"The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" is a

house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...

track by Kenny Dope's musical production team

the Bucketheads Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez (born July 5, 1970), also sometimes known as K-Dope, is an American record producer and disc jockey. He is one half of the classic house music Masters at Work musical production team with Little Louie Vega; and also release ...

, released in February 1995. It was later dubbed into the project's sole album, '' All in the Mind'' (1995). The single was a commercial hit in the United Kingdom, reaching number five on the

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 ...

, while in the United States, it peaked at number 49 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number 41 on the ''Cash Box'' Top 100. Its music video was directed by British directors

Guy Ritchie Guy Stuart Ritchie (born 10 September 1968) is an English film director, producer and screenwriter. His work includes British gangster films, and the ''Sherlock Holmes'' films starring Robert Downey Jr. Ritchie left school at age 15 and wor ...

and

Alex De Rakoff Alex De Rakoff (born 13 November 1970) is a British writer, producer, and director. Personal life In April 2005, he married American actress Monet Mazur. Together, they have two children. As of July 2018, the couple have filed for divorce. Film ...

. In 2020, ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

'' ranked "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" number 48 in their "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time" and in 2022, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' ranked it number 77 in their "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time".

Background and release

Produced by

Masters at Work Masters at Work is the American garage house production and remix team of "Little" Louie Vega and Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez. The duo has produced music together under the names MAW, KenLou, Sole Fusion, Hardrive, and Nuyorican Soul. They have been r ...

member Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez, the track features samples from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

's "Street Player" from their 1979 album ''

Chicago 13 ''Chicago 13'' is the eleventh studio album by the American band Chicago, released in 1979, the follow-up to ''Hot Streets''. ''Chicago 13'' was the band's final release featuring lead guitarist Donnie Dacus, who had followed the late founding ...

.'' The lyrics have a single line "''these sounds fall into my mind''", which repeats throughout the entire song.This line is also the subtitle of the song, which is actually considered a

mondegreen A mondegreen () is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning. Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to hear a lyric clearly, substitutes w ...

; the actual lyric taken from the sample is ''"Street sounds swirling through my mind..."'' Also sampled is "The Preacher Man" (1993) by

Green Velvet Curtis Alan Jones (born April 26, 1968), better known by his stage name Green Velvet, is an American singer, record producer and DJ. He is also known as Cajmere, Geo Vogt, Half Pint, Curan Stone, and Gino Vittori. Early life Curtis Alan Jones wa ...

. The accompanying video was featured on the ''

Beavis and Butt-head ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' is an American adult animated series created by Mike Judge. The series follows Beavis and Butt-Head, both voiced by Judge, a pair of teenage slackers characterized by their apathy, lack of intelligence, lowbrow humor, ...

'' episode "Prank Call," on January 28, 1996. The track once served as the entrance music for former World

bantamweight Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In mixed martial arts, MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class is derived from Ba ...

and

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, this ...

boxing champion

Prince Naseem Hamed Naseem Hamed (born 12 February 1974), nicknamed Prince Naseem and Naz, is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2002.. Retrieved 25 February 2016. He held multiple featherweight world championships, including the WBO ti ...

, and is featured on the soundtrack for the 2010 film '' The Switch''.

Chart performance

"The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" was very successful on the charts on several continents, reaching number-one on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot Dance Club Play Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...

chart in the United States. In Europe, the song was a top 10 hit in Belgium (3), France (4), Iceland (2), Ireland (10), Scotland (9), Sweden (5), Switzerland (7), and the UK. In the latter, the single peaked at number five in its second week at the

, on March 5, 1995. But on the

UK Dance Chart The UK Dance Singles Chart and the UK Dance Albums Chart are music charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company from sales of songs in the dance music genre (e.g. house, trance, drum and bass, garage, synthpop) in record ...

, the song was a even bigger hit, reaching number two. In 1999, it returned to the UK Dance Chart, this time peaking at number 34. Additionally, "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" entered the top 20 in Austria (16), Finland (14), Germany (19), Italy (13), the Netherlands (11) and Spain (12), as well as on the

Eurochart Hot 100 The European Hot 100 Singles was compiled by '' Billboard'' and ''Music & Media'' magazine from March 1984 until December 2010. The chart was based on national singles sales charts in 17 European countries: Austria, Belgium (two charts separately ...

, where the song hit number 12 in July 1995. Outside Europe, it also made it to number eight on the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'' Dance/Urban chart in Canada, number 11 in Australia, number 21 in New Zealand, number 41 on the US ''Cash Box'' Top 100 and number 49 on the US ''

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

. The song was awarded with a

silver record Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical cond ...

in France, with sales of 125,000 singles.

Critical reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

editor John Bush declared the song as a "great-sounding fusion of

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

and

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

that works well".

