Musicians - Armand van Helden

Home > Listing Index > Musicians > Armand van Helden

	Musicians - Armand van Helden

Armand Van Helden is a house music artist and music remixer whose biggest successes came from his remixes of the Tori Amos 1996 song "Professional Widow" which reached the top of the UK charts,And his own track "You Dont Know Me" which was Number 1 in the UK in January 1999.

Biography

Van Helden was born in Boston in 1970 to a Dutch-Indonesian father and a French-Lebanese mother but travelled around the world as a child spending time in the Netherlands, Turkey and Italy, as his Dad was a member of the US Air Force. At the age of 13, he bought a drum machine and started DJing two years later.

He returned to Boston in 1988 but also moonlighted as a DJ in Boston clubs. He attended Boston University. He quit his legal review job in 1991 to work as a remixer and take up an occupancy at the Loft, Boston's leading nightclub. He released his first official single, a mix of Deep Creed's "Stay On My Mind" through Nervous Records.

He released "Move It To the Left" (credited to Sultans of Swing) in 1992 on the Strictly Rhythm label, which became a moderate club hit. His first track to make the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart was "Witch Doktor" which made the top 5 in 1994.

The success of "Witch Doktor" led to opportunities to remix acts such as New Order, Deep Forest, Jimmy Somerville, Deee-Lite and Faithless. However, it was the "Professional Widow" remix that established him and became a dance hit around the world as well as a number one hit in the UK. Ironically, van Helden did not receive a penny for this mix as he presented it uncommissioned and thus was not entitled to compensation. However, it led to work remixing the Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears and Puff Daddy as well as Daft Punk and the Sneaker Pimps as well as adding to his reputation as one of the world's top house musicians.

"Cha Cha" was another top ten dance hit from his first album Old School Junkies released in 1996, along with "The Funk Phenomena". A greatest hits album appeared the next year followed by a breakbeat album later in 1997. "U Don't Know Me" was a number two hit on the Billboard dance chart, a Number one in the UK and a top 20 single on the pop charts in Australia and Canada.

Van Helden released the Killing Puritans album in 2000 which contained the dance hit "Koochy". His single "Why Can't You Spend Some Time" made the number 34 in the UK in 2001. His New York: A Mix Odyssey album released in 2004 produced two hits:

"Hear my Name" reached number 7 on the Billboard dance chart, was top 30 on world and internet charts, made number 34 in the UK, and reached the top 40 in Australia; and
"My My My" reached number 4 on the world internet charts, number 5 in the Belgian and Dutch charts, number 6 in Australia, number 15 in the UK and top 30 in the world dance charts.

In 2005 he released the album Nympho featuring the singles "Into Your Eyes", "My My My", "Hear My Name" and "When The Lights Go Down". The album reached the top 30 in Australia, and number 48 in the UK.

Other facts

Two of Armand Van Helden's songs, "My My My" (featuring sample from Gary Wright's "Comin' Apart") and the Dark Garage Mix of Sneaker Pimps' "Spin Spin Sugar", are featured in Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME 2.

Discography

Albums

Old School Junkies: The Album (1996)
Da Club Phenomena (1997)
Live from ya Mother's House (1997)
Enter the Meatmarket (1997)
Greatest Hits (1997)
2 Future 4 U (1998 UK, 1999 U.S.) #22 UK
Armand van Helden's Nervous Tracks (1999)
Killing Puritans (2000) #38 UK
Gandhi Khan (2001)
New York: A Mix Odyssey (2004)
Nympho (2005)

Hit singles

1997 "Professional Widow (It's Got To Be Big)" (remix of Tori Amos song) #1 UK
1997 "The Funk Phenomena" #38 UK
1997 "Ultrafunkula" #46 UK
1999 "You Don't Know Me" (feat. Duane Harden
) #1 UK, #11 CAN
1999 "Flowerz" (feat. Roland Clark) #18 UK
2000 "Koochy" #4 UK
2001 "Why Can't You Free Some Time" #34 UK
2001 "You Can't Change Me" (Roger Sanchez
feat. Armand Van Helden & N'Dea Davenport) #25 UK
2004 "Hear My Name" #34 UK
2004 "My My My" #15 UK (Featuring a sample from Gary Wright's "Comin' Apart")
2005 "Into Your Eyes" #48 UK
2005 "When The Lights Go Down" #70 UK

Van Helden, Armand Van Helden, Armand Van Helden, Armand Van Helden, Armand Van Helden, Armand

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Armand van Helden ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Armand van Helden; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay