(From The Chimes album; 1990)
Thee glaring omission from my 101 best non-Rap singles of the 1990s list: Scotland’s only entry in the U.K Street Soul canon, though Pauline Henry was a Jamaican-Cockney rather than an Edinburgh Jock like the two blokes in The Chimes. Their first single 1-2-3 was a Soul II Soul production, but by the time of their third and best single Heaven they’d learnt enough tricks to do the damn thing themselves. A truly joyous classic from the era when 60% of the singles in the British Top 40 chart were built on breakbeats, even the singles by proper bands like Fine Young Cannibals, Stone Roses, EMF etc.
Please believe that Britain was combining Soul and Hip-Hop in song format 3 years before Mary J. Blige & Puffy dropped Real Love. Baby, do you know what those braggin’ rights are worth? Street Soul Heaven was a small rainy island on Earth.
