Madonna, “Vogue” [Sire] (1990)
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If you’ve never heard a house record before, let Madonna be your gateway drug. Though Shep Pettibone had been producing house tracks with the Material Girl since her debut single, “Everybody,” this record thrust the genre itself into the spotlight. With its throbbing four-to-the-floor, piano countermelody, and expertly engineered backing vocals, “Vogue” made house music undeniably sexy — a legacy heard all the way through Beyoncé’s Renaissance. Though it’s since culturally strutted its way from the club into the pop cosmos, the house elements adorning this pop song are why “more than 30 years later, it remains an anthem of empowerment and self-expression.” — ZEL MCCARTHY
Chip E., “Time to Jack” [Underground] (1985)
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Generally cited as one of the first house records, “Time to Jack” came from the mind of Chip E., a Chicago-born DJ who was looking to stand out from his competitors by creating new sounds. Named after jacking, a freestyle dance move involving someone undulating their torso, “Time to Jack” arrived in 1985 and quickly inspired a legion of followers. Over a repetitive, staccato click and a wood-on-wood-sounding rhythm, a mechanical-but-sensual bass line unfolds, with a chopped-up call to action (“time to jack, jack you up”) and a sample of what sounds like an angry robot dog yapping its head off recurring throughout. Minimalist, hypnotic and effective, this is one of he essential songs around which the Chicago house scene would coalesce. — JOE LYNCH
David Morales, “Here I Am” (Kaskade Radio Edit) [DIRIDIM] (2005)
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By 2005, New York City house impresario David Morales already had four No. 1 Dance/Club Songs, Mariah and Whitney on speed dial, and the second-ever remixing Grammy (Frankie Knuckles won the first). San Francisco-based Kaskade, however, was still introducing himself with two LPs on Om Records and a musical point of view synonymous with the sumptuous sounds of burgeoning West Coast house. For his remix of Morales’s “Here I Am,” Kaskade backfills Tamra Keenan’s vocal with fresh lushness while remaining consummately respectful of the original, showcasing the potential of a legend inviting the new kid to the party. — Z.M.
Jürgen Paape, “So Weit Wie Noch Nie” [Kompakt] (2010)
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The masterpiece of microhouse, the minimalist mid-’00s subgenre that took over the blogs, if not quite the charts. German artist Jürgen Paape, co-founder and leading producer of the loaded Kompakt label, made his signature classic by chopping up a sample of Israeli singer Dalilah Lavi’s 1972 ballad “Vielleicht Schon Morgen” with a “Stand By Me” bass line, a rope-jumping beat and synths so shimmering you could see them from outer space — creating a mini-anthem as indelible and far-reaching as its title (which translates to “As Far as Never Before”) would suggest. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Peggy Gou, “(It Goes Like) Nanana” [XL Recordings] (2023)
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People have been using nonsense words to represent feelings too overwhelming to be described since at least the 19th century, but there’s something about dance music that lends itself particularly well to that practice – probably because dancing itself is an act of expression that transcends language and thought. Peggy Gou’s breakout hit, “(It Goes Like) Nanana,” paired her laid-back vocals with a seductive ’90s house truffle, instantly creating a new classic (not to mention a top five Hot Dance/Electronic Songs hit) that’s bursting with joy without ever losing its cool. — J.L.
Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa, “One Kiss” [Columbia/Sony] (2018)
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Nearly two decades after DJ Spiller and Sophie Ellis-Bextor picked up the torch of balearic house with “Groovejet,” Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa burn brightly on a slice of summery sonic seduction that “stings with humidity and sweat.” The consonance of “One Kiss” within the late-’10s pop landscape belies its house music framework, thwarting dance pop conventions. Lipa serves as decoy; while we’re entranced by her breezy vocals on verse and chorus, we don’t notice how the instrumental on each is identical. It’s the post chorus — a lyric-free instrumental of filtered horns — that shines as the true hook of the record. — Z.M.
Fusion Groove Orchestra, Steve Lucas, “If Only I Could” (Liem Remix) [Curious / Strictly Rhythm] (2016)
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YouTube rips of German producer Liem’s vinyl-only “If Only” began circulating on music discovery forums in 2015. Shrouded in shadows of peak EDM, the white label found a new generation of crate digging ravers hungry for house music. A digital version followed, released as a remix of original artist Fusion Groove Orchestra’s 1999 record “If Only I Could” featuring Steve Lucas, which is itself a cover of a 1989 tune by dance pop artist Sidney Youngblood. With his pristine vocals left undisturbed, Lucas shines as both star and soul of the record, singing a song of peace that transcends remixes and decades. — Z.M
Colette, “Feelin’ Hypnotized” [Om] (2005)
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Born and raised in Chicago, Colette emerged on the scene in house music’s hometown as a member of the all-female Superjane collective during the male-dominated vinyl era as a DJ who also sings live over records. After moving to Los Angeles in the early ’00s, Colette, along with Kaskade, Mark Farina, Miguel Migs, and Marques Wyatt defined a new West Coast house sound, heard on “Feelin’ Hypnotized.” With its layered vocals, soft harmonies, and rhythmic bass, Colette proves the theory that people listen to house music outside clubs too, embodying the dreaminess of California and house’s soulful roots in one record. — Z.M.
