"I Wanna 1-2-1 With You" is a mobile telephone-themed novelty-pop song by "Solid Gold Chartbusters", written by musicians

Guy Pratt Guy Adam Pratt (born 3 January 1962) is a British musician. He is best known for his prolific work as a session bass player, working with artists including Pink Floyd (also David Gilmour and Nick Mason), Roxy Music (also Bryan Ferry), Gary M ...

and

Jimmy Cauty James Francis Cauty (born 19 December 1956), also known as Rockman Rock, is an English artist and musician, best known as one-half of the duo The KLF, co-founder of The Orb and as the man who burnt £1 million. He is married to artist and mu ...

, and comedy writer Lloyd Stanton. The lead singer was Denise Palmer; the sleeve also credits

Tessa Niles Tessa Margaret Niles ( ''née'' Webb; born 27 January 1961 in Ilford, Essex) is an English singer, best known as a backing singer for a wide variety of contemporary artists. She began her professional singing career in 1979. Early life and ca ...

for vocals and

Debbie Chazen Deborah Chazen (born 1 September 1971) is an English actress. She is best known for portraying Annie in the BBC comedy ''The Smoking Room'', Big Claire in ''Mine All Mine'', and various roles in the BBC sketch show ''Tittybangbang''. Alongside t ...

as the voice of a

switchboard operator In the early days of telephony, companies used manual telephone switchboards, and switchboard operators connected calls by inserting a pair of phone plugs into the appropriate jacks. They were gradually phased out and replaced by automated system ...

. Due to the involvement of Cauty ( KLF) and Pratt (

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

touted Solid Gold Chartbusters as "The World's First Novelty

Supergroup Supergroup or super group may refer to: * Supergroup (music), a music group formed by artists who are already notable or respected in their fields * Supergroup (physics), a generalization of groups, used in the study of supersymmetry * Supergroup ...

". "I Wanna 1-2-1 With You" was released in an attempt to reach number one on the Christmas 1999

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. Cauty had previously had a novelty number one in collaboration with

Bill Drummond William Ernest Drummond (born 29 April 1953) is a Scottish artist, musician, writer, and record producer. He was a co-founder of the late-1980s avant-garde pop group the KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with wh ...

Doctorin' the Tardis "Doctorin' the Tardis" is a 1988 electronic novelty pop single by the Timelords ("Time Boy" and "Lord Rock", aliases of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, better known as The KLF). The song is predominantly a mash-up of the ''Doctor Who'' theme m ...

- and the duo had written a book - ''

The Manual ''The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way)'' is a 1988 book by "The Timelords" ( Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond), better known as The KLF. It is a step-by-step guide to achieving a No.1 single with no money or musical skills, and a case ...

'' - on how to top the charts. In the month prior to the release of "I Wanna 1-2-1 With You", Cauty told ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' that the song " sawful. Hear it once and that’s it, it’s all over. There is nothing vaguely hip, it’s just pure now, throwaway novelty pop." The music video featured Cauty and Pratt dressed as mobile phones, along with appearances by John Thomson of

the Fast Show ''The Fast Show'', known as ''Brilliant'' in the US, is a BBC comedy sketch show that ran from 1994 to 1997, with specials in 2000 and 2014. The show's central performers were Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Simon Day, Mark Williams (actor), M ...

Stephen Marcus Stephen Marcus (born Stephen Mark Scott; 18 June 1962) is a British actor, best known for his role as Nick the Greek in the film ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels''. Career Marcus became an actor in 1984 after three years of training at Ar ...

, and

Rowland Rivron Rowland John Rivron (born 28 September 1958) is a British writer, comedic actor and television personality. Early career Rivron played the comic character "Dr Martin Scrote" on the Jonathan Ross chat show ''The Last Resort'', and also played Scr ...

. Costumes from the video were later used in an advertising campaign in which online film clips purportedly showed pranksters stealing the cellphones of unsuspecting passersby. Reviewing the single in the ''NME'', Johnny Cigarettes wrote that the record by "‘the world’s first novelty supergroup’... looks set to be another first – a novelty record that is so unspeakably annoying that NO FUCKER IN THE COUNTRY BUYS IT". The single subsequently spent one week in the UK Top 75, peaking at number 62.

Track listings

;CD single – EU #"I Wanna 1-2-1 With You (radio edit)" #"I Wanna 1-2-1 With You (extended club mix)" ;12" single – UK #"I Wanna 1-2-1 With You (extended club version)" #"I Wanna 1-2-1 With You (radio edit)" ;CC single – EU *Side one #"I Wanna 1-2-1 With You (radio edit)" #"I Wanna 1-2-1 With You (extended club version)" #"Philler #004" *Side two #"I Wanna 1-2-1 With You (radio edit)" #"I Wanna 1-2-1 With You (extended club version)" #"Philler #004"

References

External links

* * 1999 singles Novelty songs Virgin Records singles 1999 songs Mobile phone culture Songs written by Jimmy Cauty Song recordings produced by Jimmy Cauty {{authority control