No Limit (2 Unlimited) - История хита 1993 года

1993 single by 2 Unlimited

"No Limit" is a song recorded by Belgian/Dutch Eurodance group 2 Unlimited, released in January 1993 by Byte, ZYX and PWL. It was their fifth single in total and the first to be released from their second album, No Limits! (1993). Co written by the group's Ray Slijngaard and Anita Dels, the song became one of their most commercially successful singles, especially in Europe, reaching the number one spot in 35 countries and the top 10 in several others. Like previous releases, the UK version of the single removed all of the raps from Slijngaard, leaving just Dels' vocals. One word from the rap was kept, the word 'Techno' (from the line "I'm making techno and I am proud") which was looped and repeated during the middle of the song, turning the line into "Techno! Techno! Techno! Techno!" and giving the song an extra vocal hook. Its accompanying music video was directed by Nick Burgess Jones and received heavy rotation on MTV Europe.

"No Limit" started as an idea to do a high speed techno track. Producer Phil Wilde told Melody Maker in 1994, "Like most techno, 2 Unlimited's material floats somewhere between 125 and 148bpm; "No Limit" came in at 144." Wilde programmed the rhythm with hand claps every four beat. He had the groove and went searching in his sound library, starting jamming with sounds. He explained in the same interview, "For 'No Limits' we started jamming with sounds. Then I got the sound which we used for the main melody in that song it's mostly a combination of sounds. It's so important to have a good sound, and not so easy to fine one. On 'No Limits', the sound came, then the melody. We already had the bass and the drums, and the sample for the lead sound in the end was just a sample. But I'm not going to tell you what it was."

"No Limit" peaked at number one in 35 countries. Finland (2 weeks), France (5), Spain (3 weeks), Sweden (4 weeks), Iceland (4), and Italy (8). In Germany, the song was held off the top spot by Ace of Base's "All That She Wants", while in Greece, it peaked at number two, behind Depeche Mode's "I Feel You". "No Limit" debuted on the Eurochart Hot 100 at number 13 on 6 February after charting in Ireland, Sweden and the UK. It peaked at number one six weeks later, on 13 March, and stayed at the top for nine consecutive weeks. In the same period, it also topped the European Dance Radio Chart. Elsewhere, the song peaked at number two on the RPM Dance/Urban chart in Canada, number 16 in Zimbabwe and number 21 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. In Oceania, it reached numbers seven and 50 in Australia and New Zealand, respectively. Tony Parsons from The Daily Telegraph declared it as a "high speed anthem". Per Reinholdt from Danish Gaffa called it a "dance powerhit", noting its "inciting up tempo" and a rhythm and theme "with the same temper as a dressed beeswarm". He also named the song a "piece of pop art". In a Guinness World Records review, the sound of "No Limit" was compared to "the sound giant dinosaurs might make stomping on cities". A reviewer from Irish Independent described it as "a humugous global hit". In his weekly UK chart commentary, James Masterton wrote, "Of all the techno rave dance acts, 2 Unlimited are the most successful, notching up 5 hits in a row with all making the 20. "No Limit" being the latest and most frantic". The Stud Brothers of Melody Maker praised it as "magnificently kitsch". Alan Jones from Music Week viewed it as "obvious pop fare". James Hamilton from the Record Mirror Dance Update declared it as "madly catchy" and a "tuneful techno pop galloper". Johnny Lee from Smash Hits called it a "stormtrooper", adding that it has "a keyboard that sounds like it's being played by a robot with boxing gloves." Australian student newspaper Woroni complimented the song as "tremendously exciting and highly recommended", naming it an "obvious highlight" of the No Limits! album.

NME ranked "No Limit" number one in their list of "Top Five Euro Hits of All Time" in December 1993. NME editor Paul Moody wrote, "The ultimate piece of pop existentialism as Anita and Ray suggest the whole world is one huge playground of hedonistic excess. All to a video set within a huge pinball machine. Sublime." Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger felt the track's "echoey hi hat hits and the union of steam hammer bass and rubber ball synths" carry the industrial, "piston powered aggression" of Belgian rave music. He also noted the presence of a cowbell in the back of the track. In 2015, Graham Clark from The Yorkshire Times stated that "the track at the time sounded unlike anything else but you can hear how it has influenced so many of today's electronic dance music tracks".

"No Limit" was covered by German band beFour on their fourth studio album Friends 4 Ever, and as a single in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The song entered the German Singles Chart in 2009.