Groove Armada, “If Everybody Looked the Same” [Jive] (1999)
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To put electronica’s mainstream aspirations on the cusp of Y2K in perspective, for their sophomore album, Vertigo, UK big beat duo Groove Armada were effectively Jive Records labelmates with Britney Spears. While the genre’s takeover never fully materialized, a few outliers crossed over. Lead single “If Everybody Looked the Same” didn’t sync into as many car commercials as successor “I See You Baby,” but with a sample of A Tribe Called Quest’s “1nce Again” (also on Jive Records), a quintessentially ’90s refrain about celebrating our differences, and a few pointed stabs of acid, GA brought house to the electronica rave. — Z.M.
Moodymann, “Don’t You Want My Love” [Peacefrog] (2000)
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When asked in 2010 how he’s managed to last, Moodymann replied: “A lot of people, after work, you go home, you take a bath… I go home and I f–k that motherf–king MPC all f–king night.” That devotion has fueled decades of house classics from the iconic Detroit producer born Kenny Dixon Jr., including “Don’t You Want My Love” from his 2000 album Forevernevermore. Wielding his ace sampling skills, Moody flips The Crusaders’ “Spiral” from 1976 into a smoldering disco-house joint that’s both raw and romantic, its loop-heavy groove topped with Norma Jean Bell’s yearning refrain and the distant roar of a dance floor. An intimate moment turned celebratory and communal — or is it the other way around? — KRYSTAL RODRIGUEZ
Julio Bashmore, “Au Seve” [Broadwalk] (2012)
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Julio Bashmore may be from Bristol, but he’s got Chicago House in his soul. His catalog is full of smooth, sensual and emotive melodies laid gently over brilliantly bouncing beats, but this tune from 2012 may be the crown jewel of his achievement. Delightfully dark with a steady beat, its immediately recognizable melody moves between moody basslines and shimmering synth notes. Even if you’ve never heard it before, it calls back so well to classic house style that it feels altogether somehow familiar. It took the house world by storm upon its release, shooting Bashmore to the top of his peer class, and it’s still getting dropped in sets by discerning DJs who know a good weapon when they hear one. — KAT BEIN
Everything But the Girl, “Missing” (Todd Terry Remix) [Atlantic] (1995)
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If you were alive and consciously aware between 1994 and 1996, this house remix of a Everything But the Girl’s soulful ballad was practically inescapable. NYC hero Todd Terry added a bright house rhythm and turned the overlooked song into an international dance-pop smash. The burning heartache remains, but now, club goers could bounce to its beautiful sadness. Two years after its release, the remix pushed its way to No. 2 on the Hot 100, and today, its pulsing softness and unforgettable vocal hook seems to define the sound of its decade. That’s the power of a good remix. — K. Bein
Kings of Tomorrow, “Finally” [Big Beat] (2001)
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At once a love song and a meditation on the nature of time itself, this 2001 classic by Kings of Tomorrow — the production duo that in 2001 was made up of Sandy Rivera and Jay “Sinister” Sealée — bumps along on a funky and indelible bassline, with its heart and soul coming via vocals from North Carolina singer Julie McKnight. A Dance Club Songs chart hit upon its release in the Y2K era, “Finally” got a fresh look in 2024 when Swedish House Mafia (such house heads, after all, that they named themselves after the genre) released their own take on the song with vocals from Alicia Keys. — KATIE BAIN
Maya Jane Coles, “What They Say” [Real Tone] (2010)
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The 2010 single from an EP by the same name, “What They Say” casts a spell, keeping things hauntingly minimal and thus ultimately more powerful. The descending synth melody plucks itself over and over against a steady house beat and a shifting landscape of background sounds. The “D’you know” vocal perking up now and again gives the ear something to cling to, and with all that, enough is said.
