"Hand in Hand (Looking for Sweet Inspiration)" is a song by English electronic music group Opus III, released in 1994 by PWL and

EastWest Records East West Records (stylized as east''west'') is a record label formed in 1955, distributed and owned by Warner Music Group, headquartered in New York City. History After its creation in 1955 by Atlantic Records, the label had its first hit wit ...

as the second single from their second album, '' Guru Mother'' (1994). It was both written and produced by the group with Martin Brammer, and peaked at No. 79 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 14 on the US ''

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 ...

Dance Club Songs The Dance Club Songs (also known as National Disco Action, Hot Dance/Disco Club Play, and Hot Dance Club Play) was a chart published weekly between 1976 and 2020 by ''Billboard'' magazine. It used club disc jockeys set lists to determine the mos ...

chart.

Critical reception

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 ''

'' magazine commented, "

Trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

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 ...

masters dip into their glorious '' Guru Mother'' album, pulling out this sparkling jewel.

Kirsty Hawkshaw Kirsty Hawkshaw (born 29 March 1969) is an English electronic music vocalist and songwriter. In addition to her work as a solo artist, she is known as the lead vocalist of early 1990s dance group Opus III (band), Opus III, and her collaborative ...

's angelic presence provides poetic depth, while remixes by

Paul Oakenfold Paul Mark Oakenfold (; born 30 August 1963), formerly known mononymously as Oakenfold, is an English record producer, remixer and trance DJ. He has provided over 100 remixes for over 100 artists including U2, Moby, Madonna, Britney Spears, Ma ...

and Steve Osbourne embelish the song's strong melody with a trend-conscious rhythm base." Pan-European magazine ''

Music & Media ''Music & Media'' was a pan-European magazine for radio, music and entertainment. It was published for the first time in 1984 as ''Eurotipsheet'', but in 1986 it changed name to ''Music & Media''. It was originally based in Amsterdam, but later m ...

'' wrote, "Imagine all those clubbers trying to follow Opus III's instructions to dance hand in hand. Luckily the beat and the lyrics are dead simple, maybe your station can lend a hand too." Tim Jeffery 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 noted, "Paul Oakenfold provides the mixes and they're very pleasant, quite mellow trancey excursions that are listenable but very unremarkable due to a lacklustre song which drifts along but goes nowhere. As a result the vocal-less trance mix is the best." A reviewer from '' Select'' said, "With some careful remixing, however, 'Hand in Hand (Looking for Sweet Inspiration)' could turn into a pretty mean floor-filler."

Music video

The accompanying music video for "Hand in Hand (Looking for Sweet Inspiration)" was directed by Peter Sherrard and produced by Annabel O'Grady for Medialab. It was released on 29 August 1994 and is a sepia drenched fantasy in the rolling fields of

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

Charts

Grace version

In 1997, British dance act

Grace Grace may refer to: Places United States * Grace, Idaho, a city * Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois * Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office * Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uni ...

covered the song and released it as their sixth single from their only album, '' If I Could Fly'' (1996), titled as "Hand in Hand", on

's Perfecto label. It reached number 38 on the UK Singles Chart, number 32 in Scotland and number 85 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 ...

. Remixes of the song included a complete reworking of the song by Jam El Mar of European dance act

Jam & Spoon Jam & Spoon were a German electronic music duo formed in 1991 in Frankfurt. The group consisted of composers and producers Rolf Ellmer (a.k.a. Jam El Mar, classically trained composer) and Markus Löffel (a.k.a. Mark Spoon, DJ). They also worke ...

. Two videos for the song were released, of the Oakenfold and Osborne Radio Mix and an unreleased Eddy Fingers Edit. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' called it "Grace's strongest single to date", while ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publi ...

'' thought the song had "too much exuberance."

Track listings and formats

Charts

References

1994 songs 1994 singles 1997 singles Opus III (band) songs Grace (group) songs Perfecto Records singles East West Records singles Music videos shot in the United Kingdom Songs written by Martin Brammer {{1990s-UK-single-stub