#1420: 3 Man Island

80s Snapshot:

• Number of songs on Hot 100: 1
• Highest peak position: 94
• Cumulative weeks on Hot 100: 2

As long as there has been popular music, there have been dance crazes; often sprouting up organically, they inevitably lead to a firestorm of acts and songs looking to capitalize on the trends of the day.

In the late 80s on the house music circuits, the dance craze du jour was “jacking”, an energetic move that alternates thrusting the chest and hips forward and backward. Between 1985 and 1988, hit singles all across Europe popped up which sought to capitalize on the craze: “The Jack That House Built”, “Jack Your Body”, “I’d Rather Jack”, “Jack’n The House”, and “Jack To The Sound Of The Underground” just to name a few.

None of the aforementioned international hits made their way to the U.S. charts, but the trend was still felt on the lower reaches of the Hot 100. English production trio 3 Man Island (Nigel Swanson, Tim Cox & Mike Whitford) made their contribution to this craze at the tail end of its popularity, releasing “Jack The Lad” in early 1988. Mostly instrumental save for the oft-repeated title phrase and a few other vocal riffs, it made its debut on Billboard’s Club Play chart in the 3/26/1988 issue.

In addition to its success on the club circuit, “Jack The Lad” also gained some traction via traditional radio airplay, appearing on a handful of the playlists of large-market Top 40 radio stations which Billboard published weekly in that era. In the 4/2/1988 Billboard issue, just a week after its debut on the club chart, “Jack The Lad” debuted at #94 on the Hot 100. In spite of getting a good amount of spins over the airwaves and in the clubs (ultimately peaking at #10 on the Club Play chart), the track never made the 12-Inch Single Sales chart. Unable to pair airplay with sales, “Jack The Lad” dropped to #99 in its second week, and was off the Hot 100 the following week.

Over the summer of 1988, 3 Man Island earned production credits on another pair of singles: “Drum Down The House” by Trash Funk and their own follow-up single “Funkin’ For The UK”. Whereas “Jack The Lad” was capitalizing on the house music/jacking dance craze, “Funkin’ For The UK” was more in the line of the “rare groove” trend. This dance subgenre sought to sample rare or forgotten funk/soul hits of the 70s, specifically the noteworthy drum fills that would become a staple of the later breakbeat, jungle and drum n’ bass styles.

“Funkin’ For The UK” featured vocals from Carol Jiani, whose 1981 track “Hit ‘N Run Lover” was a Top 10 Club Play hit in its own right. “Funkin’ For The UK” spent just one week at #44 on the Club Play chart, and their other production “Drum Down The House” failed to crack any charts either. 3 Man Island recorded only one other song together (“Horror House”, which also failed to chart) and never recorded an album.

In 1991, Swanson and Cox worked together again to write the track “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)” for Rozalla. The Eurodance classic was a Top-10 hit across the European continent, also topping Billboard’s Club Play chart and reaching #37 on the Hot 100. The track would also famously be remixed with a spoken-word element by director Baz Luhrmann later in the decade to create “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”. That version hit #1 in the UK and #45 on the Hot 100 in its own right, giving Swanson & Cox songwriting credit on yet another hit single.

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