Made by the London producer when she was 21 years old, on its own the track is a darkly beautiful groove, a real late-at-night hummer. But its simplicity also made it a canvas for mainstream artists to embrace: Its sonic influence can be heard on Katy Perry’s 2017 “Swish Swish” and on Lady Gaga and Blackpink’s 2020 “Sour Candy,” but it was also straight-up sampled, slowed down and flipped into one of the hottest hip-hop tracks of 2014 for Nicki Minaj’s “Truffle Butter” with Drake and Lil Wayne, which reached No. 14 on the Hot 100 and brought Maya Jane Coles to the masses. How’s that for sayin’ something? — K. Bein
Steve “Silk” Hurley, “Jack Your Body” [Underground] (1986)
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Success often comes when you least expect it, and Chicago house pioneer Steve “Silk” Hurley never saw this hit coming. The producer/DJ was hard at work, struggling to finish his album Hold on to Your Dream on deadline when this lead single was released in 1986. He never promoted the track, and yet its funky, Roland-based rhythm was so joyfully undeniable, standing out as an excitingly alien sound from the glossy style of disco dance hits, that it shot to the top of the UK Singles Chart and become an essential at DJ sets at clubs worldwide. It was the first house music song to top the English charts, and it went on to inspire the country’s acid house obsession. (It reached No. 25 on the Hot Dance/Disco Club Play chart, too.) Nearly 40 years later, its influence has hardly diminished, and it’s revered as the song that brought house music around the world. — K. Bein
Jayda G, “Both of Us” [Ninja Tune] (2020)
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Unfolding like a handwritten love note, Jayda G’s Grammy-nominated “Both of Us” arrived in the summer of 2020, when the concept of convening with other people on a dancefloor was both distant memory and far-off fantasy. In lieu of a typical bridge, the track’s midpoint offers a temporary slowdown, with Jayda’s vocals opining “I just want to be with you” over six feet-apart handclaps — an earnest expression reflecting both the moment and a universal human experience. Before long, she and co-producer Fred again.. drop the piano again and bring the beat back, evincing the enduring promise of house music itself. — Z.M.
Phuture, “Acid Tracks” [Trax] (1987)
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The Roland TB-303 was meant to mimic live instruments, and when Phuture member Spanky started pressing buttons, he thought he was gonna get a bass guitar sound. What came out of the machine sounded nothing like a bass guitar, however, so he started pressing more buttons. Thankfully, his Phuture bandmates DJ Pierre and Earl Smith Jr. liked the weird noises and told him to keep it going. It was a happy accident, because the resulting “Acid Tracks” became a foundational tune in the burgeoning acid house movement.
The song’s dark, brooding beat and futuristic bleeps was a wildly new sound — so new that it cleared the dance floor when DJ Pierre debuted the track at the club. Instead of giving up, he played it again later on in the set — then again, then again, and again. By the end of the night, the crowd was going nuts, dancing harder than ever for this surreal new style, and a new era of house music was born. — K. Bein
Masters At Work feat. India, “To Be In Love” [Defected] (1997)
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Louie Vega and Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez are among house music’s most influential duos, revolutionizing the genre through a football team’s worth of joint and individual projects including Masters at Work, Nuyorican Soul, Hardrive and The Bucketheads. But even in a career stacked with anthems, “To Be In Love” glows. The track’s smooth, soulful groove is elevated by India (the voice of multiple MAW and co. hits), whose performance is sweet and tender, even when she roars with passion. A Top 10 hit on the UK Dance Chart upon its initial 1997 release, “To Be in Love” also helped cement the then-fledgling Defected Records as a label powerhouse in its very first year. — K.R.
Kaytranada feat. Kali Uchis “10%” [RCA] (2019)
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Though already well-established within the North American underground beat scene, Montreal’s Kaytranada achieved a career breakthrough with his sophomore LP, Bubba. After releasing without much advance hype at the end of 2019, the electronic R&B set opened at no. 1 on the Top Dance Albums chart. Lead single “10%” features a performance from L.A. chanteuse Kali Uchis, a percussion sample from classic Philadelphia disco trio First Choice and a slinking bassline from Kaytra himself. The project earned him two Grammys, a Juno and the distinction of producing the only house record that makes singing about commission payments sound sexy. — Z.M.
Danny Tenaglia & Celeda, “Music Is the Answer (Dancin’ and Prancin’)” [Twisted America] (1998)
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One of house’s most storied DJs enjoyed a signature club hit with “Music Is the Answer,” a song that explicitly presents itself as and its kind as the solution to all of life’s problems, just as long as you keep dancin’ and prancin’, groovin’ and movin’. It may not be immediately convincing in its argument, but as it keeps adding layers — a piano here, an organ there, a cut-up vocal loop seemingly everywhere — singer Celeda seems less like a huckster and more like a prophet, giving you the one right and true answer to a question you can’t remember if you ever asked in the first place. — A.U.
Floorplan, “We Give Thee Honor” [Classic Music Company] (2023)
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Though the dancefloor’s potential for spiritual transcendence is widely accepted (and the joke about what DJs and preachers have in common is well-known), spirituality doesn’t often get as explicit as it does on Floorplan’s 2023 stomper, “We Give Thee Honor.” The father-daughter duo of Robert and Lyric Hood bring church to the club where the sermon is an unfettered ode to joy by way of house music’s most cherished elements: organ stabs and soulful vocals. Produced with the trademark Hood family techno precision, the track is testimony, offering believers a new sub-genre of praise music without ever leaving the rave. — Z.M.
