Beats International were a British dance music band and hip-hop collective,
A loose confederation of musicians, the line-up also included vocalist Lindy Layton, former North of Cornwallis vocalist Lester Noel, rappers DJ Baptiste (The Crazy MC), MC Wildski and keyboardist Andy Boucher.
Biography
After having a few small hits under his own name such as "Blame It on the Bassline", a 1989 hip-house crossover single featuring MC Wildski, and "For Spacious Lies" with Lester Noel, Cook decided that further releases would be under the collective name "Beats International" – just one of the names he went on to use in the 1990s.
Beats International's debut studio album, Let Them Eat Bingo included these solo hits and the original version of "Won't Talk About It" which featured Billy Bragg singing in a soulful falsetto.
!AUS<br>
|-
| rowspan="1"|1990
| Let Them Eat Bingo
|
|
|
|-
| rowspan="1"|1991
| Excursion on the Version
|
|
|
|-
|}
Norman Cook singles
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
!rowspan="2"|Year
!rowspan="2"|Title
!colspan="2"|Peak chart positions
|- style="line-height:1.2"
!width="35"|<small>UK<br/></small>
!width="35"|<small>NZ<br/></small>
|-
!rowspan="2"| 1989
| "Won't Talk About It"/"Blame It on the Bassline"
| style="text-align:center;"|29
| style="text-align:center;"|36
|-
| "For Spacious Lies"
| style="text-align:center;"|48
| style="text-align:center;"|-
|}
Note: these singles are from "Let Them Eat Bingo" and would be re-credited to Beats International on this album.
Singles
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! rowspan="2"| Year
! rowspan="2" style="width:20em;"| Single
! colspan="10"| Peak positions
! rowspan="2"| Album
|- style="font-size:smaller;"
! width="40"| <small>UK</small><br>
! width="40"| <small>AUT</small>
! width="40"| <small>SWI</small>
! width="40"| <small>SWE</small>
! width="40"| <small>AUS</small><br>
! width="40"| <small>US</small><br>
|-
| rowspan="4"|1990
! scope="row"| "Dub Be Good to Me"
| 1
| 2
| 5
| 19
| 4
| 2
| 6
| 10
| 12
| 76
| rowspan="4"|Let Them Eat Bingo
|-
! scope="row"| "Won't Talk About It"
| 9
| 28
| —
| —
| 26
| 27
| 24
| —
| 70
| 76
|-
! scope="row"| "Burundi Blues"
| 51
| 70
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "For Spacious Lies" <small>(France only)</small>
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
|-
| rowspan="3"|1991
! scope="row"| "Echo Chamber"
| 60
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| 169
| —
| rowspan="4"|Excursion on the Version
|-
! scope="row"| "The Sun Doesn't Shine"
| 66
| —
| —
| —
| 87
| —
| —
| —
| 165
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "In the Ghetto"
| 44
| —
| —
| —
| 89
| —
| —
| —
| 142
| —
|-
| rowspan="1"|1992
! scope="row"| "Change Your Mind" <small>(US only)</small>
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
|-
|align="center" colspan="17" style="font-size:8pt"| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released.
|}
Samples list
;Let Them Eat Bingo
- "Burundi Dub"
- "Thank You for Talkin' to Me Africa" by Sly & The Family Stone / bassline
- "Dub Be Good to Me"
- "Just Be Good to Me" by The SOS Band
- "The Guns of Brixton" by The Clash / bassline
- "Blame It on the Bassline"
- "Get into Something" by Isley Brothers / phrase "Come on now / give the drummer some"
- "Won't Talk About It"
- "Thank You Mr. DJ" by Silver Convention / intro
- "Won't Talk About It" by Billy Bragg / guitar
- "Dance to the Drummer's Beat"
- "Dance to the Drummer's Beat" by Herman Kelly & Life
- "Tribute to King Tubby"
- "Unwind Yourself" by Marva Whitney / saxophone in beginning
;Excursion on the Version
- "Echo Chamber"
- "Could You Be Loved" by Bob Marley and the Wailers
See also
- List of Billboard number-one dance club songs
- List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart