"Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag" is an instrumental performed by British dance-punk band Pigbag. The instrumental was written by Chris Hamlin and James Johnstone before Pigbag was formed and produced by Dave Hunt and Dick O'Dell. In the United States, the instrumental was released as an import on the Rough Trade label, where it made it to number 56 on the US dance chart. A 1982 re-release of "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag" went to number three in the United Kingdom. Several covers of the instrumental have been released, including popular versions by Perfecto Allstarz and Thunderpuss.
The piece's title is a play on the James Brown song "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag". Whilst the track is well known for its brass riff, the bassline of the track was also ranked by Stylus Magazine at number 40 in their 2005 list of the "Top 50 Basslines of All Time".[1]
On 23 January 1995, Paul Oakenfold released the track "Reach Up (Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag)", credited to Perfecto Allstarz. This version went to number six in the United Kingdom,[13] topped the UK Dance Chart,[14] and also charted in Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands and Switzerland.[15][16][17]
In his weekly UK chart commentary, James Masterton stated, "The track has lost nothing with time, a glorious catchy soul-funk instrumental that looks set to dominate dancefloors just as it did 13 years ago."[18] Pan-European magazine Music & Media wrote, "Britain's dance and remix culture started through Adrian Sherwood's productions of the Pop Group, to which family tree Pig Bag belonged. So recycling the 1982 instrumental "Papa's Got a Brand New Pig Bag" is only fair."[19]James Hamilton from Music Week's RM Dance Update described it as a "Pigbag's braying brass from 1982 driven now by bursts of Goodmen-ish percussion like Postflix's 'Rototom', in organ and 'reach up' divas prodded 136.2bpm [track]".[20]
English darts player Adrian Lewis uses "Reach Up" as his pre-match walk-on song.[32] Former 3-times Lakeside World Champion Glen Durrant used the same song in his BDO years, however he was forced to change it as he switched to the PDC circuit to avoid clash with Lewis.[33]
Dutch DJ duo Carte Blanq sampled "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag" for their tribute song on Dutch Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen's first World Drivers' Championship victory, "33 Max Verstappen".[35]
^Rees, Dafydd; Lazell, Barry; Jones, Alan (1983). "The Top 100 UK Singles". Chart File Volume 2. London, England: Virgin Books. pp. 80–81. ISBN0-907080-73-1.
^"Eurochart Hot 100 Singles"(PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 12, no. 7. 18 February 1995. p. 19. Archived(PDF) from the original on 15 July 2022. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
^"The RM Club Chart"(PDF). Music Week, in Record Mirror (Dance Update Supplemental Insert). 14 January 1995. p. 6. Archived(PDF) from the original on 17 September 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
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