Beautiful People (band)

Lore & Background

Beautiful People began as three friends in the late 1980s playing house and dance music in London area clubs. Seeking a more vibrant sound and frustrated with the lack of guitar in current music, they hit on the bold idea of sampling the music of guitar legend Jimi Hendrix. Aware that they would face licensing issues, they made three demo songs then sought counsel with Eric Clapton. He got them in touch with creative head of the Jimi Hendrix Estate, record producer Alan Douglas, who commissioned the band and gave them access to the music. The result was the hit "If 60's Were 90's".

Having been granted permission to sample any Jimi Hendrix song they wished, they released "If 60's Were 90's". Originally released in 1991 in just the United Kingdom, a similarly named album, "If 60's Were 90's", was also issued. In 1993, they released "Rilly Groovy", which reached No. 3 in the United States Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart; on the back of this, "If 60's Were 90's" was re-released and peaked at No. 74 on the UK Singles Chart, and No. 5 on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. In 2012, Beautiful People hit No. 100 in the UK with a pre-release cover version of "Turn Up the Music" by Chris Brown.

Reader's Guide

Beautiful People's significance lies in their pioneering fusion of Jimi Hendrix's guitar work with electronic dance music, a cross-genre experiment that required navigating complex licensing issues. Their success with "If 60's Were 90's" and "Rilly Groovy" demonstrated the commercial viability of sampling classic rock in dance contexts, influencing later electronic acts. The group's legacy is tied to their brief but notable chart presence in the early 1990s, particularly on US dance charts, and their role in bridging rock and dance audiences. Their 2012 cover of "Turn Up the Music" showed continued activity, though with diminished impact. As a British techno-dance act, they remain a footnote in the history of sample-based music, remembered for their distinctive use of Hendrix's catalog.

Did You Know?

• Beautiful People were granted permission to sample any Jimi Hendrix song after Eric Clapton connected them with the Hendrix estate.
• Their single "Rilly Groovy" reached No. 3 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart in 1993.
• The group's original lineup from 1989 to 1998 included Duncan Kane, Luke Baldry, and Mark 'Breeze' Richardson.
• In 2012, they released a cover of Chris Brown's "Turn Up the Music" that reached No. 100 in the UK.

From London Clubs to a Guitar Revolution

Beautiful People emerged from the late-1980s London club scene, where three friends began spinning house and dance tracks in local venues. Like many producers of that era, they worked within the prevailing electronic sound, but something felt missing. The trio grew increasingly frustrated by the near-total absence of guitar in contemporary dance music, a void that seemed glaring in a genre that had largely abandoned the electric instrument. That frustration sparked what would become their defining creative gamble: rather than simply layering synths over beats, they decided to sample the raw, searing guitar work of Jimi Hendrix and weave it into the architecture of modern dance tracks. The concept was audacious for a British techno-dance group operating in a market that rarely gave guitar a second thought. By treating Hendrix's recordings not as museum pieces but as living, malleable source material, the three friends set out to build a sound that married the rebellious energy of 1960s rock with the pulsing, club-ready rhythms of the late 1980s and early 1990s. This fusion of sampled guitar and dance music would become the signature identity that defined Beautiful People for the rest of their active years.

The Clapton Connection and the Hendrix Estate

Even with a compelling creative vision, Beautiful People knew that sampling Jimi Hendrix without proper authorization would be a legal minefield. Rather than risk a costly dispute, the trio took a cautious first step: they recorded three demo tracks to demonstrate their concept. Then they made a bold move, seeking the counsel of Eric Clapton, who in turn connected the band with Alan Douglas, the creative head of the Jimi Hendrix Estate and a record producer in his own right. Douglas was impressed enough to formally commission the group and, crucially, granted them access to Hendrix's catalog. The arrangement went further than a single-track license: Beautiful People were given permission to sample any Hendrix recording they wished. That extraordinary freedom allowed them to craft "If 60's Was 90's," a track that wove Hendrix's guitar into a contemporary dance arrangement. The song, initially released in 1992 exclusively in the United Kingdom, became the band's calling card and the foundation for a similarly titled album, If 60's Were 90's.

Chart Runs and a Long-Tail Legacy

The commercial story of Beautiful People unfolded in two distinct waves. The single "If 60's Was 90's" first appeared in 1992, but its initial release was confined to the United Kingdom, and a companion album bearing a slightly different title, If 60's Were 90's, followed. The band's breakthrough in the American market came in 1993 with "Rilly Groovy," which climbed to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. That success created a feedback loop: the momentum from "Rilly Groovy" prompted a re-release of "If 60's Was 90's," which then peaked at No. 74 on the UK Singles Chart and reached No. 5 on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. For a group whose identity was built around a single, highly specific creative concept, those numbers represented a genuine crossover achievement. Nearly two decades later, in 2012, Beautiful People resurfaced on the UK charts with a pre-release cover of Chris Brown's "Turn Up the Music," landing at No. 100. That late-career entry, while modest in ranking, demonstrated that the band's name still carried enough recognition to chart in the twenty-first century, a quiet testament to the lasting imprint of their early-1990s work.

The Trio Behind the Sound

Behind the sampled Hendrix guitar and the driving dance rhythms stood a compact three-piece unit active from 1989 through 1998. Duncan "Du Kane" Kane handled guitar and backing vocals, serving as the band's primary link to the rock tradition they were channeling through their samples. Luke Baldry occupied the production and rhythmic core, contributing keyboards, drum programming, and additional backing vocals, essentially the architectural backbone of their tracks. Robin Goodridge rounded out the trio on drums and percussion, adding the live, physical pulse that grounded their electronic arrangements. Together, these three friends, who had first started playing house and dance music in London-area clubs in the late 1980s, formed a unit small enough to move quickly in the studio yet diverse in skill to cover the full spectrum of their sound. Their nine-year active window, from 1989 to 1998, encapsulated the rise and peak of the British dance scene, and their particular niche within it: a group that proved guitar and four-on-the-floor beats could coexist without either sacrificing its identity.

Gallery