Unbelievable

The things you say

SONG: Unbelievable

ALBUM: Schubert Dip

ARTIST: EMF

YEAR: 1991

1991 was insane for music. It was a year when:

• Nirvana released Nevermind

• Pearl Jam released Ten

• Soundgarden released Badmotorfinger

• The Red Hot Chili Peppers released Blood Sugar Sex Magik

• Guns N’ Roses released Use Your Illusion 1 AND 2

• Metallica released Metallica

• REM released Out of Time

• U2 released Achtung, Baby

1991 was also the year when a little known band from Cinderford, Gloucestershire released their debut album, Schubert Dip.

It’s an uneven record. Average at best. Yet it produced one of the decade’s biggest hits—a monster smash of global proportions that continues to resonate to this day.

I can still remember where I was when I heard Unbelievable for the very first time.

It was my freshman year at university and I was out getting drunk with some friends at a club. The drinks were cheap, but the music was terrible. It was the kind of place where students hooked up to the strains of Roxette and Paula Abdul.

I was at the bar: slamming shots while trying to drown out the latest monstrosity ‘pumping’ through the speakers—the one, the only, Orinoco Flow.

Out of nowhere, someone shouted ‘OH!’

That was immediately followed by a funky-chunky beat.

Moments later, a guy who sounded like he’d been kicked in the nuts opened his mouth and began to sing.

I’d never heard anything like it, and it chased my funky-chunky butt all the way to the dance floor.

There’s so much to like in this timeless classic: the groovy bass, the hip hop beat, the dramatic pause that James Atkins takes before delivering the anthemic “You’re unbelievable”.

Chills, baby. Chills.

By the way, here’s something I didn’t know until I started writing this piece:

That guy who says ‘Oh!’ throughout the whole song? That is none other than Andrew Dice Clay.

I’m guessing every other Gen Xer already knew that, but it blew the lid off my feeble brain.

So, let’s wrap things up, before I start drooling into my bib, with a tribute to The Diceman:

Hickory dickory dock

Enough with all this talk

The time has come

My Gen X chum

To rock around the clock