Track Listing

1. Where Are You Baby - Boo, Betty (1)
2. Doin' The Do - Boo, Betty (1)
3. Hey DJ (I Can't Dance To That Music You're Playing)
4. Twenty Four Hours
5. Boo's Boogie
6. Leave Me Alone
7. Shame
8. Boo Is Booming
9. Mumbo Jumbo
10. Till My Last Breath (Doin' It To Death)
11. Don't Know What To Do
12. Valentines Day
13. Twenty Four Hours
14. Where Are You Baby
15. Doin' The Do
16. Boo's Megamix

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12121 in Music
• Released on: 1999-11-06
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Post-Modern Pop Goddess 1989 - 1990
This 1999-cheapo compilation is essentially her 1990 album 'Boomania' with a few remixes added (as well as a forgettable 'Megamix', which seems a bit 1980s - I remember having to suffer a U2-megamix at one point around 1988 and it being rather gruelling. A vile invention!). 'Boomania', in case you don't know, is one of the most influential albums of all time and a record no one of a pop persuasion should be without - so nice you cant get all of it on here, as well as a few remixes including the excellent Norman Cook take of '24 Hours' (Cook was in Beats International at the time).

Betty Boo was the post-modern invention of the beguiling Alison Clarkson who was once a member of the She-Rockers, who found themselves in the domain of Public Enemy & Salt'N'Pepa. Betty's first appearance was on the Beatmasters' classic single 'Hey DJ/I Can't Dance (To That Music You're Playing)'- which is one of those great tracks from that era like 'Theme from S'Express', 'My Telephone', 'Hey Love', 'Fine Time', 'Pump Up the Volume', 'I'd Rather Jack (than Fleetwood Mac)', 'Hit the North', 'Paid in Full' & 'Beat Dis.' People forget how convincing Betty Boo was as a rapper - I'd take her over the hugely over-rated Missy Elliot ('Get Ur Freak On' and the first half of 'Lose Control' doesn't appear to me much of a career!). Listen to Madonna's embarrasing attempt at rapping on 'American Life' and see why she should grovel at the feet of Betty Boo.

& yes, 'Boomania' is one of the most influential albums of all time. Ms Boo advanced on the artificial cartoon pop of ABC's 'How to Be a Zillionaire', to see how well she did it, compare this to Deee-Lite's dire debut 'World Clique' which has one decent track on it! The 1990 singles 'Doin' the Do' and 'Where Are You Baby?' have a sixties-retro vibe done in a modern style prior to Kylie's work in a similar direction. Betty of Boo nodded to Barbarella before Kylie or whoever. The cartoon appearance of the Pet Shop Boys around 'Very' owes a debt. Madonna's records, notably 'Beautiful Stranger', 'American Life' & 'Music', owe this record a huge debt. Betty Boo predicts the post-modern cartoon pop persona of Gorillaz, which is ironic when Clarkson collaborated with Damon Albarn's Blur-colleague Alex James (on a recent album that vanished!!). Betty Boo, like Neneh Cherry, was key - her pop-rap approach can be seen to influence the horror that was the Spice Girls and the lovely Lilly Allen. Boo sounded like she'd heard Public Enemy, while Cherry sounded like she knew The Slits - the two's work from 1988 to 1990 was key on female fronted pop-rap that followed, whether what followed was good or bad is really of no concern.

This collection stands up wonderfully, despite the odd period sound that might provoke an E-flashback in some. Of the lesser known tracks, 'Valentine's Day' stands out wonderfully - the opening keyboards a bit Kraftwerk circa 'The Man Machine.' Heck, Nelly Furtado, Timbaland & Justin Timberlake could record this now and it would be suitably revered. Betty Boo would vanish for a year or so and return with another album that wasn't a hit. The pop world had moved on. Betty Boo left the building. Alison Clarkson had other concerns, but reappeared several years later as a songwriter in the Cathy Dennis mode. Compare this to stuff like EMF and Jesus Jones if you want a measure of how great it is. For a bunch of disposable pop songs, this collection is actually quite durable - post-modern pop at its finest and a budget price example of greatness. In the future you will know I am right.

Boo's Back!
Just when we thought we had heard the last from this post-modern diva of early 90's pop, Boo's Back!

Some may mock an effective "best of" album after only just two long-play releases (not counting the Beatmaster's Anywayawanna which fleetingly showcased her mega-talents). But for those of us for whom the lights came down the moment Betty dropped her mike that grey afternoon in Australia, this album's a delight.

All the favourites are here, including the fab Doin' the Do and equally groovy Where Are You Baby. It's sharp, smart, sexy and knocks the socks off the self-important dross that fills the charts today. This is a pop star who could and should have made it to the very top. It's a real shame she didn't. There'll never be another quite like the Betty of the Boo.

Hey DJ, I CAN dance to that music you're playing!
This isn't actually her first album (which was 'Boomania') but is almost indestinguishable from it. As such, you'll find all her hit singles bar one ('Let Me Take You There' from her second album 'Grrr, It's Betty Boo!') and an album of great funk-rap-pop that has dated little.