music.wikisort.org - Composition

"The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" is a house music track by American musical production team the Bucketheads, released in 1995. It was later dubbed into the project's sole album, All in the Mind (1995). The single was a commercial hit in the UK in spring 1995, reaching number five on the UK Singles Chart, while in the US, it peaked at number 49 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 41 on the Cash Box Top 100. In 2020, Slant Magazine ranked "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" number 48 in their list of The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time.[3]

"The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)"
Single by The Bucketheads
from the album All in the Mind
Released	1995[1][2]
Recorded	1994
Genre	House[2]
Length	14:51 (original version) 3:24 (radio edit)
Label	Positiva Henry Street Music
Songwriter(s)	Kenny Gonzalez Daniel Seraphine David Wolinski
Producer(s)	Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez
The Bucketheads singles chronology
"Whew" (1994) "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" (1995) "Come and Be Gone" (1995)
Music video
"The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" on YouTube

Background and release

Produced by Masters at Work member Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez, the track features samples from Chicago's "Street Player" from their 1979 album Chicago 13. The subtitle of the song is actually a mondegreen; the actual lyric taken from the sample is "Street sounds swirling through my mind..."

Also sampled is "The Preacher Man" (1993) by Green Velvet. The accompanying video was featured on the Beavis and Butt-head episode "Prank Call," on January 28, 1996.

The track once served as the entrance music for former World bantamweight and featherweight boxing champion Prince Naseem Hamed, and is featured on the soundtrack for the 2010 film The Switch.

Critical reception

AllMusic editor John Bush deemed the song as a "great-sounding fusion of disco-funk and house that works well".[4] Larry Flick from Billboard called it "retro-happy"[5] and "an unassuming li'l jaunt back in time that is packed with more than a savvy twist or two."[6] John Hamilton from Idolator said it is an "eccentric" dance track.[7] Music writer James Masterton described it as a "annoyingly catchy 70s-styled dance record that comes complete with tongue-in-cheek video featuring neon lights, platform heels and mile-wide afro haircuts. One of the more unconventional dance records at the moment and possibly by definition one of the best."[8] Dave Piccioni from Music Week's RM Dance Update wrote, "Another all-time dance classic is reworked, rehashed and brutally stripped. Why do they do it? Well, probably because they come out sounding pretty damn good. Kenny Dope has taken a razor blade to Chicago's 'Streetplayer', added some rough and ready beats, some latino congas, and presented a disco gem to a new generation of dancers. The result is slamming, the effect on the floor is similar. A simple sample track that is truly gorgeous."[9]

After the 1995 re-release, another editor from the magazine, Brad Beatnik said, "It's the sort of tune that will go down very well on most floors thanks to its carnival atmosphere and very funky disco beats." He added, "A stormer."[10] James Hamilton noted it as "so consistent a seller since late September ['94] that it must surely be the biggest import in ages", describing it as "a marathon bassily burbling percussive 0.125.9bpm underground rhythm groove".[11] John Kilgo from The Network Forty declared it as "a perfect "roll down your windows and crank up the sound" tune".[12] Charles Aaron from Spin stated that "more than a Box novelty, "The Bomb!" is essential '90s funk, a house party on the last car of the D to the A train winding its way from Brooklyn up to Manhattan's disco meat-packing district with conductor Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez mixing electro, hip-hop, house, and Chicago (the group)."[13]

Chart performance

"The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" was very successful on the charts on several continents, reaching number-one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in the United States. In Europe, it was a top 10 hit in Belgium, France, Iceland (number two), Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. In the latter, the single peaked at number five in its second week at the UK Singles Chart, on March 5, 1995.[14] But on the UK Dance Chart, the song was a even bigger hit, reaching number two. Additionally, it peaked within the top 20 in Austria, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, as well as on the Eurochart Hot 100, where "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" hit number 12 in July 1995. Outside Europe, it also made it to number eight on the RPM Dance/Urban chart in Canada, number 11 in Australia, number 21 in New Zealand, number 41 on the US Cash Box Top 100 and number 49 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It was awarded with a silver record in France, with sales of 125,000 singles.

Music video

The accompanying music video for "The Bomb!" was directed by British directors Guy Ritchie and Alex De Rakoff on a budget of roughly £1,000, being one of their first music video recordings shot on a Super 8 film camera, inspired by some of the Beastie Boys' music video recording styles.[15][16] It was filmed in London, as can be discerned from the side of the road being driven on with the car's steering wheel on the right side of the car and double-decker buses, and first aired in March 1995.

