As we get ready to say farewell to another Monday, it’s time for our usual look back at the increasingly extensive archives of the dance music world. Each week, members of the team pull out three choices from dance music history, ranging from well-known to those which have been forgotten over the years.

This week, we’ve taken the unusual decision to concentrate solely on one artist – Armand Van Helden. You might know him from the likes of “You Don’t Know Me” with Duane Harden or tracks like “The Boogie Monster” – but what a lot of people seem not to know is that Armand Van Helden made his name in the 1990s partly by turning awful records into less awful records.

This first selection is a remix from 1994 of “Another Night” by The Real McCoy. Most people will know the original – a quick listen on YouTube and you’ll remember straight away. So how did Mr Van Helden respond when asked to remix it? Er, like this…

That same year, another job that landed on Van Helden’s desk was for a group called Ace Of Base – a Swedish band formed in the 1980s. Back in those days, record labels understood the power remixes had – sales on vinyl counted towards overall chart positions and could really help a release. Hence why the likes of Van Helden were paid around $20,000 a time to do what they wanted with these songs – breakbeat breakdown, big synths, kick like a mule, it’s all here…

And to conclude this evening’s business, here’s one which might cause some division. In 1995, Rednex released “Cotton Eye Joe” – a truly hideous attempt to combine the 90s Eurodance sound with country music. Armand Van Helden responded with two remixes – one which was even worse than the original and then he went totally the other way with his “Funly Trance Mix”…

More selections next Monday…