The Key the Secret

"The Key the Secret" is a song originally released in 1993 by British band Urban Cookie Collective. It was released as the first single from their album, High on a Happy Vibe and features vocals by British singer Diane Charlemagne. The single peaked at number-one in the Netherlands and was a Top 5 hit in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and the UK. It was the best-selling Dance song of 1993 and was also picked as the theme tune for a major TV show in Japan with a viewing audience of some 30 million.

"The Key the Secret"
Standard artwork for original 1993 release
Single by Urban Cookie Collective
from the album High on a Happy Vibe
B-side"Remix"
Released1993
Length3:40
LabelPulse 8
Songwriter(s)Rohan Heath
Producer(s)Chapter
Urban Cookie Collective singles chronology
"The Key the Secret"
(1993)		 "Feels Like Heaven"
(1993)
Music video
"The Key the Secret" on YouTube

Today, the song is widely regarded as one of the biggest dance anthems of the '90s and has been remixed several times. A remix of the song was also included in episode 2 of the second series of Channel 4's drama series Queer as Folk in 2000. "The Key, The Secret" was more recently covered by Phobos & Deimos. And German pop singer Jasmin Wagner heavily sampled the chorus and the beat of the song in the German version as "Er ist so süß" in 2000, which was released on her fourth studio album, Die Welt gehört Dir.

Background and release

"The Key the Secret" was originally a track written at home by Rohan Heath in a soul and hip hop vein. It was released on the tiny Unheard Records label. After a subsequent re-mix provoked a massive club response it was picked up by the Pulse 8 record label and released in July 1993.[1]

"We picked up the remix of this single which we thought had enormous crossover potential. The Key: The Secret was a great success initially in the clubs and when a chart position followed, the popularity spread to younger record buyers. We ended up with a very wide spectrum of record buyers from very young kids to people in their late '20s and this is now being reflected in Europe. (...) Because the first single is very much a one liner, there was a lot of resistance from radio at first. We had to get a Top 40 position to get airplay. We only made a video for the single when we achieved a Top 20 position-we turned it over in five days and got a terrific reaction from TV, which made the single shoot up the charts."

—Pulse-8 MD Frank Sansom talking to Music & Media about the song.[2]

Australian music channel Max placed "The Key the Secret" at number 917 in their list of 1000 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2012.[3]

Chart performance
"It pretty much came off the top of my head. I've always had a real interest in songwriting and it just happened to be at the better end of a million ideas I had. I tend to put one hand on my keyboard, play a chord and see what comes out of my mouth. 'The Key The Secret' was actually about taking magic mushrooms, which a lot of people never really realised at the time."

—Rohan Heath talking about how the song was made.[4]

"The Key the Secret" was very successful globally. It remains the band's biggest hit, peaking at number-one in the Netherlands. In Europe, the single managed to climb into the Top 10 also in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and the UK, as well as on the Eurochart Hot 100 and MTV's European Top 20, where it hit numbers 10 and 2. It also reached number 8 on the European Dance Radio Chart. In the UK, "The Key the Secret" peaked in its sixth week at the UK Singles Chart, on August 8, 1993.[5] It was held off the top spot by Freddie Mercury's "Living on My Own" and spent two weeks as number 2 and sixteen consecutive weeks inside the UK Top 75. Additionally, it was a Top 20 hit in Italy and Spain. Outside Europe, it went to number 3 on RPM Dance/Urban Chart in Canada number 4 in Australia, number 10 in Zimbabwe, number 26 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play in the United States and number 31 in New Zealand.

In 1996, the track was remixed and again entered the UK charts peaking for one week at number 52. It was remixed again in 2004, this time peaking at number 31 in 2005.[6] An uptempo Eurodance remix was also made by DJ Dougal and Mickey Skeedale for Dancemania Speed in 1998.

Music video

The music video of "The Key The Secret" was directed by British director and assistant director Lindy Heymann.[7] It features the band performing the song in an indoor botanical garden. Singer Diane Charlemagne sings between the plants. Several dancers also appear in the video, with body painting in gold. The colours of the video repeatedly fades out into black-and-white or opposite. Some scenes also shows the dancers looking into or they are seen through a glass sphere.

