is typical of its era, given a bit more of a lift by Robin's powerful soul-tinged vocal, but one thing it doesn't sound like is an international smash hit. As, indeed, it was not. Oddly enough, despite being recorded in the US, it didn't see a wide American release at all; in the UK, it was put out on the independent Champion Records, which does still exist, and claims to be one of the oldest record companies in the world with the same management and ownership as it had at its founding. (Good for them!) I don't know how popular it was at the clubs and raves, but it wasn't popular enough to make the charts anywhere. Ms. Stone released no more singles in the following couple of years, with “Show Me Love” remaining an obscure one-off, and that, by all rights, should have been the end of it.
Pictured above: Every Swedish EDM DJ.
And it was, until 1992, when the original recording of “Show Me Love” made its way into the hands of a Swedish DJ named Sten “StoneBridge” Hallstrom; I know that name because he figures somewhat prominently in John Seabrook's The Song Machine, as an early co-worker of the late great Denniz PoP when they were co-founders of a remixing and production house turned record label named SweMix. (Apparently, he scorned Denniz for wanting to produce pop music, which was one of the things that turned him away from SweMix and towards the foundation of Cheiron Studios, which I guess was to StoneBridge's artistic gratification, but less so commercially. Funny story: it was producers from Cheiron who made the other “Show Me Love” for Robyn!) Anyhow, StoneBridge had contacted Champion Records looking for songs that he could remix, and they suggested that he use “Show Me Love”. After he'd already had several mixes rejected, he ended up throwing together a relatively minimalistic arrangement in about four hours, which in his words he thought was “pretty bad”, but his girlfriend persuaded him to submit it anyway. And I suppose StoneBridge's and Robin's bank accounts had better thank his girlfriend for that one. Robin had won herself a signing to prominent dance label Big Beat Records, and the song was blowing up massively on both sides of the pond, having caught one of those short moments where the American mainstream was suddenly more friendly to European dance music. All that was needed to do was lop off the surname, and a star was born!
So what do I think?
EIGHT.
You know how to get Ironheade to like a 90's house track? A big brassy soul-diva vocal is a really good way to do that. And hoo boy, does Robin S ever deliver on that front! Her soulful, gospel-tinged belting is that of a lady who has some serious lung power, but knows how to hold a bit back and unleash the high notes at just the right moments rather than ever falling prey to showing off. The slight hint of rasp in her voice is really nice, too. She definitely would have made a great R&B singer had she stuck to that path, but the earthy power of her voice works excellently juxtaposed against the ultra-slick Euro cool of the beats here. Unfortunately, the production of “Show Me Love” can't help but show its age, most notably because it's based around the bassy organ sound of the Korg M-1, one of those early digital synthesizers that was so hard to program that producers just used the presets over and over again; your mileage may vary, but it takes me out of the song a bit when a synth tone identical to one you've heard in so many other songs from the same time period rears its head. That's a relatively minor gripe though, all things considered, because melodically “Show Me Love” is good stuff. That rolling melodic synth line has an icy coolness to it that almost makes the song sound surprisingly chill for an uptempo dance banger, combined with the steady thump of a beat that's not mixed quite as up-front or punchy as it could be. It's not just dancefloor fodder, it's nice to just sit back and vibe to as well, splitting the difference between hardcore house and mainstream dance-pop excellently. And despite the datedness, the buzzing brassy distorted organ sounds that provide the bassline do work, as a nice counterpoint to Robin's sky-high diva sass at the front. Yeah, I'm not sure “Show Me Love” would have ever been in my ideal top 10... but for the audience who's rating it, I definitely can. And you know what, I'll let you guys have this one. Issa bop.
