Cotton Eye Joe
A Swedish Eurodance group took an American folk tune older than the Civil War, bolted a banjo and a fiddle onto a techno beat, and produced the song that still triggers a stampede at every school dance, skating rink and wedding reception. "Cotton Eye Joe" hit number one in at least 11 countries — and its producer has since admitted the group knew almost nothing about the culture it was dressing up as.
The song underneath is genuinely old. "Cotton-Eyed Joe" is a traditional American folk tune whose origins are unclear but which predates the Civil War; the first printed version appeared in 1882, and by the twentieth century it was a fiddle and dance-hall standard (it turns up in the 1980 film Urban Cowboy). In 1992 the Irish group the Chieftains recorded it with country singer Ricky Skaggs, and that version caught the ear of a team of Swedish producers.
What they did to it became Rednex. The track — written by Janne Ericsson, Örjan "Öban" Öberg and Pat Reiniz, and produced by Reiniz — was reportedly made in about four hours and began as an instrumental before the label pushed for vocals. Reiniz wrote a new verse that isn't in the traditional song. Göran Danielsson sang the "Cotton Eye Joe" chorus and Annika Ljungberg the verses, though Danielsson never appears in the music video, a barn hoedown complete with a mechanical bull. Reiniz admitted in a 2021 interview that "we knew very little about the American hillbilly/redneck culture, other than the stereotypes."
Released in August 1994 as the lead single from the album Sex & Violins, it was the most successful single of the year in Sweden and went to number one in at least 11 countries: 15 weeks on top in Norway, 13 in Switzerland, 10 in Germany, and three in the UK, where it reached the summit in January 1995. America was a tougher sell at radio — it peaked at number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 — but it still went gold. Entertainment Weekly's David Browne summed up the appeal at the time: "Where else can you hear a barn-dance staple gone techno, complete with dance-diva wailing and manic banjos and fiddles?"
The chart run ended; the song never left. It became a fixture of sporting events — the New York Yankees have often played it during the seventh-inning stretch — and of any dance floor that needs everyone on it within four bars. In 2024 Billboard ranked it number 49 among "The 100 Greatest Jock Jams of All Time," calling it "one of the most demented crossover hits of the '90s."
Similar items
Macarena
A Spanish song that somehow became the most inescapable earworm of 1996 — that one dance every kid learned: arms out, hips swaying, the synchronized turn. It played at every wedding, school dance, and ballpark in America.
Haddaway — "What Is Love"
The eurodance question nobody has ever answered: Haddaway's 1993 debut hit number one in a dozen-plus countries — then became immortal five years later as the head-bob anthem of SNL's Roxbury Guys. Baby, don't hurt me.
Jock Jams
The "ESPN Presents Jock Jams" compilation CDs — nonstop stadium hype music that stitched together dance anthems, cheerleader chants, and announcer shout-outs. If you played sports or went to a game in the late 90s, this was the soundtrack blasting over the PA.
Cha Cha Slide
A song that came with built-in instructions. Chicago's DJ Casper wrote the routine as an aerobics exercise for his nephew in 1998; the 2000 release hit radio and never left. It didn't need to be a big chart hit — it became the one dance every wedding, school event, and skating rink could count on, because the song tells you exactly what to move.