D major · Camelot 10B · 144 BPM
The Real Thing
by 2 Unlimited
- 144
- BPM
- D major
- Key
- 10B
- Camelot
- 60
- Danceability
- 1
- Acousticness
Phil Wilde and Peter Bauwens co-wrote "The Real Thing" together with 2 Unlimited members Ray Slijngaard and Anita Dels, and Wilde produced it with Jean-Paul De Coster. Byte Records released the single in May 1994 as the lead offering from the band's third album, Real Things. One detail set the track apart from their earlier work: it sampled the Toccata and Fugue in D minor by the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach, and classicfm.com later counted it among the biggest pop songs to borrow from classical music in the last 25 years.
The single topped the charts in Finland, Lithuania and the Netherlands, and reached number two in Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland. It also climbed to number one on the Eurochart Hot 100, doing so in its fourth week on that chart on 18 June 1994. Beyond Europe, it peaked at number five in Canada, number 22 in New Zealand and number 39 in Australia. Billboard reported worldwide sales of 633,000 copies as of 1996.
Nigel Simpkiss directed the music video, which was produced by Swivel Films and released in the UK in May 1994. It earned heavy rotation on MTV Europe and on Germany's VIVA, where it was A-listed in June. Slijngaard described the look to Melody Maker as a bit Terminator, with a man on skates covered in computer lights while the group's two dancers boogieing away behind him.
The Real Thing runs at 144 BPM, the tempo of dubstep and trap counted in half time, and hardstyle. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.67 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 417 ms. It is in D major, Camelot 10B, which shares its notes with B minor and mixes cleanly with G major and A major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.