Where Are They Now?™
The trend with these dance-oriented one-hit wonders (see also: Rednex, Eiffel 65) is that they tend to have much longer-lasting careers in Europe, and sometimes Japan, than they do in the United States, which, aside from the odd novelty hit a couple of peaks where Eurodance was briefly in vogue, was not a reliably friendly market for electronic dance music until very late in the 2000's. This is somewhat the case for Robin S, but that said, her subsequent career was not exactly as massive as it was for the two Eurodance acts I previously mentioned. Her second single, “Luv 4 Luv”, which was also written by “Show Me Love” scribes Fred MacFarlane and Allan George, was a good-sized hit, if not quite as big as her debut: it charted well across Europe, including a #11 peak in the UK (five spots below “Show Me Love”), but fizzled out at #53 in the US, despite topping Hot Dance Club Songs just like its predecessor. Her debut album, also entitled Show Me Love, produced three more singles, but none of them made the Hot 100, and none of them made much of an impact in Europe either. This was despite working with such notable names of house music at the time as David Morales and Junior Vasquez – ah well. It's all about the follow-ups, right?
Sadly, an ill-advised attempt to ride the invisible surfboard in heels left Robin with a broken leg.
Unfortunately, electronic dance music is not a genre that is known for long-lived careers, particularly on the Eurodance side of things, which I dare say is only rivalled by hip-hop for the sheer volume of one-hit wonders and flashes in the pan that the genre has produced. Furthermore, she found herself out of place on Big Beat Records, as that label was turning away from dance music and towards hip-hop, and she didn't quite fit in with the rest of their roster. By the time Robin released her second album From Now On in 1997, the dance scene had moved on quite dramatically from the poppy and mainstream-friendly diva house with which she made her name, with the funky sounds of Daft Punk and their French house comrades beginning to take its place in the mainstream, while clubbers gravitated towards less radio-friendly deep and progressive house instead. She also made some efforts to return to her R&B roots, and recorded some ballads as well in an effort to diversify her sound, but it didn't take. The lead single “It Must Be Love” scraped into both the Hot 100 and the UK Top 40, as well as earning her her third Hot Dance Club Songs #1, but the second single “Midnight” tanked. The last bit of mainstream exposure for Robin S came from “Dance”, a soundtrack cut from Dr. Doolittle where she collaborated with gospel-cum-R&B group Mary Mary, but that went nowhere either. However, before the decade was out, Robin did manage to notch one more Top 10 single in the UK: “Show Me Love '97”, which reached #9 in 1997. (Oh, come on. Do Robin S and Robyn want each other's careers that badly?!) Yes, take note of that, because that will be something of a trend...
I mean, they're practically identical twins, right?
In 1998, the catalogue of Big Beat Records was absorbed into its distributor Atlantic, and Robin S found herself dropped. She never released a third album, but she's continued to put out one-off singles on and off for the past twenty years on a variety of labels, including her old UK home Champion, and even some with the Dutch EDM giants Spinnin' Records. Now why didn't any of them produce any further success for her? I think I know why, and to show it to you, here's a small selection of some of Robin's singles from after her peak hitmaking years: “Show Me Love 99”, “Show Me Love 2002”, “Show Me Love 2006”, “Show Me Love 2008”, and let's not forget “Show Me Love 2009” (the last of these also featuring Steve Angello and Laidback Luke, if that's of interest to you house fans). Jeez, I said that this was a “trend” in Robin's career, but seriously, this isn't a trend, it's a goddamn deluge! Anyway, the '99 release didn't chart anywhere; '02 version scraped into a handful of European charts, and the '06 one scraped into the UK charts again, but nowhere else; its '08 cousin, meanwhile, went all the way to #1 in the Netherlands and almost cracked the Top 20 in Belgium while it was ignored everywhere else; and most gratifyingly of all for Robin's bank account, the '09 rendition actually went all the way to #11 on the UK charts, thanks to the remix being done by a pair of DJ's who are pretty big names in the EDM scene, and also made modestly decent positions on a few other European charts. But, yeah, I think you take my point that Robin S might be a bit of a broken record, and that that's held her back from being a bigger name in dance music after her hitmaking years were done. If you want to be remembered as more than a one-hit wonder, don't release the same song as a single seven times!
Most of Robin's more recent pictures look like she's just smelled a really bad fart, for some reason. Nice rings though.