Track listing
7" single, Belgium (1993)
No.TitleLength
1."The Key, The Secret" (Glamourously Developed Edit)3:41
2."The Key, The Secret" (Kamoflage Club Edit)4:24
12" single, UK (1993)
No.TitleLength
1."The Key : The Secret" (Glamourously Developed Mix)6:16
2."The Key : The Secret" (Regressive Mix)6:01
3."The Key : The Secret" (Kamoflage Club Mix)6:40
4."The Key : The Secret" (Kamoflage Dub)7:30
CD single, UK (1993)
No.TitleLength
1."The Key : The Secret" (Glamourously Developed Edit)3:40
2."The Key : The Secret" (Glamourously Developed Mix)6:16
3."The Key : The Secret" (Regressive Mix)6:01
4."The Key : The Secret" (Kamoflage Club Mix)6:40
5."The Key : The Secret" (Hungarian Deli Mix)5:16
6."The Key : The Secret" (Shute The Flute Mix)5:45
CD single, Scandinavia (1993)
No.TitleLength
1."The Key, The Secret" (Glamourously Developed Edit)3:42
2."The Key, The Secret" (Glamorously Developed Mix)6:16

Charts

Official versions
  • "The Key, The Secret"
  • "The Key, The Secret" (Glamourously Developed Mix)
  • "The Key, The Secret 2004" (Northstarz Club Mix)

References
  1. "URBAN COOKIE COLLECTIVE THE KEY, THE SECRET..." mellofestival.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
  2. Watson, Miranda. "Urban Cookie Collective Find Key To Europe" (PDF). Retrieved 2018-04-11.
  3. "TOP 1000 GREATEST SONGS OF ALL TIME – 2012". Max. 2012. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  4. "Whatever happened to... Urban Cookie Collective?". digitalspy.com. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
  5. "Official Singles Chart Top 75 08 August 1993 - 14 August 1993". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2020-09-17.
  6. British Hit Singles and Albums 19th Edition
  7. "Lindy Heymann". mvdbase.com. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  8. "URBAN COOKIE COLLECTIVE - THE KEY: THE SECRET (SONG)". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
  9. "URBAN COOKIE COLLECTIVE - THE KEY: THE SECRET (SONG)". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
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  11. "RPM Dance". RPM (Dec 18, 1993). Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  12. "Music & Media: Eurochart Hot 100" (PDF). Music & Media. Retrieved 2018-01-15.
  13. "European Dance Radio Top 25" (PDF). Music & Media. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  14. "URBAN COOKIE COLLECTIVE - THE KEY: THE SECRET (SONG)". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
  15. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – The Key the Secret". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  16. "Indice per Interprete: U". Hit Parade Italia. Retrieved 2018-03-12.
  17. "Charts-Surfer: Search through the Music-Charts". charts-surfer.de. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  18. "Nederlandse Top 40 – week 44, 1993" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40 Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  19. "URBAN COOKIE COLLECTIVE - THE KEY: THE SECRET (SONG)". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
  20. "URBAN COOKIE COLLECTIVE - THE KEY: THE SECRET (SONG)". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
  21. Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
  22. "URBAN COOKIE COLLECTIVE - THE KEY: THE SECRET (SONG)". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
  23. "URBAN COOKIE COLLECTIVE - THE KEY: THE SECRET (SONG)". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
  24. "The Key The Secret". officialcharts.com. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
  25. "Urban Cookie Collective". billboard.com. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
    • Zimbabwe. Kimberley, C. Zimbabwe: singles chart book. Harare: C. Kimberley, 2000
  27. "1993 ARIA Singles Chart". ARIA. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  28. "Jaaroverzichten 1993" (in Dutch). Ultratop. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  29. "1993 Year-End Sales Charts: Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Retrieved 2019-11-27.
  30. "Top 100 Singles – Jahrescharts 1993" (in German). GfK Entertainment. Retrieved 2019-11-27.
  31. "Jaarlijsten 1993" (in Dutch). Stichting Nederlandse Top 40. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  32. "JAAROVERZICHTEN - Single 1993". dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  33. "Canada Top 50 Dance Tracks of 1994". RPM. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
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