Pump Up The Volume

Album

Single

Label

4th & B'way Records

Genre

Hip house

Duration

8:00

Composer(s)

MARTYN YOUNG;STEVEN ANTHONY BIGGS

Entered Chart

Nov 28, 1987

Peak Date

Feb 20, 1988

Released

3 August 1987

Recorded

1987

Catalog #

4th & Broadway 7452

B-Side

Anitina

This song is made up of about 250 samples. The line, "Pump Up The Volume" came from "I Know You Got Soul" by Eric B. & Rakim, which was released earlier in 1987. Other samples include Coldcut's 1987 song "Say, Kids What Time Is This" and James Brown's "Funky Drummer." It also contains three seconds of Stock Aitken & Waterman's song "Roadblock," but the group didn't get official clearance and Peter Waterman placed an injunction for five days while the copyright issues were worked out. This was the first ever #1 UK hit on an independent record label: 4AD. It also reached #1 in Holland and New Zealand. The song was so popular it was re-issued over 10 times internationally. In Europe, it was released at a slower tempo than the popular Chicago house sound so it would appeal to the London club crowd who were currently into soul sounds. M/A/R/R/S was a one-off collaboration between members of A.R. Kane (Alex and Rudi Kane) and Colourbox (Martin and Steve Young), both veteran 4AD artists. They took their name from the four collaborator's initials plus that of label boss Ivo Watts-Russell, who suggested they get together. Those four are the credited songwriters on the track. DJs Chris "CJ" Mackintosh and Dave Dorrell were recruited by M/A/R/R/S to take care of the sampling. CJ recalls, "It was all done very quickly. They called me in the morning, we went to Blackwing Studios at London Bridge and stuck all the samples on that day and I got a £200 fee." Dave Dorrell said, "Pump Up The Volume provided a link between the retro sound of rare groove and the sample-heavy nature of much of the new US dance music." Dorrell has another claim to fame: He managed the band Bush and helped them break through in America. This was featured in the films My Stepmother Is An Alien (1988), Bright Lights, Big City (1988) and The Replacements (2000). In 1988 a parody of this by Starturn On 45 (Pints) called "Pump Up The Bitter" reached #12 in the UK.

Pump up the volume
Pump up the volume
Pump up the volume
Pump up the volume

Brothers and sisters
Pump up the volume
We're gonna need you
Brothers and sisters

Pump up the volume
Pump that baby
Brothers and sisters
Pump up the volume

We're gonna need you
Brothers and sisters
Pump up the volume
Pump pump it ay

Rock the house
Rock the house
Ah yea
Ah yea

Do it
Do it do it
Yea yea
Yea yea

Boogie down bo bo boogie down
Boogie down
Here we go, see'mon

Do it
Do it
Do it

Pump up the volume
Pump up the volume
Pump up the volume
Dance dance

Rythmic, systemic and world control
Magnetic, genetic, dement your soul
Rythmic, systemic and world control
Magnetic, genetic, dement your soul

Rythmic, systemic and world control
Magnetic, genetic, dement your soul
Rythmic, systemic and world control
Magnetic, genetic, dement your soul

Put the needle on the record
Put the needle on the record
Put the needle on the record
Put the needle on the record
Put the needle on the record

When the song beats go like this
Pump up the volume
Pump up the volume
Pump up the volume

Dance dance
Mars
Needs
Women

Mars
Needs
Women