THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

138-Dizzee Rascal and Armand van Helden-Bonkers.

2009-Number 1 single.

Best Bit-At 1.01. During the 2008 U.S. Presidential elections Dizzee Rascal gave a live interview to Jeremy Paxman on the BBC2 television programme Newsnight. At one point Paxman addressed his interviewee as ‘Mr Rascal’….now that’s ‘Bonkers!’

Dizzee Rascal MBE (see also best songs 652) was born Dylan Kwabena Mills on September 18th, 1984, in London, England, his father who was Nigerian died when he was very young leaving his Ghanaian mother Priscilla to bring him up in a single parent family. Mills had a troubled childhood, and was expelled from four schools, about which he has said,’I had issues as a kid. I was violent and disruptive. The way my mum helped was by finding me a different school every time I got kicked out, always fighting to keep me in the school system. He received part of his stage name from one of his teachers who would call him ‘Rascal,’ which stuck with him through school. In 2020 he was appointed ‘Member of the Order of the British Empire’ (MBE) in the’ Birthday Honours’ for services to music. The discography of Dizzee Rascal includes seven studio Albums released between 2003-2020, and 32 singles issued between 2003-2020, of which 26 have made the UK top 40, with six of those including him featuring on two charity singles, having reached the Number 1 spot.

Armand van Helden was born on February 16th, 1970, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, he is one of ‘House Music’s’ leading figures, and has been remixing tracks for other artists since 1990, as well as writing and producing for himself and others. His major breakthrough occurred in 1996 when he remixed the song ‘Professional Widow,’ which went to Number 1 in the UK in January 1997 for the American singer Tori Amos. He would also top the UK chart again in 1999 with ‘You Don’t Know Me,’ which featured the vocals of Duane Harden. Armand van Helden has released nine studio Albums between 1996-2016, and 62 singles. He has released music under 12 different stage names including as one half of the duo ‘Duck Sauce,’ who had great success with their ‘Dance Music’ track called ‘Barbra Streisand’ in 2010.

‘Bonkers’ was co-written by Dizzee Rascal, (lyrics) and Armand van Helden who provided the music, and was the second single released from Dizzee Rascal’s fourth studio Album ‘Tongue n’ Cheek’ from 2009. Dizzee Rascal has explained how his collaboration with Armand van Helden came about,’Armand approached me and sent me an email saying he wanted to work together, as soon as I heard the name I was on to it. The song came with the ‘bonkers’ bit on it so it was almost a no-brainer for me, the song needed to be about being bonkers.’

‘I wake up everyday it’s a daydream, everythin’ in my life ain’t what it seems. I wake up just to go back to sleep, I act real shallow but I’m in too deep.’