Larry Flick Larry Flick is an American journalist, former dance music columnist, single reviewer, and Senior Talent Editor for ''Billboard'' magazine, where he worked for 14 years. Now he produces and hosts Sirius XM radio shows. Flick started in the music ...

from ''

'' called it "retro-happy" and "an unassuming li'l jaunt back in time that is packed with more than a savvy twist or two." Chuck Campbell from ''

Knoxville News Sentinel The ''Knoxville News Sentinel, also known as Knox News,'' is a daily newspaper in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, owned by the Gannett Company. History The newspaper was formed in 1926 from the merger of two competing newspapers: ''The ...

'' wrote, "The hi-NRG

Eurodance Euro-Dance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG, Euro-electronica or Euro) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of hip hop, techno, Hi-NRG, house music, and Euro-Disco. This ...

number is romping good fun and a prime promotional tool for the album '' All in the Mind''." In his weekly UK chart commentary,

James Masterton James Masterton (born 2 September 1973) is a music writer and columnist, his work focusing on the UK Singles Chart having been an online fixture on various sites since the 1990s. Masterton is also a producer for talkSPORT, and has worked on air ...

described it as a "annoyingly catchy 70s-styled dance record that comes complete with tongue-in-cheek video featuring neon lights, platform heels and mile-wide afro haircuts. One of the more unconventional dance records at the moment and possibly by definition one of the best." Dave Piccioni from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

s ''RM'' Dance Update commented, "Another all-time dance classic is reworked, rehashed and brutally stripped. Why do they do it? Well, probably because they come out sounding pretty damn good.

Kenny Dope Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez (born July 5, 1970), also sometimes known as K-Dope, is an American record producer and disc jockey. He is one half of the classic house music Masters at Work musical production team with Little Louie Vega; and also release ...

has taken a razor blade to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

's "Streetplayer", added some rough and ready beats, some latino congas, and presented a disco gem to a new generation of dancers. The result is slamming, the effect on the floor is similar. A simple sample track that is truly gorgeous." After the 1995 re-release, another editor, Brad Beatnik, said, "It's the sort of tune that will go down very well on most floors thanks to its

carnival Carnival is a Catholic Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival typi ...

atmosphere and very funky disco beats." He added, "A stormer." The magazine's James Hamilton viewed it as "so consistent a seller since late September 94that it must surely be the biggest import in ages", describing it as "a marathon bassily burbling percussive 0.125.9bpm underground rhythm groove". John Kilgo from ''The Network Forty'' declared it as "a perfect "roll down your windows and crank up the sound" tune".

Charles Aaron Charles Aaron is an American music journalist and editor, formerly for '' Spin'' magazine, where he worked for 23 years. Personal Charles Aaron was born in Rockingham, North Carolina, and raised in Asheboro, North Carolina and Rome, Georgia. He ...

from ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' stated that "more than a

Box A box (plural: boxes) is a container used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides. Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or very large (like a shipping box for furniture), and can ...

novelty, "The Bomb!" is essential '90s funk, a house party on the last car of the D to the A train winding its way from

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

up to

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

's disco meat-packing district with conductor Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez mixing electro, hip-hop, house, and Chicago (the group)." In her review of the album, the magazine's Leigh Anne Fitzpatrick concluded that "the single alone will leave you chanting the catchy line "These sounds fall into my mind"."

Music video

The accompanying

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for "The Bomb!" was directed by British directors

and

on a budget of roughly £1,000, being one of their first music video recordings shot on a

Super 8 film camera A Super 8mm camera is a motion picture camera specifically manufactured to use the Super 8mm motion picture format. Super 8mm film cameras were first manufactured in 1965 by Kodak for their newly introduced amateur film format, which replaced th ...

, inspired by some of the

Beastie Boys Beastie Boys were an American rap rock group from New York City, formed in 1978. The group was composed of Mike D, Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam Yauch, Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Ad-Rock, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (voca ...

' music video recording styles. It was filmed in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, as can be discerned from the side of the road being driven on with the car's steering wheel on the right side of the car and

double-decker bus A double-decker bus or double-deck bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. They are used for mass transport in the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, Europe, Asia and also in cities such as Sydney; the best-known example is the ...

es, and first aired in March 1995. The video starts off with a black man with an

afro The afro is a hair type created by natural growth of kinky hair, or specifically styled with chemical curling products by individuals with naturally curly or straight hair.Garland, Phyl"Is The Afro On Its Way Out?" ''Ebony'', February 1973. ...

waking up because of an alarm clock alongside two blonde haired white women, one with wavy hair and the other with straight hair, the latter of which gets her hair done into

pigtails A woman with long pigtails and braids. In the context of hairstyles, the usage of the term pigtail (or twin tail or twintail) shows considerable variation. The term may refer to a single braid, but is more frequently used in the plural ("p ...

