"The Keythe Secret" is a song originally released in 1993 by British band Urban Cookie Collective. It was released as the first single from their album, High on a Happy Vibe and features vocals by British singer Diane Charlemagne. The single peaked at number-one in the Netherlands and was a Top 5 hit in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and the UK. On the Eurochart Hot 100, the song reached number 10. It was the best-selling Dance song of 1993 and was also picked as the theme tune for a major TV show in Japan. Today, the song is widely regarded as one of the biggest dance anthems of the '90s and has been remixed several times. A remix of the song was also included in episode 2 of the second series of Channel 4's drama seriesQueer as Folk in 2000. "The Key, The Secret" was more recently covered by Phobos & Deimos. And German pop singerJasmin Wagner heavily sampled the chorus and the beat of the song in the German version as "Er ist so süß" in 2000, which was released on her fourth studio album, Die Welt gehört Dir.
Background and release
"The Key the Secret" was very successful globally. It was originally a track written at home by Rohan Heath in a soul and hip hop vein. It was released on the tiny Unheard Records label. After a subsequent re-mix provoked a massive club response it was picked up by the Pulse 8 record label and released in July 1993. It peaked at number-one in the Netherlands, number 2 with 16 consecutive weeks on the UK Top 75 singles charts and at number 4 in Ireland and Australia. "The Key The Secret" was the best-selling Dance song of 1993 and was also picked as the theme tune for a major TV show in Japan with a viewing audience of some 30 million. In 1996, the track was remixed and again entered the UK charts peaking for 1 week at number 52. It was remixed again in 2004, this time peaking at number 31 in 2005. An uptempo Eurodance remix was also made by DJ Dougal and Mickey Skeedale for Dancemania Speed in 1998. Australian music channelMax placed "The Key the Secret" at number 917 in their list of1000 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2012.
Music video
The music video of "The Key The Secret" was directed by British director and assistant director Lindy Heymann. It features the band performing the song in an indoor botanical garden. Singer Diane Charlemagne sings between the plants. Several dancers also appear in the video, with body painting in gold. The colours of the video repeatedly fades out into black-and-white or opposite. Some scenes also shows the dancers looking into or they are seen through a glass sphere.
