"Mr. Vain" was one of the best-selling singles across Europe of 1993. The song first broke in Germany before breaking more widely through the summer, eventually topping the chart in 12 countries. It reached number 17 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and earned a Gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America. "Mr. Vain" also peaked at number two for two weeks on the BillboardDance Club Songs chart. It sold over 442,000 copies in the UK. "Mr. Vain" is notable in the UK as it was the first number-one single not to be available as a 7" vinyl single since the 1950s and heralded the demise of the 7" single as a mass market medium.
Critical reception
editor William Cooper called the song an "engaging house tune". He compared it to Snap!'s "Rhythm Is a Dancer" and Real McCoy's "Another Night" with its "instantly memorable keyboard hook". Larry Flick from Billboard described it as a "chirpy rave/NRG track". Nicole Leedham from The Canberra Times noted Culture Beat's "combination of soul, insightful lyrics and dance floor-friendly music". Columbia Daily Spectator stated that "near-indiscernible rapping over a pulsing techno beat and an unforgettable synth line" make the song "the quintessential '9os dance track." Tom Ewing from Freaky Trigger wrote that "Mr. Vain" "heads straight for the dark heart of the club, sketching a dancefloor predator who – like Eezer Goode – is as much metaphor as character. For drugs, lust, loss of control – who knows? The lyrics' almost-there English works to the song's benefit – there's an awkward poetry to "Call him Mr Raider, call him Mr Wrong" – and for once the obligatory rap isn't an embarrassment, with Jay Supreme's gloating, bassy flow reminding me of knowingly devilish Chicago house classics like "Your Only Friend". "Mr Vain" is the hustling flipside to "All That She Wants", and almost as good a pop record." Pop Rescue noted the song as "fantastically catchy" in their review of Serenity.
ranked "Mr. Vain" at number 65 in their list ofThe 100 Biggest 90's Dance Anthems of All Time in November 2011.. The Guardian picked "Mr. Vain" in their Sounds of Germany: a history of German pop in 10 songs in 2012. They wrote, "Culture Beat's glorious Mr Vain, with its rollicking beat, diva vocals and stilted rapping, comes as close as anything to summarising the spirit of the genre." Australian music channel Max placed "Mr. Vain" at number 732 in their list of 1000 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2012. In their The ABC in Eurodance in 2016, Finnish broadcaster Yle noted, "If someone could look up "The archetypal Eurodance hit song" in an Encyclopedia there would probably be a link to an audio file for "Mr Vain" - a song that more than anyone else came to define the 90's dance music." BuzzFeed listed the song number 17 in their The 101 Greatest Dance Songs Of the '90s list in 2017.
Covers and samples
One of the song's original writers, Nosie Katzmann, recorded a new country version of the song.
