Soho - Hippychick (12" Happiness Is A Warm Hippy)

Soho - Hippychick (Happiness Is A Warm Hippy Mix) / 12 Inch Extended Remix (HQ Audio)

Hippychick was a UK top 10 hit for Soho on its re-release in 1991 and is the trio's only top 40 success. Soho were identical twins Jacqui and Pauline Cuff and producer Tim London (Timothy Brinkhurst). After they disbanded in 1999, Tim London relocated to Edinburgh and became involved in managing and producing for Young Fathers, contributing to five of their albums. In 2017, he reunited with the Cuff sisters and vocalist Law Holt to form the electronic music collective Iklan, releasing Album Number 1 on the Soulpunk label in 2020. As for Hippychick, it was a prime example of the indie-dance crossover fad of 1990-1991, combining Johnny Marr's tremolo effect riff from The Smiths' How Soon Is Now? with a Soul II Soul-inspired break. Its lineage could be said to go back further, given Marr's tremolo effect was originally inspired by Bo Diddley, and the sampled break was taken from the 1971 funk track What's Up Front That Counts by The Counts. The lyrics tell the story of a young woman arrested at a demonstration by her policeman ex-boyfriend. References to an incident room, the miners' strike, and the refrain "got no flowers for your gun" give the song a little more edge than some of its contemporaries. (Hippychick shared the top 10 with The KLF, Vanilla Ice, 2 In A Room, Bart Simpson, and C&C Music Factory.) The track actually began life in the late 1980s when Soho incorporated the How Soon Is Now? guitar riff into their live sets. Their experimentation led to the development of the track, and London later wrote the lyrics to go with it. The recording sessions took place at the studio of Leigh Gorman, formerly of Bow Wow Wow. Here, The Smiths' circle completes, as Gorman has more recently worked on Morrissey's solo albums in Los Angeles. In 1990, however, Gorman worked from a studio above his dad's wood shop, where recording would on occasion be interrupted due to the noise of the lathes and saws below. Nevertheless, Hippychick was a huge success, and not only in the UK. It made number 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 2 on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart. It was also a hit in Australia and New Zealand, among other countries. Soho went on to release several albums in the 1990s but never made the top 40 again. A couple of their later tracks were included on film soundtracks, however, and a collaboration with Adamski called Born To Be Alive made it to number 51. This recording is taken from the original 12" single, which features the Extended Mix, the Happiness Is A Warm Hippy mix, and the Never Trust A Hippy mix, which is featured here. Year: 1990 Label: Savage Records Cat no: 12SAW106