On 16 December 1989, Jive Bunny equalled the record of three consecutive UK #1 hits with their first three singles – a record formerly held jointly by Gerry and The Pacemakers and Frankie Goes To Hollywood.
Jive Bunny was the studio-based creation of a father and son team from Rotherham in South Yorkshire. John and Andy Pickles lucked out on a formula for wedding discos that miraculously transferred to the charts.
The idea originally had been to produce medleys for the MasterMix subscription service targeted at mobile disc jockeys, but Let’s Party followed Swing The Mood and That’s What I Like to the top of the British charts.
Swing The Mood also reached #1 in Ireland, Holland, France, Germany, Austria, Norway, Australia and New Zealand, and made it to #11 in the United States.
Such cannibalistic concepts had been made possible by a rich pop back-history and the fact that artists were getting used to the idea of licensing bits of their records.
There had been precedents, of course. The Stars on 45 series of the early 80s had performed a similar trick, but Jive Bunny’s astonishing success eclipsed any competitors, cleverly cross-stitching some of the most memorable recordings of the rock ‘n’ roll age for maximum nostalgic appeal.
The faceless act were represented in public by a cartoon rabbit and had eleven entries in the UK singles chart between July 1989 and November 1991.
While Jive Bunny never enjoyed the credibility for their cannibalism that artists like Afrika Bambaataa later would for sampling, the Pickles laughed all the way to the bank.
