THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

300-Chemical Brothers-Block Rockin’ Beats.

1997-Number 1 single.

Best Bit-At 3.10. Ed Simons left school with 11 ‘O’ levels, and three ‘A’ levels, Tom Rowlands achieved nine ‘O’ levels, and three ‘A’ levels, but I don’t know if any of them were for Chemistry.

The Chemical Brothers (see also best songs 53) are the Electronic Music duo of Ed Simons, who was born on June 9th, 1970, in Herne Hill, Lambeth, London, England, and Tom Rowlands who was born on January 11th, 1971, in Kingston upon Thames, London, England, the pair first met when both were studying at the University of Manchester in 1989. Prior to meeting Simons, Rowlands had been in a band called ‘Ariel’ who had issued a few tracks with little success, and Rowlands felt that the quality of their output was deteriorating. One of the last songs Ariel recorded was a song called ‘T Baby,’ which became the first joint remix by Simons and Rowlands, this was remixed by the duo using the name ‘Dust Brothers,’ in tribute to the American trio of E Z Mike, King Gizmo, and Matt Dike (1961-2018) who were the original ‘Dust Brothers, famed for their work with artists such as the Beastie Boys, and Beck. The Dust Brothers were not happy with Simons and Rowlands taking their name, but eventually came to an agreement. Simons and Rowlands eventually decided on ‘Chemical Brothers,’ which was taken from the title of one of their early songs called ‘Chemical Beats.’

‘Block Rockin’ Beats’ was co-written by Tom Rowlands ans Ed Simons, with Jesse Weaver who is better known by his stage name ‘Schooly D’ also receiving writing credit as he his vocals, and lyrics are used on the track. The song which was produced by the Chemical Brothers was the second single released from their second studio Album ‘Dig Your Own Hole’ from 1997, and as with the Albums first single release ‘Setting Sun’ it also reached Number 1 on the UK top 40 singles chart.

‘Block Rockin’ Beats’ can be filed under the genre of ‘Big Beat,’ which is music that normally consists of heavy and distorted drum beats, as well as synthesizers, and sampled loops of 1960’s, and 1970,’ Funk, Soul, Jazz, and Rock music. The genre was at it’s most popular during the later part of the 1990’s, and early part of the 2000’s. Other notable acts of the genre include The Prodigy, (see also best songs 925 and 151) and Fatboy Slim (see also best songs 760 and 95.)’Block Rockin’ Beats’ was put together from many clever samples. The drums are sampled from a 1973 song called ‘Changes’ which is a track on the ‘Shaft’ soundtrack, (see also best songs 398) and was played by Bernard Purdie. The vocals ‘Back with another one of those block rockin’ beats’ was lifted from the song ‘Gucci Again,’ by the American Rapper Schooly D, of whom fellow Rapper ‘Ice T’ has credited as a major influence on the development of ‘Gangsta Rap.’ Another prominent sample is the tracks bass line which was taken from the British band ’23 Skidoo’s song ‘Coup,’ from 1983. The opening bass riff on ‘Block Rockin’ Beats’ resembles the intro to Pink Floyd’s 1968 song ‘Let There Be More Light,’ while the bass sound has been sampled from The Crusaders 1974 song ‘The Well’s Gone Dry.’