Disclosure, “When a Fire Starts to Burn” [Island] (2013)
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The Lawrence brothers famously lifted the vocals for this one from an impassioned address by motivational speaker and minister Eric Thomas, morphing the meaning of “fire” from climbing the success ladder to lighting up the dancefloor. (Thomas himself got in on the fun by appearing in the song’s revival-style music video.) By the time “When a Fire Starts to Burn” was released as a single in May of 2013, audiences had already been spectacularly introduced to Disclosure via the duo’s debut single “Latch.” But “When a Fire Starts to Burn” — the fourth single from Disclosure’s 2013 blockbuster debut album Settle — firmly placed the U.K. pair as new-gen arbiters of garage-leaning house music, and not only because Howard and Guy they were 19 and 22 years old, respectively, when the album was released. With Settle and this its call-to-arms opening track, the brothers injected a shot of classic house into a dance scene then up to its eyeballs in EDM, bridging the gap between eras and showing broader possibilities to the kandi kids. — K. Bain
Julie McDermott & Gerd Janson, “Don’t Go” (Gerd Janson Re-Work) [Cr2] (2018)
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German house producer Gerd Janson’s 2018 “Don’t Go” orients our ears around Julie McDermott’s vocals from a 1996 track by Third Dimension. That track samples “Unique” by Danube Dance, an early career project of eventual Grammy-winner and circuit party mainstay Peter Rauhofer (which includes vocals from Siedah Garrett’s “K.I.S.S.I.N.G.”) and was itself a cover of a 1992 record by U.K. live dance band Awesome 3, also called “Don’t Go,” which clips a drum loop from Madchester rock legends The Stone Roses. Still, from the opening 30 seconds of percussion, it’s Janson who establishes control here, flexing the improbable powers house music summons through sampling. — Z.M.
The Bucketheads, “The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall Into My Mind)” [Positiva/Henry Street Music] (1995)
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Disco? In 1995? Yes, and NYC house producer/DJ Kenny Dope’s group The Bucketheads’ perfected the revivalist formula with this perfect sampling of Chicago’s 1978 hit “Street Player.” It feels like someone jacked their childhood memory of the Chicago original, looped it over a jackin’ house beat and dropped it right into the block party. Originally released as a B-side, “The Bomb!” quickly became the star, fast-tracking its way up global charts and sinking its bright horns into the soul of dancers around the world. Dope, who’s also one half of Masters at Work with Louie Vega, owns more than 50,000 vinyl records and some 6,000 or so CDs, so his crate digging skills are proven, and with this hit, he showed that he could turn a classic into a classic for a whole new generation. — K. Bein
Andrés, “New For U” [La Vida] (2012)
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A veteran of Detroit’s underground, Andrés scored an international breakthrough with 2012’s “New For U.” One listen and it’s apparent: a warm, nostalgic groove that sparkles like sun on the sea; an intimate, murmuring refrain; but it’s the strings — those strings! — that immediately pull you into its gorgeous orbit. Sampled from Dexter Wansel’s “Time Is the Teacher,” they lift the disco-house track into eyes-closed orchestral bliss, while dusty drums and a subtle, rolling bassline keep you from floating away entirely. DJs rinsed “New For U” to near-ubiquity, but the track never lost its magic, becoming a modern house classic. — K.R.
Alison Limerick, “Where Love Lives” [Arista] (1990)
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It’s hard to imagine a record as cherished as Alison Limerick’s “Where Love Lives” could ever be forgotten, but for the singer herself, it almost was. “I just went in and sang the song with no expectations of where it might lead,” Limerick told Larry Flick in 1992 for his Billboard column Dance Trax. The session stayed out of mind until Arista Records made plans to release it as Limerick’s debut single. A remix from Frankie Knuckles and David Morales amped up “one of the sturdiest and most buoyant piano riffs in house history,” keeping the love alive ever since. — Z.M.
Joe Smooth, “Promised Land” [D.J. International] (1987)
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An all-time classic from one of the genre’s most essential pioneers, “Promised Land” sounds like it could have been a deep house revamp of a lost gospel song or a dance version of a hippie anthem from the Summer of Love. Not correct, but not too far off.
Smooth’s composition was written in the spirit of ‘60s Motown, gently laying out a hope for a better future. The lyrics “Brothers, sisters/ One day we will be free/ From fighting, violence, people crying in the streets” distill a desire that is sadly eternally relevant, and in 1987, it certainly clicked with downtown Chicago listeners (it also became a big hit in apartheid South Africa). A lovely, lush tapestry of ambient synths, driving beats and church harmonizing, “Promised Land” is the rare anthem for togetherness and peace that never feels cloying or naïve — perhaps because the weariness in the lead vocal (from Anthony Thomas) reminds you that where we are right now is far from the promised land. — J.L.
