"Impossible" is a song by German musician

Captain Hollywood Project Captain Hollywood Project is a German eurodance music project best known for the hits "More and More (Captain Hollywood Project song), More and More," "Only with You (Captain Hollywood Project song), Only with You" and "Flying High (Captain Holly ...

. It was released in October 1993 by labels Blow Up and Intercord as the fourth single from his debut album, '' Love Is Not Sex'' (1993), and features vocals by American singer

Kim Sanders Kim Sanders (born October 24, 1968, in East Chicago, Indiana) is an American singer and songwriter based in Germany. Sanders began to release singles as a solo artist in 1994 and wrote songs for other musicians. She also provided vocals for a n ...

. The song was co-written by Nosie Katzmann and Tony Dawson-Harrison (real name of Captain Hollywood), and became a notable hit in several countries. But like " All I Want", it achieved moderate success in comparison with the two previous Captain Hollywood Project's singles, " More and More" and " Only with You". A music video was produced to promote the single, featuring Petra Spiegl instead of Sanders.

Critical reception

In his review of the '' Love Is Not Sex'' album,

Larry Flick Larry Flick is an American journalist, former dance music columnist, single reviewer, and Senior Talent Editor for ''Billboard'' magazine, where he worked for 14 years. Now he produces and hosts Sirius XM radio shows. Flick started in the musi ...

from ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' wrote that "Impossible" "is another study in contrasts, as aptainHollywood ponders the darkness of greed and power, amid a flurry of active,

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

-flavored synth-beats. It is during this particular track that he best exhibits the poise and command of rhyme needed to resurrect the dormant

hip-house Hip house, also known as rap house or house rap, is a musical genre that mixes elements of house music and hip-hop, which originated in both London and Chicago in the mid-to-late 1980s. A British collaboration between the electronic group Beatm ...

movement." In his weekly UK chart commentary,

James Masterton James Masterton (born 2 September 1973) is a British music critic and columnist, his work focusing on the UK Singles Chart having been an online fixture on various sites since the 1990s. Masterton is also a producer for talkSPORT, and has worke ...

described it as " Euro-disco in the

Culture Beat Culture Beat is a German Eurodance project formed in 1989 by Torsten Fenslau. The act has gone through a number of lineup changes over the years; they achieved the most success whilst fronted by singer Tania Evans and rapper Jay Supreme. Their 1 ...

mould".

James Hamilton James Hamilton may refer to: Dukes *James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton (1606–1649), heir to the throne of Scotland *James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton (1658–1712), Scottish nobleman *James Hamilton, 5th Duke of Hamilton (1703–1743), Sco ...

from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...

s ''RM'' Dance Update viewed it as a "girl wailed gruffy rapped cheesy typical German

techno-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...

bounder". Tony Cross from ''

Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand ...

'' praised the track, giving it four out of five. He wrote, "Front man Tony Dawson-Harrison ..has come up with a monster dance hit that's impossible not to shake down to. It has the Euro flavour of hits like Culture Beat's " Mr Vain" (which Tony had a hand in) with a powered-up rap beginning. Then it grows to its hypnotic vocal chant — "I find you're a little impossible" - which is packed ''full'' of attitude. Expect it to chart ''very'' high."

Chart performance

"Impossible" was a notable hit on the charts in Europe, entering the top 10 in Denmark (9), Finland (6), Portugal (3), Spain (9), and Sweden (4), as well as on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

's European Top 20. Additionally, the single was a top-20 hit in Austria (15), Germany (12), Lithuania, the Netherlands (14) and Switzerland (18). On the

Eurochart Hot 100 The European Hot 100 Singles was compiled by ''Billboard'' and ''Music & Media'' magazine from March 1984 until December 2010. The chart was based on national singles sales charts in 17 European countries: Austria, Belgium (two charts separately f ...

, "Impossible" debuted at number 37 in November 1993, after charting in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland. It peaked at number 20 in December, as well as number three on the

European Dance Radio Chart The European Dance Radio Chart (also known as European Dance Radio Top 25) was a weekly chart compiled by pan-European magazine ''Music & Media''. After dance music had played a more dominant role on the magazine's Eurochart Hot 100 in the beginni ...

. In the United Kingdom, the single reached number 29 in its first week at the UK Singles Chart, on 6 February, but fared better on the UK ''

'' Dance Singles chart, peaking at number 14. Outside Europe, "Impossible" was a top-10 hit in Israel, peaking at number nine.

Music video

The music video for "Impossible" was directed by Apollon and did for unknown reasons not feature

, but German singer Petra Spiegl. The video was later made available on Altra Moda Music's official

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel in 2017, having generated almost ten million views as of early 2024.

Track listings

* 12-inch single (1993) # "Impossible" (New Extended Version) – 6:10 # "Impossible" (Bumpy Version) – 7:56 * CD single (1993) # "Impossible" (Radio Edit) – 4:14 # "Impossible" (New Extended Version) – 6:10 * CD maxi 1 (September 1993) # "Impossible" (Radio Edit) – 4:14 # "Impossible" (New Extended Version) – 6:10 # "Impossible" (Bumpy Version) – 7:56 * CD maxi 2 (January 1994) # "Impossible" (Red Jerry Mix) – 6:49 # "Impossible" (Red Jerry Dub) – 6:09 # "Impossible" (Kamo Flage Mix) – 6:22 # " All I Want" ('94 Club Mix) – 5:56

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 1993 singles 1993 songs Blow Up singles Captain Hollywood Project songs English-language German songs Kim Sanders songs Songs written by Nosie Katzmann Songs written by Tony Dawson-Harrison