Gym and Tonic

"Gym and Tonic"
Single by Spacedust
from the album Hits n' Pieces
B-side	"Spacegroove"
Released	12 October 1998 (1998-10-12)
Genre	Dance
Length	7:18 (Original mix) 3:24 (Radio edit)
Label	East West
Songwriter(s)	Thomas Bangalter Bob Sinclar Spacedust
Producer(s)	Spacedust
Spacedust singles chronology
"Gym and Tonic" (1998) "Let's Get Down!" (1999)
"Gym and Tonic" (1998) "Let's Get Down!" (1999)

"Gym and Tonic" is a single released by British production duo Spacedust. Released on 12 October 1998, it peaked at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart;^[1] however, it was the lowest-selling UK number-one song of 1998, reaching No. 109 on the year-end chart.

The song was originally recorded by French record producer Bob Sinclar as "Gym Tonic", with co-production by Thomas Bangalter^[2] and a 12-minute section of improvised funk by James Andrew (Gym) Dakin. The track was included on Sinclar's album Paradise. Their version sampled "Arms", a workout recording by American actress Jane Fonda.^[3] However, Fonda refused clearance of her vocals being used as a sample, which eventually led to a single never being released. (Although the track was released on Bob Sinclar's debut album, as this is how Fonda found out about it.) When Spacedust recorded their version of the track, the Fonda vocal samples were re-recorded with a session vocalist. In addition to this, the song was a recreated mash-up of Stardust's "Music Sounds Better with You" and Thomas Bangalter and Bob Sinclar's original version "Gym Tonic".^[4]

Music video

The music video for Spacedust's track depicts an exercise workout filmed on 2 August 1998 and featured an appearance by Nancy Sorrell. In an ode to exercise videos from the 1980s and 1990s, it was intentionally cheaply made with production costs for the video at over £10,000. It regularly features on VH1's "worst videos" lists.

References