1999 Armand Van Helden featuring Duane Harden: U Don't Know Me

Like Norman Cook/Fatboy Slim with 'Praise You', 'U Don't Know Me' was the first solo UK number one for American house producer Van Helden (he'd previously been here with his 'Professional Widow' remix). Like Cook/Slim, Van Helden knows his history and 'U Don't Know Me' samples Carrie Lucas's 'Dance With Me' for its main riff and the drums from Jaydee's 'Plastic Dreams' to power it into something new. Which is the modus operandi of most house music producers, so so far, so good. Further to the good (and unlike 'Praise You'), 'U Don't Know Me' is full throttle garage house that bounces with glitterball life and manages to sound both 'now' yet distinctly retro at the same time, with Duane Harden's vocal/lyric adding the 'new' to the 'old' and 'borrowed'. As I've said before though, I never feel particularly well qualified to comment on the merits of individual examples from this genre and I'm reduced to asking myself 'could I dance to it'? And as the answer is 'yes', it must be doing something right. But if you are looking to me to explain why this should have risen to the top of the pile instead of any number of other dance tracks released that month in 1999 then I genuinely would not be able to tell you.