Radio 1's top 50 dance tracks of last 20 years

Top 20 Dance Tracks

Choose your favourite dance track of the last two decades

Air - Sexy Boy
Alison Limerick - Where Love Lives
Ariel Brikha - Groove La Chord
Armand Van Helden - Funk Phenomena
Armand Van Helden - You Don't Know me
Azzido da Bass - Doomsnight (Timo Maas Remix)
Basement Jaxx - Rendez Vu
Basement Jaxx - Flylife
Bucketheads - The Bomb
Cassius - 1999
Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy Hey Girl
Chemical Brothers - Saturate/Battle Weapon 8
Clivilles and Cole - A Deeper Love
Cut Copy - Saturdays
Daft Punk - Around the World
Daft Punk - Da Funk
Daft Punk - One More Time
David Morales - Needin U
De'lacy - Hideaway
Deep Inside - Harddrive
Diss Reaction - Jieehaaa
DJ Mehdi - Signature (Bangalter remix)
Double 99 - Ripgroove
Energy 52 - Café del mar
Eric Prydz - Pjanoo
Gat Décor - Passion
Goldie - Timeless
Groove Armada - Superstylin
Jaydee - Plastic Dreams
Josh Wink - Higher State of Consciousness
Kariya - Baby Let Me Love You For Tonight
La Roux - In for the Kill (Skream remix)
Laurent Garnier - Man with the Red Face
Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy
Mr Oizo - Flat Beat
Oxia - Domino
Pete Heller - Big Love
Prodigy - Everybody in the Place
Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up
Prodigy - Your Love
Riva Starr - I was Drunk
Robin S - Show Me Love
Roy Davis Jr - Gabriel
Royksopp - What else is there (Thin White Duke remix)
Sasha - Xpander
Shapeshifters - Lola's Theme
Stardust - Music Sounds Better
Tim Deluxe - It Just Won't Do
Underworld - Born Slippy
Underworld - Rez/Cowgirl

wtf at this list? thin white duke remix of royksopp not felix? oxia even tho it's good, why and how?

not expecting something great but what an odd list, even for a commercial selection.

I thought it was the Trentemoller mix of Royksopp people dug?

Most of these tracks are from the '90s/very early 2000s it seems...

yeah actually...can't even remember what the jlc one sounds like and i have that 12

this all points to some ultra dumb system of voting, they polled top djs, industry insiders, bbc sport chief football writer phil mcnulty etc

yeah this list seems to be a pretty good "best dance tracks of the 90s" and then visible panic as whoever made it realised they only knew a handful of 00s dance tracks

did you mean to make this a poll, ronan?

"domino" is such a weird choice, i don't even know how

(would vote "you don't know me" obv)

i prob should have made it a poll

there must be loads of 90s glaring omissions too. but the 00s stuff is shonky as hell. like how did domino get in? i don't understand. surely mandarine girl or body language or even coma cat were bigger on radio 1?

the weird thing about "domino" - relistening now - is that it IS really good! but pretty much exactly like any other given kompakt release. why on earth that one?!

Looks like the soundtrack to a film where somebody loses 48 hours of their life on a holiday I think there was a bit when he fell out of a boat

Would have voted AVH if it had been breaks night but from the list would prob go with Roy Davis Jr. This kind of list makes me think of a BBC Sportswriters Premiership XI of 1998 tho

i think "domino" was quite atypical of kompakt stuff to be honest, it was like a ripoff of "eve by day" anyway, though actually probably a better record.

there must be a really big kompakt record that could have made the list, but not quite sure.

surely like tiefschwarz and stuff too, that stuff was big with pete tong and co.

I love love love the JLC Royksopp remix but yes, the 00s choices are so random. This feels like a list from 2000 updated with a handful of token additions.

Has anyone - Goldie included - listened to the 21-minute Timeless since the 90s?

