"Touch Me" is a song by Portuguese

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' ...

producer Rui da Silva and British singer-songwriter Cassandra Fox. The song began to gain popularity after being played in dance clubs in October 2000. The track was originally scheduled for release in December 2000, but it was postponed to avoid competing with songs that would experience sales surges resulting from the

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holiday period. It was eventually released on 1 January 2001. The single spent one week at number one 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 ...

and sold over 600,000 copies, earning a platinum

certification Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...

from the

British Phonographic Industry British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British recorded music industry's Trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards, the Classic BRIT Awards, National Album Day, is home to the Mercury Prize, and co-owns the Official Charts Company with ...

(BPI). It was the first

progressive house Progressive house is a subgenre of house music. The progressive house style emerged in the early 1990s. It initially developed in the United Kingdom as a natural progression of American and European house music of the late 1980s.Gerard, Morgan; ...

song to reach number one in the UK as well as the first song by a Portuguese act to top the chart. The song also reached number one in Ireland and Silva's native Portugal while peaking inside the top 10 in

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...

, Greece, and Spain. In the United States, it reached number seven 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 ...

'' Dance Club Play chart. "Touch Me" earned Rui an award for Best Single in the '' Muzik'' magazine Dance Awards 2001.

Background and release

Vocalist Cassandra Fox wrote the lyrics for "Touch Me" while Rui da Silva composed the music and produced the track. Da Silva told ''

'' that the song originally contained a guitar part which was inspired by

Spandau Ballet Spandau Ballet () were an English new wave band formed in Islington, London, in 1979. Inspired by the capital's post-punk underground dance scene, they emerged at the start of the 1980s as the house band for the Blitz Kids, playing "European D ...

's " Chant No. 1". This part was removed after difficulties getting clearance on the publishing. The removal partially resulted in the record's release being delayed from Christmas 2000 until the beginning of 2001. Another reason the track's release was delayed was to avoid the spike in song sales that would occur during the days leading up to

; it would eventually be issued on 1 January 2001.

Critical reception

Bob Stanley of ''

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 ...

'' reflected that, although the first UK number one of 2001, the song was what he imagined as a child the first number one of the 2000s would sound like, saying he "knew it would be electronic, and may involve a certain amount of silver lurex." He further commented of the song: "The sound of the future had arrived in that most cosmic of years, exactly as it might have been imagined by Stanley Kubrick: spacy, disembodied, oddly beautiful." He also commented that he did not remember the song from when it was a hit, a point reinforced by Dom Passantio of ''

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'', who called it "easily the most forgotten number one of the decade." In 2020, ''The Guardian'' ranked the song at number 70 on their list of "The 100 Greatest UK No 1 Singles", with writer Ben Beaumont-Thomas praising the instrumentation and Fox's vocals.

Track listings

European CD single # "Touch Me" (radio edit) # "Touch Me" (original 12-inch) # "Touch Me" (

Double 99 Double 99, also known as R.I.P. Productions and 10° Below, were a UK garage duo which consisted of members Timothy Andrew Liken (Tim Deluxe) and Omar Adimora. They are best known for their sole UK chart hit single "RipGroove", which reached N ...

12-inch club mix) European maxi-CD single # "Touch Me" (radio edit) – 3:28 # "Touch Me" (original 12-inch) – 8:32 # "Touch Me" (Double 99 12-inch club mix) – 7:40 # "Touch Me" ( Peace Division's Higher Dub) – 7:03 European 12-inch single :A1. "Touch Me" (original 12-inch) :A2. "Touch Me" (radio edit) :AA1. "Touch Me" (Double 99 12-inch club mix) :AA2. "Touch Me" (Peace Division's Higher Dub Remix) French CD single # "Touch Me" (radio edit) # "Touch Me" (original 12-inch) UK 12-inch single :A. "Touch Me" (original 12-inch) :B. "Touch Me" (radio edit) Australian and New Zealand CD single # "Touch Me" (radio edit) # "Touch Me" (original 12-inch) # "Touch Me" (Double 99 12-inch club mix) # "Touch Me" (Peace Division Higher Remix) # "Touch Me" (Saffron Mix) # "Touch Me" (video)

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Cassandra Fox version

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...

released their own version in 2006, re-recording it with the backing track for

Cass Fox Cassandra ("Cass") Fox is an English singer and songwriter. She is best known for writing and singing the 2001 number one hit single " Touch Me", which she co-produced with Rui Da Silva. Biography Cassandra Ann Fox was born in North London in ...

's album '' Come Here''. Information of the re-release was posted on her personal website: "4 years after the track was originally number one, the track written and sung by Cass with Rui da Silva is being re-released on 30 October. Remixes come from

X-Press 2 X-Press 2 are an English electronic dance music duo. The members are DJ Diesel (Darren House) and DJ Rocky (Darren Rock). Ashley Beedle left to pursue solo projects in 2009. They were DJ Award winners in 2002 and Ivor Novello winners in 200 ...

, Tom Neville and Spencer & Hill and have already been getting plays on Radio 1 (Judge Jules) and Kiss FM."Cass Fox (2006)
Cass Fox Online
CassMusic.net (Retrieved 11 September 2006) Fox left Island Records and decided not to move forward with the re-release of "Touch Me". She went on the Faithless Tour instead.

Track listings

UK CD single # "Touch Me" (Spencer & Hill Mix) # "Touch Me" (

's Rave and Bleep vocal) # "Touch Me" (Spencer & Hill Full Length Mix) # "Touch Me" (radio edit) UK 12-inch vinyl :A. "Touch Me" (Spencer & Hill Full Length Mix) :B. "Touch Me" (X-Press 2's Rave and Bleep vocal) Digital download # "Touch Me" (Spencer & Hill radio edit) – 3:27

Melanie C version

On 3 September 2021, English

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

singer Melanie C released her cover of "Touch Me" to accompany the deluxe digital and streaming version of her eighth studio album, '' Melanie C''. The single was produced by

Billen Ted Billen Ted is a British record production and songwriting duo based in London, consisting of Tom Hollings and Sam Brennan. History They gained notoriety with the single "Satisfied" sampling from the Chaka Khan 1984 hit " I Feel for You". Howeve ...

. The official music video was released to

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on the same day.

References

{{Authority control 2000 songs 2001 debut singles 2006 singles Arista Records singles Bertelsmann Music Group singles Cass Fox songs Dance Pool singles English-language Portuguese songs Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Island Records singles NuLife singles Number-one singles in Portugal Number-one singles in Scotland Progressive house songs Songs written by Gary Kemp UK Singles Chart number-one singles