35th Anniversary of ‘Charly’ single

On August 12, 1991, the legendary single Charly was released via XL Recordings: it was on this very day that The Prodigy’s story truly began. Some of you reading this article are younger than the title track — it’s really hard to believe, but this track turned 35 in August 2026. That iconic sample of a child’s voice and the meow of a cartoon cat, combined with aggressive rave synths, became one of the most memorable hallmarks of the bygone rave era of the early ’90s — and, according to some, also marked its end. But first things first…

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According to the official credits for the single, the track was written and produced not only by Liam Howlett himself, but also by Chaz Stevens – a man Liam had known even before The Prodigy came into being. Stevens worked as a producer and mixing engineer for the hip-hop band Cut 2 Kill, in which Howlett was a member before launching his own band. It was Stevens who produced and mixed the band’s debut single, ‘Listen To The Basstone’, co-written with Howlett, in 1990; following its release, Liam left Cut2Kill. Despite the fact that it wasn’t the most pleasant break-up, Howlett turned to Stevens again shortly afterwards — this time to produce and mix Charly, which became the starting point for his future hit.

According to Liam himself, the track was ready as early as October 1990, when he began sending out his first demo tapes to record labels. As is well known, it did not make it onto their debut ‘What Evil Lurks’ EP. However, following the success of their debut release, The Prodigy didn’t take long to decide on their next single. In essence, the audience had already made up their minds. By that point, ‘Charly’ had become one of the highlights of their live set: the band played it regularly at gigs, and the track was bringing the dancefloor down. What’s more, even before its official release, interest in it was so great that music shops and pirate radio stations began phoning Liam, asking him to provide a copy of the track.

Liam for Martin Roach: “One thing that led us to believe we were on to something potentially big was the fact we were getting phone calls from record shops and pirate radio stations asking for ‘Charly’ before we had even mastered it. We hadn’t even cut or promo-ed the record, but off the back of the band’s live following and the sheer number of PAs The Prodigy had played, we were being asked for the record.”

The idea for the track ‘Charly’ came to Liam almost by accident. After yet another party, he found himself at home in front of the TV one morning and stumbled upon an old children’s commercial featuring the cartoon cat Charley. The 1973 commercial with incomprehensible pronouncements from a ginger cat named Charley warned children against strangers, matches, water safety, and other everyday perils. Created by Richard Taylor Cartoons, the quirky Charley Says animated series with the warning growls voiced by the late Kenny Everett, delivered often-stark messages in a darkly comic way.

The video itself was as harmless as could be, but Liam liked the contrast between the child’s voice and the completely mad rave soundtrack that could be created to go with it.

Liam for Martin James: “I probably was still off my head but I just thought it would be mad to do a track out of that for people who remembered that advert. I also thought it would mess with peoples heads a little bit. You know this voice from your childhood giving you good advice in the middle of fucking rave!”

Had the cat brought Howlett any copyright problems? Well, practically none. Interviewed by Music Technology in 1992, Liam recalled: “At the time of the release there were people saying ‘you can’t do that, they’ll sue you’, but we turned it around by saying it was a message to kids not to go off with strangers. I think the guy whose voice it was phoned Virgin and tried to get some money for it but they said ‘No way’ and he said ‘Fair enough, I like the record anyway’. That was the guy who spoke the words for the advert, and that was the end of it”.

The earliest version of the track differed slightly from the one that the general public eventually heard. That version had a much darker with heavy ragga sub-bass line, and it was this version that The Prodigy initially played at their concerts.

Liam for Martin Roach: “The first mix was done at the very end of 1990, and was played at our first PA at The Labyrinth, but I eventually re-mixed it again for the single. That second mix was basically more techno, more danceable and more listenable if you like, whereas the original had a really heavy ragga sub-bass line running through it.”

According to rumors, this version was on that very first 10-track demotape from 1990, and on some fan sites it was referred to as the Original Ragga Version. But later, in 2005, this same version was discovered on the Side B of drummer Kean’s demotape, credited simply as Charlie I.

On the same cassette, but on Side A, you can also hear an updated version of the track for the single, similarly credited to Charlie I. Nevertheless, the re-mixed Original Mix is still different from the official version released on the single — it’s about 1 minute longer. It’s unclear why they decided to shorten the track for the single, but most likely the label didn’t like the drawn-out gloomy intro, as well as the track’s overly somber outro that emerges from the silence.