To be fair, “Show Me Love” remakes aren't all that she's released in the years up to the present. Some new singles have appeared every now and again, though to no success. Robin S is still on Twitter and Facebook, now going under her married name, Robin Jackson Maynard (though she still uses “Robin S” professionally). Her last solo single came out in 2015, and that was after a six-year gap from the last one; her most recent musical endeavour was a collaboration with Canadian producer Phoenix Lord called “I Believe”, but it failed to take off anywhere, and she's seemingly in little hurry to record any more solo work, despite hinting in interviews from last year that she was planning on doing so. However, she is still gigging on the nostalgia circuit and at various club nights, and her social media pages link to places that you can book her from. Hey, at least she doesn't have to worry that the winners of TV talent contests might cover her songs, I guess. And as for StoneBridge, the man whose rework made the song take off in the first place, he's still working as a DJ and touring right up to the present day – even for some really big artists, like Ariana Grande, who he did a remix for “No Tears Left to Cry” for. And all the best to them – they are, after all, the two artists responsible for one of the most iconic hits of 90's dance music, and for that, BopJustice thanks them.
Oh yeah, and I also found out that there's an unrelated song called “Show Me Love” by another Robin S... Robin Schulz, that is. Seriously, what's up with Robins/Robyns and doing songs called “Show Me Love”?! (Don't get any ideas, Mr. Thicke...)
OVER TO THE PEANUT GALLERY
I've got to show you hate
DominoDancing (5): Nice dance groove with generic diva wailing on top of it. I don't see how this is a classic.
Auntie Beryl (6.2): I’ve heard it too many times, it’s been re-released over and over again. *checks Wiki* a hit in ’93 and ’97 over here, with new remixes in ’99, ’02, ’06, ’08 and ’09. Enough already!
Show you my WIG
Empty Shoebox (8): Not the best of dance songs, but I guess it will suffice in this rate.
Andy French (8): A bop!
yuuurei (9): An enduring bop.
ModeRed (8.5): Another great intro, and big housey vibes to follow it up, wonderful.
Ganache (7): Like this a little less than I did back in the day. Bassline still kicks though.
Hudweiser (7): Quality, but fucking RIDICULOUSLY over-played, over-sampled, over-everything'd.
2014 (9): A banger but definitely overused.
chanex (7): I have to deduct a point for it not being Show Me Love by Robyn and the karaoke master always getting confused by my request. It's decent though, and I have the original mix which I honestly prefer, like to a huge degree.
iheartpoptarts (8): I actually think this one is a bit overrated as far as 90s dance goes.
DJHazey (7): Never quite rated it as high as other eurodance fans seem to. I'd list 100 essential dance hits from the decade before I'd think of it.
CasuallyCrazed (9): I maintain that this should have been in the eurodance rate and probably would have won. I still bop to the Rebecca Ferguson version.
Filippa (7): What a voice!
pop3blow2 (9): I think this song's production still holds up well... especially with all the throwback production in modern pop.
əʊæ (6): If i heard this on the radio, i'd be convinced it's 2017.
saviodxl (8.1): I was checking her discography on wikipedia and found out sis released SIX VERSIONS of the same song in different years! She really doesn't want people to forget her one hit I guess...
Untouchable Ace (8.6): Lesbian anthem.
Seventeen Days (10): When she sang “SO BAAAAAABY IF YOU WANT MEEEEEEEE”, I felt that. A dance classic, I think you have to at least moderately enjoy this in order to get your Gay Card.
4Roses (10): A STONE COLD CLASSIC. Those ad lib's still leave me bald.
GimmeWork (10): Yas queen take us to the 90’s clurb!!!
unnameable (10): I’m getting flashbacks to 90s clubs and girls wearing fluffy bras. This one has aged better than a lot of 90s dance.
Sprockrooster (10): Those vocals. A eurodance beat. I am snatched.
Blond (10): If you ever need to get me on a dance floor then this is that song. It’s such a classic and still sounds amazing in a club setting.
berserkboi (10): So glad this finally featured in a rate!! I tried hard to get Hazy & Pop Tarts to include it in their Eurodance rate to no avail. A classic and then some, a highlight of Drag Race Season 7 and the song is so strong it was even very enjoyable when that mellow cover made the Australian charts a couple of years ago!
