"I Wanna Be a Hippy" is a song by Englishelectronic music groupTechnohead. The vocals were taken fromDavid Peel's song "I Like Marijuana", which he sang in the 1989 movieRude Awakening. It first appeared as the B-side to the group'sMary Jane EP, issued by Dutch hardcoretechno labelMokum Records. John Peel featured the track "Mary Jane" on his show on 10 February 1995, which helped give the release recognition.
In June 1995, "I Wanna Be a Hippy" was released as the lead single from the group's first album,Headsex (1995); the single includes a remix by Dutch-American production duo Flamman & Abraxas. The song appeared on the mainstream charts later that year, peaking at number one in Austria,Flanders, Germany, and the Netherlands and reaching the top 10 in several other countries. In the United Kingdom, the song peaked at number 77 during its original release, but when re-released in early 1996, it reached a new peak of number six. Its accompanying music video was directed by Matthijs Van Heyningen Jr. and filmed in a park inAmsterdam, the Netherlands.
In January and February 1996, Technohead performed the song live onTop of the Pops twice, although both performances had the references to marijuana censored.[3] In September 2019, in celebration of Mokum Records' 200th release, Tellurian and Technohead released a remix of the song known as the "Panama 2019 Mix".[4]
In a 2018 interview withAT5 commemorating 25 years of Mokum Records, Flamman & Abraxas revealed that their remix of the song was meant to be a joke and for the song to get played on the radio. The duo also revealed that when the song first came out, the song was insanely popular at Amnesia, agabber club the duo opened up in Amsterdam. It reached the point where the song was requested as often as five times a night, leading the duo to contact Technohead about remixing the song due to how frequent it was played. Additionally, they added that despite the massive worldwide chart success of the song, they received no royalties due to a swap deal they did with Technohead. They made this remix for Technohead, in exchange Technohead did a remix for them, but both duo's kept the rights to their song. DJ Dano, who also did a remix of the song that was sold alongside the Flamman & Abraxas remix, didn't get any royalties either because he also made such a swap deal with Technohead.
It was also revealed in the AT5 interview that the song led to the downfall of gabber music in general when "Gabbertje" by Hakkuhbar, also released by Mokum, was released, spurring a wave of "funny gabbers" that made commercial hardcore, which showed similarities to Flamman & Abraxas' style. Despite this, Jeff "Abraxas" Porter joked that because of the remix's success and the string of number-one hits the duo had with theParty Animals, "[They] took over Mokum like Trump took over the Republican Party."[5]
Neil Kulkarni fromMelody Maker wrote, "Technohead are probably novelty-gabba but it's fun to hear the pompous solemnity ofTresor-hardbeat applied to such determinedly juvenile ends."[2] The magazine'sSimon Reynolds described it as "a pop-gabba stampede with a daft nursery-rhymepunk vocal about pot which sounds likePoly Styrene, but is really a sped-up Sixties folkie!"[6] In a separate review,Melody Maker editorAndrew Mueller said, "'I Wanna Be a Hippy' doesn't state much beyond its title, and it states that in a giddy, panickedhelium-addled voice that raises the disagreeable spectre ofLene Lovich with a bat up her ballgown."[7]Music Week gave "I Wanna Be a Hippy" two out of five, adding, "Could be a surprise hit along the lines ofRednex's 'Cotton Eye Joe'. Relentless, speedytechno that's proving a hit across the water."[1]
Robbert Tilli fromMusic & Media wrote, "Just like their hippy predecessors, dance aficionados have already proclaimed a "summer of love"—that was in 1987. NowAmsterdam-based dance project Technohead is reliving the hippy rituals in more detail with its hilarious Dutch number 1 hit single [...] Living up to the city's liberal climate, it is an uncensored invitation to smokecannabis."[8]James Hyman from theRecord Mirror Dance Update rated it three out of five, saying, "With blatant references to getting high and smokingmarijuana, this novelty gabba-fuelled hit has already been number one in Holland, Germany and Austria."[9] AnotherRM editor, Tim Jeffery gave it top score of five out of five and named it Tune of the Week, commenting, "At breakneck speed, this is pop gabba with its tongue firmly in cheek and it's been a massive hit everywhere in Europe except here [in the UK]. [...] Deserved to be number one in the charts, no question."[10]
The music video for "I Wanna Be a Hippy", which uses the Flamman & Abraxas mix, shows threegabbers, who Flamman & Abraxas knew from Amnesia, wearingMokum Records shirts chasing after a hippy on a bike throughVondelpark[11] inAmsterdam with inflatable hammers. The hippy eventually escapes by walking into a funhouse mirror and disappearing. The video was directed by Matthijs Van Heyningen Jr.[12] Robbert Tilli fromMusic & Media wrote about the video, "Anyway, seeing the video with theBenny Hill-like chase will be enough to convince the sceptics that it's only a joke."[8]Record Mirror editor Tim Jeffery commented, "If you get the European satellite music programmes you'll be familiar with this fabulously irreverant track because its brilliantly funny video, featuring ravers chasing a hippy, has been on heavy rotation for ages."[10] In the aforementioned interview with AT5, MC Remsy revealed that after the song become a huge success, Flamman & Abraxas recruited him and the other gabbers featured in the video to form another group, which became theParty Animals.[13]
In 1996,the Smurfs released aparody of the song called "I've Got a Little Puppy", which was included on the albumThe Smurfs Go Pop! as the third track.[45] This version was produced by William Jackson, Barry Corbett, and Frans Erkelens and was released as a single in the United Kingdom on 26 August 1996 throughEMI Records.[44][46] The parody charted within the top 10 of theUK Singles Chart, peaking at number four for two weeks in September 1996.[47][48] It was the UK's 54th-best-selling single of 1996 and was awarded a silver certification from theBritish Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments exceeding 200,000 copies.[49][50]
British columnistJames Masterton wrote that "I've Got a Little Puppy" is "ridiculous" yet "so bloody funny", noting that the new lyrics take the track "into a whole new realm".[51] ReviewingThe Smurfs Go Pop! onAllMusic, Peter Fawthrop referred to the song as "obscure and delightful as freshly baked Smurfberry pie".[45]
^Hyman, James (23 September 1995)."Hot Vinyl"(PDF).Music Week, in Record Mirror (Dance Update Supplemental Insert). p. 13. Retrieved12 May 2021.
^abJeffery, Tim (25 November 1995)."Hot Vinyl: Tune of the Week"(PDF).Music Week, in Record Mirror (Dance Update Supplemental Insert). p. 9. Retrieved15 May 2021.
