Wiki
-
Length
3:16
"Theme from S-Express" is an acid house song by English dance music band S'Express from their album Original Soundtrack. It peaked at No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart in April 1988 for two weeks. One of the landmarks of early acid house and late 1980s sampling culture, the single became an instant hit upon its release in April 1988. Written and produced by Mark Moore and Pascal Gabriel the song samples liberally from many songs, including heavy sampling from Rose Royce's "Is It Love You're After" and TZ's "I Got the Hots for You". The hi-hat is sampled from an aerosol spray.
The track's "S express" refrain makes reference to the 42nd Street Shuttle, or, as it is sometimes known, the "S Express", a well-known line on the New York City Subway. The song reached number one on the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in April 1988. It fared less well in the United States where it scraped into the Billboard Hot 100 at number 91. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart during the week of 2 July 1988 – 9 July 1988. It peaked at number 11 in Australia and number two in West Germany.
The song prominently sampled Karen Finley and her "Drop that ghetto blaster/suck me off" vocal formed something of a chorus in the song, The high-pitched scream was controversially provided by the BBC's Caroline Wyatt. The song's predominant "I've got the hots for you" hook has been described as "campy".
The song was featured in the film Arthur and the Invisibles. The Norwegian Broadcasting Company used parts of the song for the intro music of their weekly sports programme.
This is a list of samples used in "Theme from S-Express".
Alfredo de la Fé - "Hot to Trot" from Alfredo, 1979 (LP)
Crystal Grass - "Crystal World" from You're All I Ever Dreamed Of, 1974 (LP)
Karen Finley - "Tales of Taboo" from Tales of Taboo, 1986 (12")
Debbie Harry - "Feel the Spin" from Krush Groove soundtrack, 1985 (LP)
Vocal sample by Laura Olsher from "The Martian Monsters" from Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House, 1964 (LP)
Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson - "The Bottle" from Winter in America, 1974 (LP)
Ish Ledesma - "Scream for Daddy" from I Could Love You, 1986 (12")
Peech Boys - "Don't Make Me Wait" from Life Is Something Special, 1983 (LP)
Gene Roddenberry - "The Star Trek Dream" from The Star Trek Dream, 1976 (LP)
Rose Royce - "Is It Love You're After" from Rose Royce IV: Rainbow Connection, 1979 (LP)
Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs - "Oh That's Bad, No That's Good" from Oh That's Bad, No That's Good, 1967 (7")
Stacey Q - "Two of Hearts" from Better Than Heaven, 1986 (LP)
TZ - "I Got the Hots for You" from I Got the Hots for You, 1983 (12")
Yazoo - "Situation" from Upstairs at Eric's, 1982 (LP)
Track descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
