Erick Morillo’s finest moment? Zig & Zag’s ‘Them Girls Them Girls’ turns 25…
Long before conquering Ibiza, and indeed the world, with his Subliminal Sessions, Erick Morillo was a jobbing house producer behind acts such as Da Buddaheads, R.A.W., and of course Reel 2 Real, the latter of which went stratospheric in 1993 with the smash hit I Like To Move It.
But we’re not sure of the set of circumstances that led the New York native to team up with a pair of puppet aliens best known for their appearances on RTE’s The Den and Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast.
But team up they did, and the resulting single (which borrows heavily from the aforementioned Move It…), Them Girls Them Girls, was unleashed on a Eurodance-saturated market 25 years ago this week.
It would peak at number 5 in the UK charts, earning the titular aliens a spot on Top of the Pops, and raising the bar for novelty house acts to follow. 🙂
Built around a simple, rising and falling synth riff (check out the 12″ Alien Dub Mix on the B-side for a more uncut version); Them Girls Them Girls would prove to be the only time that house music royalty and breakfast-time buffoonery worked so well together.
Although we’re not sure if the self-styled ‘Zaggamuffin’ would get away with the faux-Jamaican patois these days.
As Morillo told MTV at the time, he regrets nothing about the collaboration (pinch of salt at the ready, we presume).
“A lot of people tell me ‘were you taking the piss with Zig & Zag?’ Not at all,” he explained. “I think they’re great, I loved to work with them, and I’d love to do another one.
“It’s not about selling out, or ‘you’re doing this, or doing that’. I’m doing it because I want to. It’s a fun thing to do.”
As for Zig & Zag? Anyone remember follow up single Hands Up! Hands Up!, recorded alongside Swedish novelty yokels Rednex? No, nor do we… 🙂
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