The video starts off with a black man with an afro waking up because of an alarm clock alongside two blonde haired white women, one with wavy hair and the other with straight hair, the latter of which gets her hair done into pigtails. After they all get themselves ready to go out to have fun, they walk out of the home and the blonde with pigtails is seen driving through London in a Volkswagen Superbug, which the man with an afro later drives while nodding to the blonde with pigtails, who quickly turns away. The gang are seen walking together through a market area and later go into a record shop where the man with an afro finds a record within the store's inventory of this exact song. They all later leave the record store, walk more through the market area, then the man with an afro departures from the two blondes via a kiss on their cheeks, later entering a nightclub called Carwash.[17]

The video for "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" was later published on YouTube on May 13, 2013. It has amassed more than 8 million views as of September 2021.[18]

Impact and legacy

Mixmag ranked the song number 60 in its 100 Greatest Dance Singles Of All Time list in 1996, adding,

"A quarter of an hour's worth of mirrorball mayhem, Kenny 'Dope' Gonzales' The Bomb is the ultimate disco cutup track. Shatteringly simple, the genius of The Bomb lies in the way it builds up your anticipation with a protracted burst of hard jacking drums and atonal honking before the perfect disco sample soars away into the distance. A massive hit when Positiva licensed it in early 1995, The Bomb kick-started the trend for raiding old disco 12s. Dozens of producers followed its lead, but none of them ever equalled the definitive original article."[19]

DJ Magazine ranked it number 95 in their list of Top 100 Club Tunes in 1998.[20]

Slant Magazine ranked the song 65th in its 100 Greatest Dance Songs list in 2006.[21]

The Guardian featured the song on their A history of modern music: Dance in 2011.[22]

MTV Dance placed "The Bomb!" at #10 in their list of The 100 Biggest 90's Dance Anthems Of All Time in November 2011.[23]

Idolator ranked the song number 34 in their ranking of The 50 Best Pop Singles of 1995 in 2015.[24] John Hamilton commented,

"Who would have predicted that The Karate Kid, Part II balladeer and former lead singer of Chicago, Peter Cetera, would experience a mid-’90s career renaissance as a house music diva? (Not even Miss Cleo!) But that’s exactly what happened when noted remixer/producer Kenny "Dope" Gonzales lifted a vintage slice of Chicago’s "Street Player", dressed it with a funky kick, edited the hell out of the horn section and Cetera’s vocals and turned it all out as "The Bomb!""

BuzzFeed listed the song number 44 in their The 101 Greatest Dance Songs Of the '90s list in 2017.[25]

Mixmag ranked the song as one of The 20 best US rave anthems of the '90s in 2019, adding,

"The Bucketheads is a disco-sampling solo project from NYC dance music legend Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez who is also revered for his work as one half of Masters At Work alongside Louie Vega. Sampling the band Chicago's 1979 track 'Street Player', Kenny Dope created a slick piece of house that forces hands in the air everywhere."[26]

Slant Magazine placed the song at number 48 in their list of The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time in 2020.[3] Same year, Tomorrowland included it in their official list of "The Ibiza 500".[27]

Accolades

Year	Publisher	Country	Accolade	Rank
1996	International Dance Music Awards	United States	"Best House 12-inch"[28]	1
1996	Mixmag	United Kingdom	"The 100 Best Dance Singles of All Time"	60
1998	DJ Magazine	United Kingdom	"Top 100 Club Tunes"	95
2006	Slant Magazine	United States	"100 Greatest Dance Songs"	65
2011	The Guardian	United Kingdom	"A history of modern music: Dance"	*
2011	MTV Dance	United Kingdom	"The 100 Biggest 90's Dance Anthems of All Time"[29]	10
2015	Idolator	United States	"The 50 Best Pop Singles of 1995"	34
2015	Robert Dimery	United States	"1,001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die, and 10,001 You Must Download (2015 Update)"	1-1001
2017	BuzzFeed	United States	"The 101 Greatest Dance Songs Of the '90s"	44
2019	Mixmag	United Kingdom	"The 20 best US rave anthems of the '90s"	*
2020	Slant Magazine	United States	"The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time"	48
2022	Rolling Stone	United States	"200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time"[30]	77

(*) indicates the list is unordered.

Track listings

Charts

Certifications

Country	Certification	Date	Sales certified
France[67]	Silver	August 29, 1995	125,000

References

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