A Guy Called Gerald, “Voodoo Ray” [Rham!/Warlock] (1988)
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Cooked up by A Guy Called Gerald (Gerald Simpson) when he was still part of 808 State, “Voodoo Ray” is just as important to the development of acid house and the Manchester scene as that group’s “Pacific,” which dropped a year later. This 1988 track is also a much weirder. The squelching sound that characterized acid house was often intense and confrontational, but in this Guy’s hands, it’s quirky, curious and even childlike. Toss in a wordless wail (perhaps inspired by his Pentecostal mother), clipped audio sample from a Bo Diddley comedy sketch (from comedy duo Dudley Moore and Peter Cook, of all people) and some plinky steel drum-sounding synths (Simpson grew up with his dad’s reggae and ska LPs) and you have a potent reminder that it’s okay to be playful when playing house. — J.L.
808 State, “Pacific State” [ZTT] (1989)
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As a genre name, “ambient house” sounds like it could be a marriage of dance music and recordings of wildlife noises people use to relax, and to be fair, that’s kind of what this 1989 classic from 808 State is. Opening with soft yet arresting ambient chords, “Pacific State” expands to include a smooth, pensive sax solo, a trilling call from a wild loon, dexterous bass lines and a quietly relentless beat. “Pacific State” (also known as “Pacific,” “Pacific 202” and “Pacific 707” depending on the edit) puts the listener in a state that feels passive yet active, relaxed yet mobile – no wonder if remains the ultimate chill-out dance tune by which all others are measured, and remains the incalculably influential Manchester band’s best loved song. — J.L.
CeCe Peniston, “Finally” [A&M] (1991)
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CeCe Peniston was just 21 when she went into the studio to sing backup vocals for another artist and ended up recording a song of her own based on a poem she’d written in school. Raised on gospel music in Arizona, Peniston put every ounce of that genre’s sense of elation and liberation into “Finally,” growling and belting her way through the ecstatic, soulful pop-house banger about finding love at long last.
Co-produced by her pal Felipe “DJ Wax Dawg” Delgago and Philip Kelsey, it was an immediate hit upon its release in late 1991; “Finally” topped the Dance Club Songs chart and hit No. 5 on the Hot 100, a huge feat at a time when house music had become omnipresent at the clubs but was still seen as a bit of a fad in the pop world. An undying classic (in any genre) that’s lost none of its appeal or potency over the decades, “Finally” made it finally clear to onlookers that the impact of house on mainstream pop was just getting started. — J.L.
River Ocean & La India “Love & Happiness (Yemeya Y Ochùn)” [Strictly Rhythm] (1994)
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Here Louie Vega performs as River Ocean alongside La India, the Puerto Rican artist who’d go on to become “La Princesa de la Salsa” but who in 1994 was working in dance music, and who was also Vega’s wife. The couple got together in the late ’80s and remained a couple until 1996, in that time creating one of the high points of house with “Love & Happiness (Yemeya Y Ochùn).” While a flurry of edits were released, the one to focus on is the nine-minute, 50-second version, which layers up bird calls, loads of hand percussion, a chorus of backup singers chanting in the ritualistic lexicon of Lucumí, a bassline, a kickdrum, chimes, piano and a tapestry of other instrumentation, all to hold La India’s ribbon of a voice, which bends and soars as she urges that “you’ve just got to believe there is love and happiness” as part of swirling, ecstatic production that’s no doubt made millions of listeners believe in both. — K. Bain
Adonis, “No Way Back” [Trax] (1986)
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Adonis’ “No Way Back” marked a new path forward for house music. The 1986 single, which the Chicago producer made when he was 19 years old, is considered the originator of the genre’s fizzy sibling, acid house, defined by its use of the Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer. Whereas house music is often described as being soulful and uplifting, “No Way Back” is the opposite: cold, detached, almost dystopian, its lyrics monotoning as if in a trance, “Release my soul/ I’ve lost control/ Too far gone/ Ain’t no way back.” The single put words to dance music’s escapist tendencies, and its rousing success helped put its label, Trax Records, on the map (which later became a point of major grievance for the producer). Despite dropping nearly forty years ago, it still sounds futuristic today. — K.R.
Lil’ Louis & The World, “French Kiss (The Original Underground Mix)” [Diamond Records] (1989)
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Lil Louis’ “French Kiss” might be one of house music’s most erotic tracks, the genre at its most visceral. Halfway through the near ten-minute odyssey, a woman’s moaning emerges while the beat slows to a seductive, anticipatory crawl before winding back up. In a 1995 interview, the Chicago producer illustrated its success: “We had to throw two people out of the club for having sex during the song, so I knew I had something magical.” Despite its NSFW nature, which still scandalizes today’s radio airwaves, “French Kiss” topped the Billboard dance charts and became a global crossover hit, peaking at No. 50 on the Hot 100 and eventually landing Lil Louis a major-label deal. It’s since been sampled by artists from dance divas Kylie Minogue and Robyn to rapper Lil Kim, the latter of whom fully leaned into its carnality. — K.R.