I can't imagine how much what kind of attitude you'd have to have to drum'n'bass for you to pick that as the genre's sole representative.

what would you pick from the late 00s anyway? rej? miura? i can't think of anything that seems particularly "radio 1"

drop the pressure is a pretty obv omission

They could have had Fake Blood or Simian/Justice or Vitalic or Katy B or...

yeah wtf @ vitalic absence!!

yeah justice/simian, i don't even like it but it was big on radio 1 i'm sure...

kariya is from 87/88 surely

i wonder what reggie and fearne nominated

...or Burial or Andy C & Shimon....

yeah actually...can't even remember what the jlc one sounds like and i have that 12

Dude it's amazing, really euphoric fake filter-disco. There's a fairly dull and workmanlike JLC remix of the same tune as well. But the Trentemoller one is the best.

This is pretty rock-solid as a 90s list actually, although three Prodigy tracks + two Underworlds + no Orbital is poor crossover dance balance.

Most of Radio 1's dance DJs and likely voting public are getting on a bit so I'm not really surprised this skews 90s at all. Of the ones I'd most like to hear on a dancefloor, still, either Higher State or Ripgroove.

Actually this really does look like a list compiled by people who did a lot of raving in the 90s and then spent the next 10 years sitting at their computers (Lola's Theme, Cut Copy, really?)

what would you pick from the late 00s anyway? rej? miura? i can't think of anything that seems particularly "radio 1"

'Body Language'

it's a bad sign wrt its 2000s picks when i recognize most of the tracks

feels anti-american to me, or anti-techno

brown paper bag should be on there

My choices:

1. Gat Décor - Passion
2. Shapeshifters - Lola's Theme
3. Jaydee - Plastic Dreams
4. De'lacy - Hideaway
5. Roy Davis Jr - Gabriel
6. Alison Limerick - Where Love Lives
7. Daft Punk - One More Time
8. Laurent Garnier - Man with the Red Face
9. Kariya - Baby Let Me Love You For Tonight
10. Armand Van Helden - You Don't Know me

(Kariya was 1989 though - tsk.)

Laurent Garnier - Man with the Red Face

Shit, didn't notice this on there. Still amazing.

feels anti-american to me, or anti-techno

More anti-European I think, or with a definite British bias. The 00s weren't really a particularly fertile period for British dance music, compared to now or the decade and a half that proceeded them. 2002-2008 or so was all about Europe for me.

re: Man With A Red Face - always much preferred Sound Of The Big Babou to this one.

Eric Prydz - Pjanoo

Who's to blame for mis-spelling "Call On Me"?

Also kinda bizarre that a Radio 1 list would pretend that trance never happened. Would have voted "Horny" or "Free" or "King Of My Castle" or "Not Over Yet" over a lot of stuff in this list, but to be fair I still wouldn't say no to a zip file of the 12" versions of all these songs.

Gabriel for sure.

not expecting something great but what an odd list, even for a commercial selection

It *is* odd, but it could have been a lot worse tbh. If your starting point on hearing of the existence of this is not "what a great list this is going to be", but "what nightmarish selection of shite have they chosen?" then it's pleasantly surprising that at least half of it is alright.

feels anti-american to me, or anti-techno

What US techno during the 90s and 00s even crossed over to an extent large enough for this list apart from "Knights of the Jaguar" (and "Higher States of Consciousness" lol)? That's the only glaring US techno absence given the nature of the list.

US house is well represented - Van Helden, Robin S, Bucketheads, Morales, Clivilles & Cole, Deep Inside, De'lacy, Alison Limerick - as you'd expect.

What US techno during the 90s and 00s even crossed over to an extent large enough for this list

Plastikman - Spastik ?

(Ah, now I read his wiki entry I realise he isn't actually American)

Happy to be corrected on this but I wouldn't have thought "Spastik" was a radio hit in the way most of the stuff on this list is.

Obv there are heaps of amazing "crossover" detroit techno records ("At Les", "Blackwater", "Transitions", "Jupiter Jazz", a variety of Carl Craig remixes) during this era.

Deep Inside - Harddrive

I thought Hardrive was the artist and "Deep Inside" was the title? Either way, one of the better tracks to make the list. Very spare production, yet has so many great moments.