Sometimes you just have to take a chance. As Bob Dylan once elegantly stated, “When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose.” Preach, Bob.

Deee-Lite formed in New York in 1986 when Lady Miss Kier and DJ Dmitry, romantically involved frequenters of the city’s dance clubs, dropped acid one night and decided to try writing a bunch of songs, despite having never written songs before. You know, standard band formation stuff. Surprisingly, the results of this chemically altered evening proved not only listenable, but actually pretty good. The two continued honing their craft, writing dozens of songs and performing around town, until they picked up a third member, DJ Towa Tei — along with his very large record collection — in 1988.

Lady Miss Kier, in a stunningly bold and seemingly doomed to fail move, sent a demo tape to Parliament/Funkadelic bassist supremo Bootsy Collins (ahh. . . the name is Bootsy, baby!) who, also stunningly, agreed to play on some sessions if the group ever scored a record deal. Elektra soon provided the deal, and Bootsy kept his word.

So Deee-Lite and Collins are hanging out in the studio and Bootsy says, “Do you think you might want to have some horns?” What’s Deee-Lite gonna do, say no? They immediately agreed and Bootsy says, “Lemme make a call.” Next thing you know, Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley show up, the two most famous horn players from James Brown’s classic lineup, who also horned with Parliament/Funkadelic in the 70’s and 80’s, and would soon join up with Prince. Oh sure, we can probably find something for them to play.

“Groove Is In The Heart” was constructed almost entirely of samples, including the prominent bassline — taken from Herbie Hancock’s 1966 track “Bring Down The Birds” — so Bootsy only appears on vocal interjections, but the horns are live, and for the icing on the groovalicious cake, Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest raps over the bridge. (Here’s a fun game for those of you old enough to remember the sitcom Green Acres: there’s a tiny recurring sample from the theme song in the mix, featuring Eva Gabor — you younger kids may remember Eva as Miss Bianca from The Rescuers Down Under.)

Released as a single in the summer of 1990, “Groove Is In The Heart” splattered the charts with its funky psychedelic day-glo paintbrush, reaching the Top 5 in the US.

So groove to Horton Hears a Who! It’s de-lovely . . . with Deee-Lite.