Ultra Naté & Mood II Swing, “Free” (Mood II Swing Radio Edit) [Strictly Rhythm] (1997)
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Mood II Swing were protégés of none other than Masters At Work, spending time in the studio with the latter pair’s Kenny Dope and Louie Vega. Makes sense then that the duo, Lem Springsteen and John Ciafone, came up with such a hit as 1997’s “Free” a collaboration with vocal titan and Dance Club Songs chart regular Ultra Naté, who delivers style and soul to the bumping self determination anthem. “You’re freeee, to do what you want to do!” Naté insists on the track, which was released on her 1998 album Situation: Critical and became its biggest and most enduring hit.
But before the song became a classic, and in fact even before it was released, it got a lift from an influential friend when Vega took a test pressing down to Miami Music Week 1997 and played it during one of the Magic Sessions parties he co-hosted with a spate of other DJs.
“As soon as I play the record that night, it starts getting a reaction,” Vega told Billboard in August. “I was like, ‘Oh, wow. Okay.’ By the time it got to the second chorus, the whole crowd was singing the hook. We were like, ‘This record is a hit. I think I played it four or five times that night… The next thing you know it became a huge anthem, and a pop hit in England.” — K. Bain
Jungle Brothers, “I’ll House You” [Warlock] (1988)
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New York City trio Jungle Brothers crafted an early hip-hop classic with their 1988 debut Straight Out the Jungle, which aside from pioneering jazz influences and Afrocentrism in rap, gave the world one of the first “hip-house” records with “I’ll House You.”
The last song recorded for the album, Afrika Baby Bam told Babystep Magazine in 2020 of the pioneering song’s innocuous start: “We went to the studio one day after school… the sound engineer randomly turned to us and asked, ‘Do you guys wanna do a house record?’ We just jumped right in and said yes.” Tossing on “Can You Party” by Royal House (a group headed by Todd Terry), the Jungle Brothers delivered a clever wordplay, taking the phrase literally (“Girl, I’ll house you / you in my hut now”) while bringing their anything-goes, creatively freewheeling hip-hop to bear on house music. Hip-house didn’t become quite as much of a “thing” as, say, rap-rock, but with this record, the Jungle Brothers reminded listeners that fusion flavors are often some of the tastiest. — J.L.
Armand Van Helden feat. Duane Harden, “You Don’t Know Me” [Armed] (1998)
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House’s quintessential F-off anthem comes from the ever cool and always timeless Armand Van Helden, here working in partnership with vocalist Duane Harden.
The story goes that in 1998, Van Helden summoned Harden to his New York studio so the pair could make something together. The guys first selected the song’s beating heart of a sample, the string section from 1979’s funk heater “Dance With You” from artist Carrie Lewis. Van Helden then left the studio to go have dinner with his girlfriend, tasking Harden with writing the vocals.
“Before he left, Armand gave me these f–kin’ rules,” Harden told Journeys In Artistry. “He said, ‘I don’t want it about love, I don’t want it about romance,’ rules like that. So I wrote what I wrote — in fifteen minutes the song was written. Then I had to wait for him to come back from dinner. When he did, he said, ‘Okay, what you wrote?’ I showed him the song and he said like, ‘Okay now we’re going to record.’”
Incredibly, Harden had had never recorded in a studio before, having only formally sung in a church choir and the school choir at Boston University. While Harden (who was at the time working as a computer engineer) was thus anxious while recording with Van Helden, genre royalty by 1998, you simply cannot tell from the finished product. “You Don’t Know Me” finds him telling the haters exactly that in a tone both rich, silky and deliciously dismissive. Van Helden pairs these biting lyrics with his own cutty, funky, looping production, creating a song that still dunks on the haters with so much style and swagger that even they can’t help but love it. — K. Bain
Cajmere feat. Dajae, “Brighter Days” [Cajual] (1992)
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“Ooh, oh, I need! Ooh, oh, I need!” Chicago house vocal legend Dajae teases in the build-up on this club classic from Cajmere. The payoff comes when the singer declares exactly what she’s after — “briiiighter days!” 33 years after this song’s release that sentiment remains extremely true, with everything else about this one from Green Velvet’s house alias also still sounding as fresh as the era in which it was released. A Dance Club Songs No. 2 hit, the soulful, swaggering track helped proliferate a new wave of Chicago house while establishing Cajmere as an essential arbiter of the sound — a title the artist maintains to this day. — K. Bain
Crystal Waters, “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)” [Mercury] (1991)
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Sending the iconic Korg M1 organ synth sound overground in 1991, Crystal Waters’ “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)” was a global smash that served listeners a little empathy along with their endorphin rush, asking dancefloor-dwellers to consider the less-fortunate outside the club: just like you and me, but unhoused. Considering the popular parodies it received from In Living Color and Uncanny Alliance, perhaps its message was not universally heeded, but the intention still gives “Gypsy Woman” an emotional resonance beyond its still-unshakeable la-da-di hooks. — A.U.