WowWowWowWow (11): Still sounds fresh and relevant 25 years on. No wonder everybody and their sister has tried to remake it. Often imitated, never duplicated. Love that Stonebridge production. I dare anyone to not even tap their foot to the beat when this song comes on. That opening note! These are just random thoughts that came to mind during the 4 times in a row that I listened to this song, thereby dooming every other song I have yet to rate to a 10 or lower.
You silly guys. Didn't you heed the title?
7. SHOW ME LOVE
Average score: 8.471
Highest scores: 1 x 11 (@WowWowWowWow ); 14 x 10 (@CorgiCorgiCorgi , @Sprockrooster , @Ana Raquel , @berserkboi , @unnameable , @Seventeen Days , @GimmeWork , @Conan , @LPMA , @K94 , @4Roses , @AshleyKerwin , @Remorque , @Blond )
Lowest scores: 1 x 3 (@Daniel_O )
Chart positions: #5 Hot 100, #3 Radio Songs, #5 Mainstream Top 40, #1 Dance Club Songs, #7 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, #4 Rhythmic Songs
Year-End Hot 100: #17 (1993)
Who? Oh yeah, them...
It's rare, in the annals of the 90's teen pop explosion, that one comes across an artistic arc that is quite as interesting as that of Robyn. “Show Me Love” may have seemed like a mere bit of Britney-ish fluff when it came out in 1997, but Robyn would prove to have artistic ambitions far beyond those of her contemporaries come the 2000's; she blossomed into a brilliantly experimental yet accessible electropop songwriter, relatively reclusive and releasing only occasionally so her music is all the more special when it does appear, and one whose magnum opus Body Talk, I daresay, turned many a hipster on to pop music back in 2010. She's a PopJustice fave, of course, so I'm sure you guys will generate plenty of extra discussion as we cover...
*record scratch*
...Wait. Hang on. This isn't about that “Show Me Love”? This is about that house song from 1993, with the same title, by Robin S, who has almost the same first name? Well, OK then. I guess I could write about that...
No relation.
Before she was Robin S, internationally multi-platinum house diva with one of the defining hits of the early Eurodance era, she was Robin Jackson, a single mother who worked as a secretary at the mayor's office in her hometown of Hempstead, NY, and sang in an R&B cover band on the side. “Show Me Love” was recorded independently with a couple of local producers who took notice of her vocal talents at one of her cover band's shows. It was put out as a single in 1990, and for this she adopted the stage name of Robin Stone – taken from her father, a boxer who fought as “Stonewall Jackson”. The song was co-written by Fred MacFarlane, who before his death in 2016 the scribe behind Jocelyn Brown's 1984 R&B ballad smash “Someone Else's Guy”... and Jason Derulo's 2011 hit “Don't Wanna Go Home”. (Man, I love looking at further songwriting credits for the guys behind the hits in this rate. You always find the most random connections possible!) Anyhow, the original version of “Show Me Love” is linked down below. As you can hear, there is nothing particularly wrong with it; it is a perfectly acceptable piano-driven diva house tune that is typical of its era, given a bit more of a lift by Robin's powerful soul-tinged vocal, but one thing it doesn't sound like is an international smash hit. As, indeed, it was not. Oddly enough, despite being recorded in the US, it didn't see a wide American release at all; in the UK, it was put out on the independent Champion Records, which does still exist, and claims to be one of the oldest record companies in the world with the same management and ownership as it had at its founding. (Good for them!) I don't know how popular it was at the clubs and raves, but it wasn't popular enough to make the charts anywhere. Ms. Stone released no more singles in the following couple of years, with “Show Me Love” remaining an obscure one-off, and that, by all rights, should have been the end of it.
Pictured above: Every Swedish EDM DJ.
