Peak
5
Weeks
39
Score
7,002
Chart Year
1993
The accompanying music video for "Rhythm Is a Dancer" was directed by British director Howard Greenhalgh and premiered in July 1992.[25] It was filmed at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, and shows singer Thea Austin, and Durron Butler (Turbo B) playing a bass guitar in the rocket garden, which is filled with smoke. Austin and her group perform the song on elevated platforms, while a group of dancers balanced their dance moves on a closed ground platform below them. Interspersed throughout these scenes are animated shots of flashing aviation maps, as well as animated figures balancing their dance moves. This was the last video to feature both Butler (Turbo B) and Austin before they left the group. The music video was later published on Snap!'s official YouTube channel in 2011, and has amassed around 20 million views as of early 2022.[26] At the time of release, Montreal Gazette music critic Kathleen McCourt praised the video's "originality in costume and design" but wrote in disdain, "Don't waste your time with this clip."[27] In 1994, Alf Björnberg wrote that the "video is manifestly non-narrative", that the visuals are music-reliant, and that the video's content is "not strongly structured by the visuals nor by the music"
This club-banger features vocals by Thea Austin. The American singer/songwriter/composer was meant to be the replacement for Snap!'s original lead vocalist Penny Ford, however after laying down the vocals for this track, she left the band. Austin later was lead vocalist on Soulsearcher's UK 1999 Top 10 hit "Can't Get Enough" and Pusaka's 2001 dance club chart topper "You're The Worst Thing For Me." So how did Austin hook up with Snap!? After Penny Ford left the band because of tensions with the group's rapper Turbo B, the German producers who controlled the group called her back to help with arrangements, and asked her to find a replacement female singer from America. In our interview with Penny Ford, she told us: "They paid me a whole lot of money to pick somebody and bring 'em back over here (Germany). Because by that time I had signed with Sony, which meant contractually I could no longer sing for them, because they were BMG. But I was not signed to Sony as a writer. So I could still write for them. So I'm not sure how it sorted out, but the girl that came after me, she was interviewing me in the same way that you are right now for a magazine, and she said she was also a songwriter. Her name is Thea Austin, and she asked me if I would listen to her song. And I don't make a point of listening to everybody's songs, I just can't listen to them all. But I listened to this song and I liked it and I wanted it for my album. So I needed to get rid of her so she didn't need that song anymore. So I asked her if she had a passport. She did, and she happens to come from the same small little ghetto outside of Pittsburgh that Turbo did. And three days later she was on a plane coming over here making another massive hit for Snap!, 'Rhythm is a Dancer.'" This was the biggest selling single of 1992 in the UK with 582,700 copies sold. It also reached #1 in many other European countries including France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and The Netherlands. In America, it became the third and final Top 40 hit for Snap!, following "The Power" and "Ooops Up." A memorable and borderline offensive lyric in this song is "I'm as serious as cancer, when I say rhythm is a dancer." Snap's infamous cancer lyric was possibly borrowed from Eric B. & Rakim's song "I Ain't No Joke" from their 1987 album Paid In Full. The couplet in question goes: I got a question as serious as cancer Who can keep the average dancer The line also shows up in the 1988 song "Strong Island" by JVC Force: I'm as serious as cancer, all fun is done A remix by CJ Stone returned this song to the UK Top 20 in 2003. In 2008, thanks to its use in TV commercials for Drench spring water Snap's original version re-entered the UK Top 40 again. When Thea Austin left the band after recording this song, Penny Ford brought in Madonna's backup singer Niki Haris to replace her, and she sang on the European hits "Exterminate!" and "Do You See The Light (Looking For)." In 1994, Haris was out and Penny brought in Paula Brown, who went by "Summer," to replace her. European hits with Brown singing included "Welcome to Tomorrow (Are You Ready?)" and "The First The Last Eternity (Till the End)." Snap! went on hiatus in 1997, but reformed in 2006 with original singer Penny Ford back on female vocals and a new male rapper named Benjamin "Stoli" Lowe.
Na-na-na-na Na-na-na-na Na-na-na-na-na, ooh Rhythm is a dancer It's a soul's companion People feel it everywhere Lift your hands and voices Free your mind and join us You can feel it in the air Oh, it's a passion Oh, you can feel it in the air Oh, it's a passion Oh-oh-oh-oh Rhythm is a dancer It's a soul's companion People feel it everywhere Lift your hands and voices Free your mind and join us You can feel it in the air Oh, it's a passion Oh, you can feel it in the air Oh, it's a passion Oh-oh-oh-oh Rhythm You can feel it People feel it Rhythm Rhythm is a dancer Rhythm You can feel it People feel it Rhythm Rhythm is a dancer Let the rhythm ride you, guide you Sneak inside you, set your mind to Move to its pulsation Bass vibration, synth sensation Pause, it's not in place, see Mind and body must be free to Please, take it all in Nothing to lose, everything to win But it controls you, holds you, molds you Back to old or new Touch it, taste it Free your soul and let it face you Got to be what you wanna If the groove don't get ya The rifle's gonna I'm serious as cancer When I say, "Rhythm is a dancer" Rhythm is a dancer It's a soul's companion People feel it everywhere Lift your hands and voices Free your mind and join us You can feel it in the air Oh, it's a passion Oh, you can feel it in the air Oh, it's a passion Oh-oh-oh-oh Rhythm You can feel it People feel it Rhythm Rhythm is a dancer Rhythm You can feel it People feel it Rhythm Rhythm is a dancer
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aug 15, 1992 | 90 | 36 |
| 2 | Aug 22, 1992 | 89 | 37 |
| 3 | Aug 29, 1992 | 76 | 50 |
| 4 | Sep 5, 1992 | 62 | 64 |
| 5 | Sep 12, 1992 | 50 | 76 |
| 6 | Sep 19, 1992 | 39 | 87 |
| 7 | Sep 26, 1992 | 34 | 92 |
| 8 | Oct 3, 1992 | 22 | 104 |
| 9 | Oct 10, 1992 | 17 | 109 |
| 10 | Oct 17, 1992 | 16 | 110 |
| 11 | Oct 24, 1992 | 16 | 110 |
| 12 | Oct 31, 1992 | 9 | 117 |
| 13 | Nov 7, 1992 | 7 | 119 |
| 14 | Nov 14, 1992 | 7 | 119 |
| 15 | Nov 21, 1992 | 6 | 120 |
| 16 | Nov 28, 1992 | 7 | 119 |
| 17 | Dec 5, 1992 | 6 | 120 |
| 18 | Dec 12, 1992 | 7 | 119 |
| 19 | Dec 19, 1992 | 7 | 119 |
| 20 | Dec 26, 1992 | 6 | 120 |