Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Groove is in the Heart (1990)
I tend to write about a lot of alternative/indie rock, but I've always listened to a wide variety of music. Even when I was in my metalhead years, I could still appreciate a good pop song by Duran Duran or Janet Jackson. In 1990, I was still listening to hard rock, but also starting to broaden my interests by picking up albums by De La Soul, Digital Underground and Public Enemy.
As the '90s began, the '60s nostalgia of the previous few years was morphing into '70s nostalgia, which made the debut of Deee-Lite perfectly timed. The group was formed in 1986 in New York City by Lady Miss Kier (aka Kierin Kirby) on vocals and Supa DJ Dmitry (Dmitry Brill), playing at various New York clubs. The two bonded over a love of techno and funk and would play at hip hop and house clubs, and at gay and straight bars. Deee-Lite attracted very diverse crowds and opened for De La Soul and the Jungle Brothers.
In 1988, they were joined by DJ Towa Tei, who sent a demo tape and liked the same music as Kier and Dmitry. The began to work on an album, with Kier writing all the lyrics and melodies while Dmitry played guitar, keyboard and bass and Towa found samples. Funk legend Bootsy Collins joined the group during the recording sessions and introduced a lot of old-school funk sounds into the mix.
For their debut single, "Groove is in the Heart," the group piled on the samples: a bass line from Herbie Hancock's "Bring Down the Birds," drums and whistle from Vernon Burch's "Get Up" and sound effects from Ray Barreto's "Right On." These were the Wild West days of sampling, when anything went. De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising and the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique had just come out, with hundreds of samples on each. Eventually, artists would have to pay to use samples, but in 1990, it was still a free-for-all.
In addition to all the samples (which included Eva Gabor from the Green Acres theme song), the song also included three former Parliament Funkadelic members: Collins on bass, Maceo Parker on sax and Fred Wesley on trombone. And then they got Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest, which was about to blow up, to provide a kickass rap. There were a lot of moving parts, but they all fit together perfectly. And then there were Kier's confident, trippy vocals.
"The chills that you spill up my back keep me filled/With satisfaction when we're done/Satisfaction of what's to come/I couldn't ask for another/No, I couldn't ask for another/Your groove I do deeply dig/No walls, only the bridge/My supper dish, my succotash wish/I couldn't ask for another/No, I couldn't ask for another/Groove is in the heart/Groove is in the hear/Groove is in the heart/Groove is in the heart."
The video was an immediate hit, bringing that house music vibe that combined funk, disco and hip hop and practically commanded you to hit the dance floor. The look is psychedelic, with Kier and the others dancing against a background that could have fit in on "Laugh In" (look it up). All the dancers in the video were friends of the group from various NYC dance clubs. MTV played it constantly and honestly, I never got sick of it. In addition to Deee-Lite, the video prominently features Bootsy and Q-Tip, who drops 16 bars of hotness in the middle of the song.
"Some looks in this torse/Hot, got a deal, you wanna know/Delightful, truly delightful/Makin' it, doin' it, 'specially at a show/Feelin' kinda high like a Hendrix haze/Music makes motion, moves like a maze/All inside of me, heart especially/Hilt of the rhythm, where I wanna be/Flowin', glowin' with electric eyes/You dip to the dive, baby yo, realize/Baby, you see the funky side of me/Baby, you'll see that rhythm is the key/Get, get wit it, wit it, can't think, quit it, quit it/Stomp on the stoop when I hear a funk loop/Playin' Pied Piper, follow what's true/Baby, just sing about the groove!"
"Groove is in the Heart" was a huge hit at dance clubs, but it also went to #1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart and #4 on the Hot 100 singles chart. The U.K. single was heavily edited, removing Collins and Q-Tip entirely from the song. The group's debut album, World Clique, went gold; follow-up singles included "Power of Love" and "Good Beat," but they didn't come close to the impact of "Groove is in the Heart," which has been included on many lists of the top songs of the '90s.
The group's follow-up album, 1992's Infinity Within, didn't do as well as the debut, but it had two top 10 dance hits with "Runaway" and "Pussycat Meow." A third album, Dewdrops in the Garden, was released in 1994. Towa, who didn't like touring, left the group. Kier and Dmitry later ended their relationship and the group split up in 1995. Kier is still making music as a singer-songwriter and DJ, while Dmitry is also still active as a DJ. Towa released several albums as a solo artist and was in the Japanese group METAFIVE. Q-Tip went on to become one of the best rappers and hip hop producers of all time, both with A Tribe Called Quest and solo. And Bootsy, of course, remained Bootsy, which is very important.
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