And it was, until 1992, when the original recording of “Show Me Love” made its way into the hands of a Swedish DJ named Sten “StoneBridge” Hallstrom; I know that name because he figures somewhat prominently in John Seabrook's The Song Machine, as an early co-worker of the late great Denniz PoP when they were co-founders of a remixing and production house turned record label named SweMix. (Apparently, he scorned Denniz for wanting to produce pop music, which was one of the things that turned him away from SweMix and towards the foundation of Cheiron Studios, which I guess was to StoneBridge's artistic gratification, but less so commercially. Funny story: it was producers from Cheiron who made the other “Show Me Love” for Robyn!) Anyhow, StoneBridge had contacted Champion Records looking for songs that he could remix, and they suggested that he use “Show Me Love”. After he'd already had several mixes rejected, he ended up throwing together a relatively minimalistic arrangement in about four hours, which in his words he thought was “pretty bad”, but his girlfriend persuaded him to submit it anyway. And I suppose StoneBridge's and Robin's bank accounts had better thank his girlfriend for that one. Robin had won herself a signing to prominent dance label Big Beat Records, and the song was blowing up massively on both sides of the pond, having caught one of those short moments where the American mainstream was suddenly more friendly to European dance music. All that was needed to do was lop off the surname, and a star was born!
So what do I think?
EIGHT.
You know how to get Ironheade to like a 90's house track? A big brassy soul-diva vocal is a really good way to do that. And hoo boy, does Robin S ever deliver on that front! Her soulful, gospel-tinged belting is that of a lady who has some serious lung power, but knows how to hold a bit back and unleash the high notes at just the right moments rather than ever falling prey to showing off. The slight hint of rasp in her voice is really nice, too. She definitely would have made a great R&B singer had she stuck to that path, but the earthy power of her voice works excellently juxtaposed against the ultra-slick Euro cool of the beats here. Unfortunately, the production of “Show Me Love” can't help but show its age, most notably because it's based around the bassy organ sound of the Korg M-1, one of those early digital synthesizers that was so hard to program that producers just used the presets over and over again; your mileage may vary, but it takes me out of the song a bit when a synth tone identical to one you've heard in so many other songs from the same time period rears its head. That's a relatively minor gripe though, all things considered, because melodically “Show Me Love” is good stuff. That rolling melodic synth line has an icy coolness to it that almost makes the song sound surprisingly chill for an uptempo dance banger, combined with the steady thump of a beat that's not mixed quite as up-front or punchy as it could be. It's not just dancefloor fodder, it's nice to just sit back and vibe to as well, splitting the difference between hardcore house and mainstream dance-pop excellently. And despite the datedness, the buzzing brassy distorted organ sounds that provide the bassline do work, as a nice counterpoint to Robin's sky-high diva sass at the front. Yeah, I'm not sure “Show Me Love” would have ever been in my ideal top 10... but for the audience who's rating it, I definitely can. And you know what, I'll let you guys have this one. Issa bop.
Where Are They Now?™
The trend with these dance-oriented one-hit wonders (see also: Rednex, Eiffel 65) is that they tend to have much longer-lasting careers in Europe, and sometimes Japan, than they do in the United States, which, aside from the odd novelty hit a couple of peaks where Eurodance was briefly in vogue, was not a reliably friendly market for electronic dance music until very late in the 2000's. This is somewhat the case for Robin S, but that said, her subsequent career was not exactly as massive as it was for the two Eurodance acts I previously mentioned. Her second single, “Luv 4 Luv”, which was also written by “Show Me Love” scribes Fred MacFarlane and Allan George, was a good-sized hit, if not quite as big as her debut: it charted well across Europe, including a #11 peak in the UK (five spots below “Show Me Love”), but fizzled out at #53 in the US, despite topping Hot Dance Club Songs just like its predecessor. Her debut album, also entitled Show Me Love, produced three more singles, but none of them made the Hot 100, and none of them made much of an impact in Europe either. This was despite working with such notable names of house music at the time as David Morales and Junior Vasquez – ah well. It's all about the follow-ups, right?
Sadly, an ill-advised attempt to ride the invisible surfboard in heels left Robin with a broken leg.
