Woo-hoo, clap your hands. Dancing to popular music is rarely an edifying spectacle. Maybe that’s why Ballroom and Latin have made such a strong comeback – watching people dance properly reminds us it is an art form more honoured in the breach than the observance.
Here is a straight quiz on foot-tappers and hip-shakers: artists and songs that make you get up on your feet, dance to the beat and strut your funky stuff. Get your dancing shoes on.
Answers: here
1 Which famous Manchester nightclub of the late eighties and early ninetines was an integral part of the northwest music scene? Which band were part owners of the club?
2 Fatboy Slim’s ‘Going Out of My Head’ sampled the guitar riff and vocals from a cover of which Who song? Which 1996 Fatboy album was the single taken from?
3 The Blue Notes, then Thelma Houston, then the Communards; what’s the song? Which 1977 Baccara hit pinched its bassline?
4 ‘Don’t Call Me Baby’ went number one in the UK after doing well on the club circuit around the millennium. Who were the band, and where were they from?
5 Whose work on Happy Mondays remixes led to him producing their 1990 album, Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches? What divine London dance club lies in the arches under Charing Cross station?
6 Who co-wrote Scissor Sisters’ only UK number one, ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’’, with the band? On which album did the song feature?
7 ‘More Than a Woman’ (Tavares), ‘Boogie Shoes’ (K.C. and the Sunshine Band) and ‘Disco Inferno’ (the Trammps) all owe some of their success to which seventies soundtrack? Which song off the same album gave Yvonne Elliman a US number one?
8 Who helped with the mixing and added vocals to the 2016 New Order track ‘Superheated’? And who sang on ‘Tutti Frutti’ and ‘People on the High Line’?
9 The Prodigy hit their zenith in 1996 with the album The Fat of the Land. Which two number one singles did it yield?
10 American dance act The Outhere Brothers had two UK number ones in 1995. What were they?
11 One of the first bands to use remixes and reinterpretations as extra album tracks, the PetShop Boys also released four albums of such remixes. What generic title did they use for them? And what was different about the final one?
12 Flo Rida’s ‘Good Feeling’ (2012) sampled the same 1962 Etta James song as which hit by Avicii from the previous year? His previous biggest hit heavily sampled ‘You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)’ – who sang that?
13 Which French band’s sing-a-long hit ‘D.I.S.C.O.’ reached number two in Britain in 1980? Lipps Inc had their only UK hit the same year with which pop-funk number?
14 Under a stage name, Jason Cheetham fronts which funky UK band? What was the title of their 1993 number one debut album?
15 What were David Guetta’s two club hits with Australian singer Sia?
16 Which soul singer had a UK Top 10 hit with ‘Reet Petite’ in 1957, and a number one when it was re-released in 1986? Who is the former Scottish darts player forever linked to him in some people’s minds?
17 What was the hit single that ensured the success of Bastille’s 2014 debut album, Bad Blood? The follow up, ‘Laura Palmer’, took its title from a character in which cult TV series?
18 What were the two early nineties chart-topping singles by Snap!, the German Eurodance/techno combo?
19 Who created disco, according to his first (2007) album? According to the first single off this album, when was it acceptable?
20 Róisín Murphy emerged in the 1990s as part of which dance pop duo? What was her third solo album from 2015 that earned a Mercury Prize nomination?
21 Which DJ/producer had a hit with a dance version of Samuel Barber›s Adagio for Strings in 2005? Who had a hit with it ten years earlier with the help of a strong dance remix by Ferry Corsten?
22 ‘Louder’ and ‘Hot Right Now’ were 2011 number ones for which dubstep DJ and producer? Who sang on ‘Hot Right Now’?
23 Who added ‘(For My Love)’ to the title of their 1984 single ‘Jump’ to avoid confusion with Van Halen? What emotion did they express the year before, and again (on re-release) later in 1984, in a song which became their showstopper?
24 Which vocalist sang at least one track on each of the six studio albums by Faithless? What is her other strong connection to the band?
25 Which Belgian-born producer and mixer teamed up with New Zealand singer Kimbra on the best selling single of 2012? What was the song, a number one for five weeks?
26 What dance move did Shalamar’s Jeffrey Daniels do on Top of the Pops in 1982 during ‘A Night to Remember’, a year before a musical legend made it his own? What was Shalamar’s equally successful follow-up single?
27 Who had a hit with ‘Danger! High Voltage’ in 2003? Which Queen song did they release as a single in 2004?
28 Whose headline appearance at Glastonbury in 1994 scotched the idea that electronic dance bands couldn’t work live? What is the surname of the band’s brothers, Paul and Philip?
29 Gwen Dickey was the singer in which seventies and eighties soul/funk band? Which 1976 Richard Pryor comedy gave them a US number one?
30 Diana Ross’s tenth solo studio album, entitled simply diana (note that lower case) was a career revamp in a disco style masterminded by which production team? What was the lead single, a US number one?