"He's Gonna Step on You Again" is a song originally performed by John Kongos and first released in 1971. The song, released by Fly Records, entered the UK Singles Chart on 22 May 1971 and spent 14 weeks on the chart, peaking at No. 4. Covers of the song have been chart successes several times, including for the Happy Mondays in 1990. It was cited in the Guinness Book of Records as being the first song to have used a sample, however, according to the sleeve note of the CD reissue of the Kongos album, it is actually a tape loop of African drumming, and the use of tape loops and instruments using prerecorded samples such as the Mellotron and Optigan were well established by this time.
The Party Boys were an Australian rock band with a floating membership that mostly performed cover versions and existed from 1982 until 1992. By 1987, the members were Kevin Borich on guitar and backing vocals, John Brewster on guitar and backing vocals, Paul Christie on drums and backing vocals, Richard Harvey on drums, Alan Lancaster on bass guitar and backing vocals, and John Swan on lead vocals. Their version also reached No. 10 on the New Zealand Singles Chart. The Party Boys also recorded a 12" single, "He's Gonna Step on You Again" with Nick Mainsbridge remixing, which was backed by "She's a Mystery".
covered the song, retitling it "Step On" in 1990, with two different music videos. It was originally intended as a contribution to the compilation for their US label Elektra, but they decided to keep it to release as a single, and instead covered Kongos's "Tokoloshe Man" for the compilation. The Happy Mondays version incorporates a short sample of three guitar notes from the original. It became their biggest-selling single, peaking at No. 5 in the UK and even making it on to the BillboardHot 100 chart at No. 57. The repeated phrase in the song "you're twisting my melon, man" was later reused for the title of Shaun Ryder's autobiography Twisting My Melon.
Chart
Peak position
Australia
157
Other versions
Other artists have recorded cover versions of this song, including Def Leppard. Although probably never recorded, the song was also a staple of Canada's MacLean & MacLean live act where its percussion rhythms and topical lyric made it popular with their audiences.
In other media
The song was featured on the soundtrack of the 2006 video gameTest Drive Unlimited.