Unfortunately, electronic dance music is not a genre that is known for long-lived careers, particularly on the Eurodance side of things, which I dare say is only rivalled by hip-hop for the sheer volume of one-hit wonders and flashes in the pan that the genre has produced. Furthermore, she found herself out of place on Big Beat Records, as that label was turning away from dance music and towards hip-hop, and she didn't quite fit in with the rest of their roster. By the time Robin released her second album From Now On in 1997, the dance scene had moved on quite dramatically from the poppy and mainstream-friendly diva house with which she made her name, with the funky sounds of Daft Punk and their French house comrades beginning to take its place in the mainstream, while clubbers gravitated towards less radio-friendly deep and progressive house instead. She also made some efforts to return to her R&B roots, and recorded some ballads as well in an effort to diversify her sound, but it didn't take. The lead single “It Must Be Love” scraped into both the Hot 100 and the UK Top 40, as well as earning her her third Hot Dance Club Songs #1, but the second single “Midnight” tanked. The last bit of mainstream exposure for Robin S came from “Dance”, a soundtrack cut from Dr. Doolittle where she collaborated with gospel-cum-R&B group Mary Mary, but that went nowhere either. However, before the decade was out, Robin did manage to notch one more Top 10 single in the UK: “Show Me Love '97”, which reached #9 in 1997. (Oh, come on. Do Robin S and Robyn want each other's careers that badly?!) Yes, take note of that, because that will be something of a trend...
I mean, they're practically identical twins, right?
In 1998, the catalogue of Big Beat Records was absorbed into its distributor Atlantic, and Robin S found herself dropped. She never released a third album, but she's continued to put out one-off singles on and off for the past twenty years on a variety of labels, including her old UK home Champion, and even some with the Dutch EDM giants Spinnin' Records. Now why didn't any of them produce any further success for her? I think I know why, and to show it to you, here's a small selection of some of Robin's singles from after her peak hitmaking years: “Show Me Love 99”, “Show Me Love 2002”, “Show Me Love 2006”, “Show Me Love 2008”, and let's not forget “Show Me Love 2009” (the last of these also featuring Steve Angello and Laidback Luke, if that's of interest to you house fans). Jeez, I said that this was a “trend” in Robin's career, but seriously, this isn't a trend, it's a goddamn deluge! Anyway, the '99 release didn't chart anywhere; '02 version scraped into a handful of European charts, and the '06 one scraped into the UK charts again, but nowhere else; its '08 cousin, meanwhile, went all the way to #1 in the Netherlands and almost cracked the Top 20 in Belgium while it was ignored everywhere else; and most gratifyingly of all for Robin's bank account, the '09 rendition actually went all the way to #11 on the UK charts, thanks to the remix being done by a pair of DJ's who are pretty big names in the EDM scene, and also made modestly decent positions on a few other European charts. But, yeah, I think you take my point that Robin S might be a bit of a broken record, and that that's held her back from being a bigger name in dance music after her hitmaking years were done. If you want to be remembered as more than a one-hit wonder, don't release the same song as a single seven times!
Most of Robin's more recent pictures look like she's just smelled a really bad fart, for some reason. Nice rings though.
To be fair, “Show Me Love” remakes aren't all that she's released in the years up to the present. Some new singles have appeared every now and again, though to no success. Robin S is still on Twitter and Facebook, now going under her married name, Robin Jackson Maynard (though she still uses “Robin S” professionally). Her last solo single came out in 2015, and that was after a six-year gap from the last one; her most recent musical endeavour was a collaboration with Canadian producer Phoenix Lord called “I Believe”, but it failed to take off anywhere, and she's seemingly in little hurry to record any more solo work, despite hinting in interviews from last year that she was planning on doing so. However, she is still gigging on the nostalgia circuit and at various club nights, and her social media pages link to places that you can book her from. Hey, at least she doesn't have to worry that the winners of TV talent contests might cover her songs, I guess. And as for StoneBridge, the man whose rework made the song take off in the first place, he's still working as a DJ and touring right up to the present day – even for some really big artists, like Ariana Grande, who he did a remix for “No Tears Left to Cry” for. And all the best to them – they are, after all, the two artists responsible for one of the most iconic hits of 90's dance music, and for that, BopJustice thanks them.
Oh yeah, and I also found out that there's an unrelated song called “Show Me Love” by another Robin S... Robin Schulz, that is. Seriously, what's up with Robins/Robyns and doing songs called “Show Me Love”?! (Don't get any ideas, Mr. Thicke...)
OVER TO THE PEANUT GALLERY
I've got to show you hate
DominoDancing (5): Nice dance groove with generic diva wailing on top of it. I don't see how this is a classic.
