"Swamp Thing" is a song by British electronic music group

the Grid The Grid is an English electronic dance group, consisting of David Ball (formerly of Soft Cell) and Richard Norris, with guest contributions from other musicians. They are best known for the hits "Swamp Thing", "Texas Cowboys", "Crystal Cle ...

. It was released on 23 May 1994 as a single and is included on the Grid's third album, '' Evolver'' (1994). It peaked at number three on the UK,

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, and

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singles charts and reached the top five in an additional seven countries, including Finland and Norway, where it reached number two. The song was later sampled in " Banjo Thing" by Infernal and "Swamp Thing" by

Pegboard Nerds Pegboard Nerds is a Scandinavian electronic music group, consisting of Norwegian DJ Alexander Odden and Danish DJ Michael Parsberg. The name Pegboard Nerds is an anagram of the duo's surnames, Odden and Parsberg. The duo first met in 2005 and fo ...

. ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' magazine ranked it number 41 in their list of the 50 best songs of 1994.

Content

"Swamp Thing" is almost completely instrumental, consisting mainly of:

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis ...

sounds and

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

. The only vocals are ''Well alright, watch out'', ''Feel alright'' and ''I just dig it'', sampled from the 1973

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use the ...

song "Papa Do It Sweet" by Lloyd & Patsy. The banjo part was written and performed by Roger Dinsdale – a folk musician who also played the

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

and the

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

. Dinsdale died in July 2009.

Critical reception

Music writer and columnist

James Masterton James Masterton (born 2 September 1973) is a music writer 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 worked on air a ...

wrote, "I can detect a theme developing here over who can make the best dance record out of the silliest original idea. As if Doop wasn't bad enough we now have the

Grid Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to: Common usage * Cattle grid or stock grid, a type of obstacle is used to prevent livestock from crossing the road * Grid reference, used to define a location on a map Arts, entertainment, and media * News g ...

moving away from

ambient dub Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It ...

and scoring their biggest hit ever with a dance track based on a

reel." He added that it "actually is quite inspired". Maria Jimenez from ''

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 ...

'' remarked that "Grid storms through Europe with their banjo-ignited stormer". Andy Beevers 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 W ...

s ''RM'' Dance Update commented, "Part Two of the Grid's US travelogue takes us east from

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

ith their 1993 single "Texas Cowboys"to the Deep South, where they successfully set frantic banjo picking against uptempo

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air ...

beats to create a high energy hoe down." He also declared it as "a mad banjo and house hybrid

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mech ...

works surprisingly well." Another editor,

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), S ...

described it as "a breezy progressive throbber."

Chart performance

"Swamp Thing" was very successful on the charts across several continents. In Europe, it soared to number two in Finland, Norway and Scotland. It was a top-10 hit also in Austria, Belgium, Denmark (number three), Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. 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 ...

, it hit number four. In the UK, the single peaked at number three in its fifth week on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, on 26 June. It also reached number-one on ''

s Dance Singles chart. Additionally, it was a top-20 hit in Germany and a top-50 hit in France. Outside Europe, "Swamp Thing" reached number three in Australia as well as on the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimension ...

'' Dance/Urban chart in Canada. It also peaked at number 41 in New Zealand. The single was awarded with a

silver record Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical cond ...

in the UK with a sale of 200,000 copies and a

platinum record Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

in Australia, after 70,000 units were sold.

Music video

"Swamp Thing" was accompanied by a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devi ...

. The video switches back and forth between two scenes:

computer-generated imagery Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The image ...

of a group of

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be ...

s dancing to a techno beat and a blank white landscape with a crawling

baby An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...

and music synthesiser instruments. The scene with the baby and the instruments also inspired the ''Evolver'' album cover art. The video received

heavy rotation In broadcasting, rotation is the repeated airing of a limited playlist of songs on a radio station or satellite radio channel, or music videos on a TV network. They are usually in a different order each time. However, they are not completely sh ...

MTV Europe MTV Global (formerly as MTV Europe) is the international version of the American TV channel MTV, a 24-hour music and entertainment TV channel that began broadcasting on August 1, 1987, as part of the worldwide MTV network. Initially, MTV serve ...

and was A-listed on Germany's

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. Later it was published by

Vevo Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, ...

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

, and as of December 2022, the video had generated more than 2,3 million views.

Track listings

* 12-inch single, UK # "Swamp Thing" (Grid Southern Comfort Mix) # "Swamp Thing" (Deep Dub Piece) # "Swamp Thing" (Deep Piece Mix) * CD single, UK # "Swamp Thing" (Radio Mix) – 3:56 # "Swamp Thing" (Southern Comfort Mix) – 7:10 # "Swamp Thing" (Deep Dub Piece) – 7:10 # "Swamp Thing" (Deep Piece Mix) – 8:53 * Cassette single, UK # "Swamp Thing" (Radio Mix) # "Swamp Thing" (Deep Piece Mix) # "Swamp Thing" (Radio Mix) # "Swamp Thing" (Deep Piece Mix)

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

* "Swamp Thing"on

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

{{Authority control 1994 singles 1994 songs Deconstruction Records singles Music Week number-one dance singles Songs written by David Ball (electronic musician) The Grid songs