Dance Wiv Me

Album: Tongue 'N' Cheek (2008)
Charted: 1
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Songfacts®:

  • This features Chrome, who supplies the R&B vocals on this grime/dance/R&B hybrid about getting loose at a nightclub.
  • This was co-written by and features Scottish electro producer Calvin Harris. Dizzee Rascal explained to Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 1 that their collaboration came about after he met Harris at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Preston and told him that (Harris' hit single) "Acceptable In the '80s" got him excited about music again and that he would love to make a track with him.
  • In an interview with BBC's Newsbeat program Dizzee explained that Harris and himself recorded their parts separately: "Me and Calvin met and we exchanged numbers. We never actually met once to actually make the tune, we did it back and forth over the phone. It was good, we were just like over the phone, 'What about changing that hook a bit?' Chrome was the only one that came in the studio but it was good working with him because we've done a few things in the past."
  • This was Dizzee Rascal's first release on his own Dirtee Stank label.
  • This was Dizzee Rascal's 11th UK chart single, though he had only once before made the top 10, with "Stand Up Tall" in 2004. Calvin Harris had consecutive UK Top 10 hits of his own in 2007 with "Acceptable in the '80s" and "The Girls." This was Chrome's first UK chart entry.
  • This was the first deliberately misspelt UK chart-topper since the Pussycat's hit #1 with "Stickwitu" in December 2005.
  • In the song's music video Dizzee Rascal and Chrome are sitting in a club of party people whilst Calvin Harris plays a bar-man.
  • This upbeat party anthem marked Dizzee Rascal's transition from critically acclaimed chronicler of urban blight to mainstream chart-topper. However, when the British rapper first played this song to the boss of his old record company, it fell on deaf ears and he eventually released it on his own Dirtee Stank label. Dizzee told The Daily Telegraph August 10, 2009: "'I said, 'OK, you like to be thought of as edgy, I get that, but now the person who gave you the edgiest album you've ever put out is offering you a straight-up pop track. You haven't forced me to do this, I found my way there myself: you should be pleased.'" He added: "It was a blessing, though, because I got to do it myself."
  • This also features on Calvin Harris' Ready For The Weekend. Harris recalled his contribution to this song on the album's press release: "Dizzee texted me, saying he'd done this a cappella over someone else's music, but his verse was too good for their music, so could he do it with me instead? So I spent a long time on it, to make sure it lived up to his expectations. I sent him the track, and he called me at 2 in the morning to say it was amazing, so I knew it was good."
  • The song topped the UK charts for four consecutive weeks and was one of the biggest selling singles of 2008.

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