This is a classic that I’d heard sometime long ago but whose name I never knew until a few weeks ago, when my buddy Nick played it at the very tail end of a house party and started a wild six-person dance party that I’m proud to say I was a part of. So thanks to Nick, and thanks to 4 am dance parties everywhere (and that one was actually a 5 am dance party because the clock moved forward that night). As it turns out, “Loaded” is one of Primal Scream’s signature songs, and was the lead single off of their famous 1991 album Screamadelica. The song is notable for a variety of reasons — it was Primal Scream’s first mainstream hit, for instance — but chiefly for its ability to be called a classic house track, in spite of the band’s more usual categorization as an alternative rock group.

“Loaded” was concocted by DJ Andrew Weatherall, a friend of the band’s who remixed a song from their previous album and mixed it with a new drum loop and some new vocal samples. The best part is the Peter Fonda sample (from The Wild Angels) from the beginning, which ought to be everyone’s personal motto: “We wanna be free. We wanna be free to do what we wanna do. And we wanna get loaded. And we wanna have a good time. And that’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna have a good time. We’re gonna have a party.” (COLLEGE!) From there, you get the booming horn riff, and then a bit after that, the drums accompanied by the piano melody that sounds awesomely similar to George Michael’s in “Freedom.” Layer on even more instrumentation, including conga drums and an addictive bassline, and you’ve got a timeless house track, and a perfect 5 am dance party-starter.