Auntie Beryl (6.2): I’ve heard it too many times, it’s been re-released over and over again. *checks Wiki* a hit in ’93 and ’97 over here, with new remixes in ’99, ’02, ’06, ’08 and ’09. Enough already!
Show you my WIG
Empty Shoebox (8): Not the best of dance songs, but I guess it will suffice in this rate.
Andy French (8): A bop!
yuuurei (9): An enduring bop.
ModeRed (8.5): Another great intro, and big housey vibes to follow it up, wonderful.
Ganache (7): Like this a little less than I did back in the day. Bassline still kicks though.
Hudweiser (7): Quality, but fucking RIDICULOUSLY over-played, over-sampled, over-everything'd.
2014 (9): A banger but definitely overused.
chanex (7): I have to deduct a point for it not being Show Me Love by Robyn and the karaoke master always getting confused by my request. It's decent though, and I have the original mix which I honestly prefer, like to a huge degree.
iheartpoptarts (8): I actually think this one is a bit overrated as far as 90s dance goes.
DJHazey (7): Never quite rated it as high as other eurodance fans seem to. I'd list 100 essential dance hits from the decade before I'd think of it.
CasuallyCrazed (9): I maintain that this should have been in the eurodance rate and probably would have won. I still bop to the Rebecca Ferguson version.
Filippa (7): What a voice!
pop3blow2 (9): I think this song's production still holds up well... especially with all the throwback production in modern pop.
əʊæ (6): If i heard this on the radio, i'd be convinced it's 2017.
saviodxl (8.1): I was checking her discography on wikipedia and found out sis released SIX VERSIONS of the same song in different years! She really doesn't want people to forget her one hit I guess...
Untouchable Ace (8.6): Lesbian anthem.
Seventeen Days (10): When she sang “SO BAAAAAABY IF YOU WANT MEEEEEEEE”, I felt that. A dance classic, I think you have to at least moderately enjoy this in order to get your Gay Card.
4Roses (10): A STONE COLD CLASSIC. Those ad lib's still leave me bald.
GimmeWork (10): Yas queen take us to the 90’s clurb!!!
unnameable (10): I’m getting flashbacks to 90s clubs and girls wearing fluffy bras. This one has aged better than a lot of 90s dance.
Sprockrooster (10): Those vocals. A eurodance beat. I am snatched.
Blond (10): If you ever need to get me on a dance floor then this is that song. It’s such a classic and still sounds amazing in a club setting.
berserkboi (10): So glad this finally featured in a rate!! I tried hard to get Hazy & Pop Tarts to include it in their Eurodance rate to no avail. A classic and then some, a highlight of Drag Race Season 7 and the song is so strong it was even very enjoyable when that mellow cover made the Australian charts a couple of years ago!
WowWowWowWow (11): Still sounds fresh and relevant 25 years on. No wonder everybody and their sister has tried to remake it. Often imitated, never duplicated. Love that Stonebridge production. I dare anyone to not even tap their foot to the beat when this song comes on. That opening note! These are just random thoughts that came to mind during the 4 times in a row that I listened to this song, thereby dooming every other song I have yet to rate to a 10 or lower.
he/him
Adding to its permanent icon status was when Rebecca Ferguson performed it on Club Classics night on X Factor 2010 and Louis praised her for her choreography despite.... her just kinda standing there and belting it out.
Were we supposed to forget that Cheryl basically used the same backing track not even nine months prior?
Were we supposed to forget that Cheryl basically used the same backing track not even nine months prior?
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he/him
It also is all about “Love For Love”:
she/her
I'm still annoyed that 'Show me Love' is only on the export versions of 'Robyn is Here'.
londonrain
Staff member
I actually have the 2009 version on CD single! A bop in whatever form.
(But I prefer the Robyn song to the Robin S song.)
(But I prefer the Robyn song to the Robin S song.)
He/Him
A loss!!! Love it now as always!!
Here's the mellow version no one asked for I was talking about - still a great listen! Such is the strength of the track!
Here's the mellow version no one asked for I was talking about - still a great listen! Such is the strength of the track!