Kerri Chandler, “You Are In My System” [Ibadan] (1998)
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Technically, “You Are in My System” is a remake of The System’s early-’80s R&B hit, but New Jersey deep-house legend Kerri Chandler undeniably made the song his own. From the original’s bubbly electro-funk, Chandler brings rich piano chords to the forefront, and louder, crisper vocals take the feeling from merely declarative to urgently devotional — like keeping that love to yourself for one second longer might bust your chest wide open, Alien-style, until the kick brings sweet release. Add a Mariana Trench-diving bassline, flashes of horns, and sweeping strings, and you’ve got something close to heaven. Scroll the YouTube comments, and you’ll find listeners sharing when and where they heard it, and what DJ dropped it, like a visitor log in clubland. “You Are in My System” has been sampled and even updated by Chandler over the years, but no version comes close to this. — K.R.
Daft Punk, “One More Time” [Virgin] (2000)
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A rumor goes that Daft Punk produced “One More Time” in their home studio, then sat on it for two years before releasing it, just because they wanted to make sure it was a timeless sound. Whether that’s urban legend or fact, the result remains the same: Daft Punk’s “One More Time” is an all-time favorite and a classic that spans generations.
In late 2000, when the song first dropped, it signaled a huge shift for the duo — not only one of sound, but of image. Daft Punk went from underground house and techno darlings to mainstream superstars with a bright, disco-influenced sound widely becoming known as French Touch. The shift was jarring for a lot of die-hard fans, but it ushered in a new chapter of dance music for France and the world. Meanwhile, the camera-avoidant members of the group evolved from wearing bags over their heads in interviews to sporting full-on robot suits, a transition that has become so iconic that your grandma could likely pick them out of a lineup.
It’s now been 25 years since this song was put out (and maybe 27 since it was made), and it still sounds like the past, present and future at once. Timeless? It seems we all agree. — K. Bein
Barbara Tucker, “I Get Lifted (The Bar Dub)” [Strictly Rhythm] (1994)
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It’s rare that a dub version of a record outshines its original, but talents like vocalist/house diva Barbara Tucker and producer Louie Vega are rarities themselves. For the version of “I Get Lifted” that became a No. 1 hit, Vega added a pair of chords played on a Roland Juno 106 he called the duck sounds (for their “quack quack” essence). He asked Tucker to revisit the studio to lay down additional vocal adlibs —including the luh luh luhs descending down a scale — expanding her vocal presence throughout the record, like a diva deserves to be, and thus raising a house classic. — Z.M.
Inner City, “Good Life” [Virgin] (1998)
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Advertising house music not just as a good time but as a good all-around way of life, Inner City devised one of dance’s foundational musical texts by making the genre sound like absolute heaven on earth, a place where all worldly concerns melt away in a rush of breathy vocals, syncopated pianos and exclamation-mark whistles. “Just don’t say no,” singer Paris Grey insists — but she can ease up on the hard sell, she already had us at the opening synths. — A.U.
Stardust, “Music Sounds Better With You” [Roulé] (1998)
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What is the overall message of house music? Like, if you had to point to an all-encompassing thesis, what does house music stand for and mean? It’s togetherness, right? It’s community. It’s sharing joy on a dance floor, finding your people, creating and holding space.
If that’s the case, Stardust’s 1998 classic “Music Sounds Better With You” is the epitomization of the ethos, the truest feeling of the genre distilled into four-and-a-half minutes of repetitive bliss, encapsulating the feeling of the best night ever spent with the best people in your life. It takes a few seconds of Chaka Khan’s 1981 song “Fate,” spins it over a heavy four-on-the-floor, glazes the whole thing with gritty synth sounds and tops it with a vocal cherry. Benjamin Diamond sings the heart of the mission: music is better with you and with love, love brings us together, it feels good to be alive. It’s simple and perfect, like when a chef takes great ingredients, doesn’t do all that much to them and lets them shine.
Of course, that’s the defining characteristic of French Touch, and seeing as how Stardust is composed of two genres of the icon in Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter and DJ Alan Braxe, it stands to reason that this remains one of the genre’s best exports. — K. Bein
Frankie Knuckles & Jamie Principle, “Your Love” [Trax] (1989)
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The most famous work by Godfather of House Music Frankie Knuckles was really more of a team effort, with the song originally composed and recorded by Chicago singer and producer Jamie Principle and with significant contributions — including the song’s beyond-iconic arpeggiated intro — provided by Windy City DJ Mark “Hot Rod” Trollan. The unusual mix of artistic voices perhaps explains the song’s singular haunted-disco vibe, a dancefloor lust anthem that sounds like it should be soundtracking a Friday the 13th movie, equally sublime and unnerving. It’s a song whose jackhammer synths and drilling bass you can feel digging under your skin as you’re listening — so it’s no surprise it burrowed as deep as it did into dance music’s very DNA, to the point where there are kids today whose parents weren’t even old enough for it the first time still ripping it off without realizing. — A.U.