In general, despite Liam’s desire to create a heavy underground sound, it seems the label preferred to make the release lighter and more commercial after all. As a result, the actual remix of ‘Charly’ titled Alley Cat Mix — which Liam had made two to three months before the release — ended up being the title track on the single, appearing first on Side A. It was only on the CD edition of the single that the ‘Original Mix’ appeared first on the tracklist.

Fun fact: the contrast between these two versions of the track on the single would later lead to a couple of officially released remixes on various labels, which would mixed both versions of the track together:

In any case, even before the single was released, the ‘Alley Cat Mix’ had completely replaced the original version in the band’s live setlist, being performed nearly twice per show: as a highlight of the main set and as an encore at the end of the show.

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When the single was released, it was this version that was used for the official radio edit – Alley Cat 7″ Edit – and an official music video was filmed for it.

The music video, directed by Russell Curtis, was as far removed as possible from standard television pop productions: grainy, built around real footage of the band’s performances, the dancing crowd and, of course, that very same cat, Charlie. There was no elaborate staging: the video looked more like a live report from the very scene in which The Prodigy existed at that moment. By the way, you can see a few shots with Sharky dancing on the stage with the lads in the middle of the video — she was still with the band at some of the gigs pictured here. The rest is history.

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In addition to all the versions of the track mentioned above, which were made during that early period, it’s worth noting another remix by Liam of ‘Charly’ that stands apart and isn’t as well known to the general public. After Kean’s cassette featuring early versions of the track was leaked in 2005, Liam responded by uploading several demo tracks to the band’s official website, including an unreleased remix of ‘Charly’ from 1991. However, the track was posted in mono audio with a low bitrate and embedded in a Flash animation on one of the site’s sections.

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But we’ve managed to fully restore this long-forgotten remix in high quality, and you can download it for free from our Bandcamp!

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Returning to the single, it’s also worth noting the other tracks, apart from the title track. Liam was determined not to turn ‘Charly’ into a mere commercial release, where a single obvious hit was expected to carry the rest of the material. “The samples definitely helped the track take off, but because I didn’t want it to be seen as a novelty record I made sure that the tracks on the flip side were radically different.” he said. As a result, ‘Charly’ was accompanied by Pandemonium and Your Love — tracks with a much more pronounced underground feel. The logic was quite clear: if anyone didn’t like the more accessible and recognisable ‘Charly’, the other tracks were still meant to make it clear that this was still The Prodigy from the hardcore rave scene.

Both B-side tracks were also recorded back in ’91. ‘Your Love’ was recorded around the beginning of the year, and you can hear it at one of The Prodigy’s early gigs alongside ‘Dr.Zupan’ and ‘What Evil Lurks’. We were even able to find an early mix of the track, which differs slightly in terms of emphasis and mixing:

‘Pandemonium’, in turn, was recorded around the middle of the year and was performed live in an early, pre-final version right up until the single’s release:

SINGLE DESIGN

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The fabulous ‘Charly’ single cover was originally created by Julie McKendry (also known as Jay McKendry Jenkins or simply JMCJ).

Born in North Antrim in 1962, educated in England achieving a first class honours degree in Fashion and Textile design at Liverpool Polytechnic in 1984 JMCJ has since had an exciting career in the arts and design, working on a wide variety of projects — including designing and making images for top music bands. She has decorated venues throughout the country with large artworks. Also producing design which became promotion images for the music industry. Clients include: The Prodigy, Moby, XL Recordings, PWL Recordings, Carlton Television, Park Lane Hilton, Face Party and many more.

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It all started with Jay being a good friend of the band, working with The Prodigy on their first white-with-green concert costumes (exactly the ones that were captured in the debut video). One day Liam saw a drawing of a dragon that McKendry had made and asked her to draw a cat in a similar style. The original work was done in mixed media, it was easy to create and took really little time — just about a week or so. Jay made this drawing in her home studio Braintree (Essex), and, as she herself recalls, while working she listened to tapes with mixes of her friends, Essex DJs. The dimensions of the original drawing are approximately 20×20 inches (50×50 centimeters).

