British Asian music is currently riding the crest of a wave in some respects (although try telling that to Asian Dub Foundation, whose sales are declining sharply, with recent singles failing to make the top 40). We’ve just had Coventry’s own Panjabi MC becoming the first all-Punjabi language single to crack the Top 40 with Mundian To Bach Ke, entering at #5. Of course I’m not about to claim that Gareth Gates doing a comedy single is the sound of the Asian underground, but it’s good to see that the success of East Is East and Bend It Like Beckham is now spilling over into another aspect of popular culture. We’ve had these cultural surges before though, with Monsoon’s ‘Ever So Lonely’ and ‘Shakti (The Meaning Of Within)’ hits in 1982, with My Beautiful Laundrette in 1985, even arguably going back to George Harrison’s dabblings with sitars and Eastern mysticism in the late 60s and early 70s. Let’s hope it continues this time. Many people don’t realise that Asian pop, bhangra and rap sells by the bucketload week in, week out, but because it’s not on major labels and sold through specialist, non chart return shops, it had no impact on the charts. Panjabi MC is the first artist making conspicuously Asian flavoured music to be signed by a major label.

Moving on then, here’s a little history of ‘Spirit In The Sky’ itself, which is about to become only the third song to reach number one in three different versions. Only ‘Unchained Melody’ has been number one four times. Spot the connection there? Gareth’s done them both! Norman Greenbaum used to call himself Doctor Norman Greenbaum and the second chart-topping version was by Doctor And The Medics. Gareth, however, has never been a doctor as far as Chig knows.

The funny thing is, no one else has ever had a hit with it, so it has never failed to reach number one when becoming a hit single. So, if you want a number one, record ‘Spirit In The Sky’! Whoever decided that a song about the joy of dying should be recorded this year by a very young artist to raise money to save the lives of people in the world’s poorest countries, is surely a warped genius?
· link