Robin S., “Show Me Love” [Champion] (1993)
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One of the most unkillable songs in dance music history, “Show Me Love” keeps popping up in club and pop culture every few years because its combination of skyscraping vocals and subterranean sonics has still never been equaled. Robin S.’s yearning, world-weary-but-not-yet-cynical demand for actions that speak louder than words was plenty heart-piercing and soul-elevating in the song’s original 1990 form, but it was the 1992 StoneBridge remix — with its pulse-skipping beat and creeping-doubt synth-bass echo — that brought it urgency, making it sound like its singer was actively racing against the clock to find those wanting hands she so craved. The final blend is eerie, euphoric, heartbreaking and life-affirming, an emotional compound that only totally makes sense once ignited and exploded by the catharsis of the dancefloor. — A.U.
Mr. Fingers, “Can You Feel It” (1986)
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In 1984, Chicago musician Larry “Mr. Fingers” Heard wrote and recorded raw prototypes that would change dance music forever: “Mystery of Love” and “Can You Feel It.” Using a Roland Juno-60 synthesizer and a TR-909 drum machine, he dabbled until it felt right, before laying the songs down on tape. An endless groove grounded by a deep bassline and propelling percussion, and sent soaring via lush, stretched-out chords, the song was less about chasing perfection than it was chasing a feeling. As Heard told The Guardian in 2017, “That’s what you want the person on the opposite side of the booth to do, to feel something.”
Released at a time when house music was still defining itself, Heard’s production showed the genre didn’t need peaktime flash to make an impact. “Can You Feel It” became the blueprint for deep house, influencing generations of producers with its timeless, meditative groove. — K.R.
Paul Johnson, “Get Get Down” [Moody] (1999)
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By the time Paul Johnson released his bouncy chart-topping banger “Get Get Down” in 1999, he already had over a decade of releases under his belt, representing his hometown of Chicago as part of the first wave of house DJs after Frankie Knuckles. In North America and around the world, Johnson embodied the grit and joy of the Chicago scene. He was even namechecked as a legend by the next generation via Daft Punk in their 1997 encomium “Teachers.”
Though he was a true head to his core, he frequently dabbled in sounds beyond house, including hip-hop and R&B. In some ways, “Get Get Down” is a synthesis of all these influences, excising a bassline from a track by ’70s soul/funk artist Hamilton Bohannan, pitching it up, adding a piano loop that alternates exclusively between tonic and fifth chords, and a vocal loop that relies solely on the two words of the title to create an indelibly catchy floor-filler and one of house music’s defining and enduring classics. — Z.M.
Marshall Jefferson, “The House Music Anthem (Move Your Body)” [Trax] (1986)
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Marshall Jefferson was working nights at a Chicago post office when he gave house music its first true anthem — a distinction so obvious that he just named the song that. The song was made in 1985 when, high on inspiration, Jefferson dragged a few coworkers into his studio, banged out a track in six hours, and left convinced he’d made something special. His friends disagreed, and even fellow DJs gave him a polite shrug, but Jefferson pushed on.
To be fair, pianos had rarely, if ever, been featured in a house track at that time, but inspired by Elton John’s tickling of the ivories, Jefferson went all in on “Move Your Body,” sending riffs tumbling into a tough, sweaty groove with piano stabs and rapidfire percussion. Above it all, vocalist Curtis McClain issued a joyful command — “Gimme that house music to set me free! / Lost in house music! Is where I wanna be!” — that doubled as a notice of the genre’s arrival.
Where Jefferson’s friends saw doubt, DJ Ron Hardy saw potential and immediately played the song six times in a row during a set at The Music Box in Chicago, to rousing crowd approval. Local jocks got their hands on a copy, and by the time “The House Music Anthem (Move Your Body)” officially released on Trax Records (again, under dubious circumstances) in 1986, the craze had spread overseas, the dawn of Chicago’s house sound growing into a global movement.
Jefferson may have presciently given his own single the subtitle of “The House Music Anthem,” but the song has surely earned it. It hasn’t stayed frozen in time, either: Jefferson’s 2019 collaboration with Solardo brought it roaring back to festival stages, while the 2025 rework “Life Is Simple (Move Your Body)” with Maesic and Salomé Das introduced it to yet another generation.
Forty years on, the song still calls, and dance floors still enthusiastically answer. — K.R.