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Years later Jay posted some other random sketches of the cat on her Instagram.

The final sleeve was processed by The Unknown Partnership headed by Steve Gribbin aka Jaffa. The color drawing was digitalized to create a three-color image of black, white and silver, which was eventually used for the single artwork. According to unconfirmed information, the device with which the final cut was made is called Video Grapher: appeared in 1985, it was the first technology to take screenshots from a movie camera during filming.

BEEF WITH MIXMAG

But the track received generally mixed reviews from critics, despite its popularity. Exactly one year after the single was released, in August 1992 Mixmag ran one of its most controversial covers questioning Did Charly kill rave?. Perhaps worst of all was the photo of Liam with a gun pulled to his head and the dishonesty with which it was taken — the photo which indirectly insinuated that The Prodigy endorsed the article’s views.

The article was written by Mixmag’s now former assistant editor Dom Phillips, and The Prodigy went ballistic when they read this piece. They heated phone calls were made to the Mixmag office, but the temporary damage was already done. The magazine toughly accused the band in light of the abundance of copycat kiddy-sample rave tracks which also sampled children’s programming, including ‘Sesame’s Treet’ by Smart E’s and ‘A Trip To Trumpton’ by Urban Hype. Luckily, 10 years later the conflict was completely settled when in their January 2002 issue, Mixmag apologized about the ill-fated article.

Despite the critics, on 1 October 1992, ‘Charly’ had sold over 200,000 copies in the UK which in turn enabled it a Silver BPI certification.

Liam reacted in interview for Music Technology: “I was quite surprised really. It wasn’t meant to be a novelty record, it was meant to be an underground record because it was such a mad idea. But people started buying it not because they were into the rave scene but because they remembered the TV series.”

OTHER REMIXES & VERSIONS

Back in 1992, The Prodigy made their first attempt to break into the American market. Although the band already had three releases under their belt, it was decided to re-release ‘Charly’ for the US – or, to be more precise, to release a double A-side single comprising their two most recent: Charly/Everybody In The Place. The release was handled by the then-well-known label Elektra, which would go on to handle the band’s releases in the US over the following few years.

A distinctive feature of American reissues from that era was the virtually mandatory inclusion of one or more remixes of the title track by popular American DJs and producers. The release of ‘Charly/Everybody In The Place’ was no exception, and Joey Beltram became the first side producer to create an official remix of ‘Charly’:

For a long time, this remix remained the only remix of ‘Charly’ by side producer. It was not until 13 years later that another “guest” remix of ‘Charly’ was produced – this time by DJ Zinc. Around the time of the release of the compilation ‘Their Law: The Singles 1990–2005’, XL Recordings decided to release several remix-singles of legendary tracks from past years to promote the album, including ‘Voodoo People (Pendulum Remix)’, ‘Out Of Space (Audio Bullys Remix)’, and others. A release of Charly (DJ Zinc Remix) was also planned, but for some unknown reason, this remix was never released. A couple of years later, it was posted on the band’s official MySpace page:

It’s also worth noting that, in addition to the first remix, Zinc also created a second mix in his signature D&B style for his “live” DJ-sets:

The Prodigy, for their live performances, also produced several remixes of ‘Charly’. The first was a simple live-edit of the track for the tour in support of still the same compilation ‘Their Law’ in 2005:

Another five years later, in 2010, a special dubstep remix of ‘Charly’ was created by Liam for gig in Milton Keynes. But few people know is that there were two versions of this remix: the first demo remix was tested shortly before Milton Keynes at the Oxygen festival, which, by all accounts, didn’t quite satisfy Liam:

And the second one was performed right there in Milton Keynes a couple of weeks later (unfortunately, this track didn’t make it onto the official live album ‘Worlds On Fire’):

Ultimately, ‘Charly’ turned out to be far from a fluke, but rather the moment when everything finally came together: their live performances, the interest of the rave scene, an unusual sample, and Liam’s determination to go his own way. It was with this release that The Prodigy began to transform from just another young hardcore band into a major phenomenon on the British scene.

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Headmasters: SIXSHOT, SPLIT
Additional thanks to: Jay McKendry Jenkins, Canyon Hill

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