. After they all get themselves ready to go out to have fun, they walk out of the home and the blonde with pigtails is seen driving through London in a Volkswagen Superbug, which the man with an afro later drives while nodding to the blonde with pigtails, who quickly turns away. The gang are seen walking together through a market area and later go into a record shop where the man with an afro finds a record within the store's inventory of this exact song. They all later leave the record store, walk more through the market area, then the man with an afro departures from the two blondes via a kiss on their cheeks, later entering a nightclub called Carwash. The video for "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" was later published on Altra Moda Music's official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel on May 13, 2013. It had generated more than 8.7 million views as of December 2022.

Impact and legacy

Mixmag ''Mixmag'' is a British electronic dance and clubbing magazine published in London. Launched in 1983 as a print magazine, it has branched into dance events, including festivals and club nights. History The first issue of ''Mixmag'' was prin ...

'' ranked the song number 60 in its "100 Greatest Dance Singles of All Time" list in 1996, adding,

"A quarter of an hour's worth of mirrorball mayhem, Kenny 'Dope' Gonzales' The Bomb is the ultimate disco cutup track. Shatteringly simple, the genius of The Bomb lies in the way it builds up your anticipation with a protracted burst of hard jacking drums and atonal honking before the perfect disco sample soars away into the distance. A massive hit when Positiva licensed it in early 1995, The Bomb kick-started the trend for raiding old disco 12s. Dozens of producers followed its lead, but none of them ever equalled the definitive original article."

DJ Magazine ''DJ Magazine'' (also known as ''DJ Mag'') is a British monthly magazine dedicated to electronic dance music and DJs. Founded in 1991, the magazine is adapted for distribution in the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Lat ...

'' ranked it number 95 in their list of "Top 100 Club Tunes" in 1998. ''

'' ranked the song 65th in its "100 Greatest Dance Songs" list in 2006. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' featured the song on their "A History of Modern Music: Dance" in 2011.

MTV Dance Club MTV, formerly MTV Dance, is a European pay television music channel from Paramount Networks EMEAA that was separated from the UK channel on 27 May 2014. It broadcasts electronica, dance and r'n'b music programming. The channel is widely ava ...

placed "The Bomb!" at #10 in their list of "The 100 Biggest 90's Dance Anthems of All Time" in November 2011. ''

Idolator An idolator is a practitioner of idolatry. Idolater or Idolator may also refer to: Books *''Os Idólatras'', 1968 Portuguese novel by Maria Judite de Carvalho Music * Idolator (website), an American music blog * ''Idolator'' (album), third album ...

'' ranked the song number 34 in their ranking of "The 50 Best Pop Singles of 1995" in 2015. John Hamilton commented,

"Who would have predicted that The Karate Kid, Part II balladeer and former lead singer of Chicago, Peter Cetera, would experience a mid-’90s career renaissance as a house music diva? (Not even Miss Cleo!) But that’s exactly what happened when noted remixer/producer Kenny "Dope" Gonzales lifted a vintage slice of Chicago’s "Street Player", dressed it with a funky kick, edited the hell out of the horn section and Cetera’s vocals and turned it all out as "The Bomb!""

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

'' listed the song number 44 in their "The 101 Greatest Dance Songs of the '90s" list in 2017. ''

'' ranked the song as one of "The 20 Best US Rave Anthems of the '90s" in 2019, adding,

"The Bucketheads is a disco-sampling solo project from NYC dance music legend Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez who is also revered for his work as one half of Masters At Work alongside Louie Vega. Sampling the band Chicago's 1979 track 'Street Player', Kenny Dope created a slick piece of house that forces hands in the air everywhere."

'' placed the song at number 48 in their list of "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time" in 2020. Same year,

Tomorrowland Tomorrowland is one of the many themed lands featured at all of the Magic Kingdom styled Disney theme parks around the world owned or licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Each version of the land is different and features numerous attractions t ...

included it in their official list of "The Ibiza 500".

Accolades

(*) indicates the list is unordered.

Track listings

* 7-inch single # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" (radio edit) – 3:22 # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" ( Armand Van Helden re-edit) – 8:03 * 12-inch maxi 1 - UK # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" – 13:58 # "I Wanna Know" – 7:15 # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" (radio edit) – 3:22 * 12-inch maxi 2 - UK # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" – 14:51 # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" (Armand Van Helden re-edit) – 8:03 # "I Wanna Know" – 7:15 * 12-inch maxi - US # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" (original mix) # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" (Johnick Radio Edit) # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" (bonus beats) * CD single # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" (radio edit) – 3:22 # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" – 14:51 * CD maxi - UK # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" (radio edit) – 3:22 # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" – 14:51 # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" (Armand Van Helden re-edit) – 8:03 * CD maxi - US # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" (radio edit) – 3:24 # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" (Kenny Dope remix) – 4:32 # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" (jinxx remix) – 5:02 # "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" (bonus beats) – 5:06

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind), The 1995 singles American house music songs The Bucketheads songs Mondegreens 1994 songs Songs written by Hawk Wolinski Songs written by Danny Seraphine Chicago (band) songs Positiva Records singles