“Maria” is a song by American band Blondie. The song was written by Blondie keyboardist Jimmy Destri and produced by Craig Leon. Taken from their seventh album, No Exit (1999), it was Blondie’s first new release since 1982. “Maria”, issued as a single in Europe in January 1999, reached number one in the United Kingdom; Blondie’s sixth UK chart-topper. The song also topped the charts of Greece and Spain, becoming a top-20 hit across Europe and in New Zealand. The music video for “Maria” was directed by Roman Coppola, and takes place in New York City. Parts of New York through night-vision goggles are seen before zooming into an apartment where Blondie are performing the song. Mysterious dark-clothed individuals are seen around different buildings setting up surveillance equipment to monitor the band. Toward the end of the video, one of the dark-clothed individuals aims a sniper rifle towards lead singer Deborah Harry, and fires a bullet at her. In slow motion, the bullet smashes through a window, a light bulb and the microphone towards her, but Harry (moving in real time) simply plucks the bullet from the air before it hits her (perhaps tying into the theme of “no exit”, the band’s comeback album).
“Sadeness (Part I)” is the debut single by German musical project Enigma. The song was released in 1990 as the first of four singles from their debut album MCMXC a.D. (1990). It became an international hit, reaching number one in 14 countries. In the United States, the song peaked at number five on the Billboard and number one on its dance chart. The single reached number one in the UK in January 1991. The music video, directed by Michel Guimbard, shows a scribe who dreams of wandering among cathedral ruins. He comes up to Rodin’s The Gates of Hell; and as the scribe looks on, he sees a woman (played by French model Cathy Tastet) beyond it, who whispers the main lyrics from the song to him. The scribe then opens the gates and, realising what he has done, attempts to flee, but is dragged through the gates. The video ends with the scribe waking up.
“The Rockafeller Skank” is a song by English musician and DJ Fatboy Slim. It was released as the lead single from his second studio album, You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby (1998), in June 1998. The single peaked at number six in the UK in June 1998 and topped the Icelandic charts for a week the same month and was the second Fatboy Slim single to chart on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 76. Larry Flick from Billboard wrote, “Using self-consciously old-school DJ techniques (scratching and repetition of a spoken phrase, dramatic tempo changes), Fatboy Slim has created an organically simple masterpiece. The song features the repeated line “Right about now, the funk soul brother / Check it out now, the funk soul brother“, which is a truncated vocal sample of rapper Lord Finesse on the track “Vinyl Dogs Vibe” by Vinyl Dogs.
“Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)” is a song by American Eurodance musician Scatman John. It was released in November 1994 as a single, and was later re-released in July 1995 for his second album, Scatman’s World. The song is described as “a blend of jazz scatting, rap, and house beats”. It reached number-one on the charts in at least nine countries, in the UK, the single reached number three and also won the March 1996 Echo Award in Germany for the best Rock/Pop single. The music video for “Scatman” was released in 1994 and directed by Kerstin Mueller. It was also produced by Ariola Records. It was shot in black and white, and features a fractured screen with several boxes showing shots of John singing, along with various people dancing, miming and playing drums. The video was played in heavy rotation on music channels in 1995.
“Missing” is a song by English musical duo Everything But The Girl, taken from their eighth studio album, Amplified Heart (1994). It was written by the two band members, Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, and was produced by Watt and John Coxon. It was taken as the second single off the album in August 1994. It initially did not achieve much success until it was remixed by Todd Terry and re-released in 1995, resulting in worldwide success, peaking at or near the top of the charts in many countries. The release of the remixed version of “Missing” gave an indication of the band’s future experimentation with more electronic dance music on subsequent albums. Musically the song takes in multiple genres. The original version from the album is a more low-tempo influenced song, while the popular Todd Terry remix version is a more up-tempo dance-pop song. Lyrically the song talks about one person missing the other because they have moved away. “Missing” was critically acclaimed by the majority of music critics, who praised the composition and generally considered it a highlight on the album.
