Rolf Harris hits dancefloor

Rolf Harris is a popular performer at Glastonbury

Entertainer Rolf Harris has signed a deal with an ultra-hip record label to release a dance record, already being touted as a potential club classic.

The song, Fine Day, will be issued on the dance and rap label Tommy Boy Records, home to rap artists Coolio and De La Soul.

The star of BBC One's Animal Hospital was last in the Top 10 with his version of Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven in 1993.

The 70-year-old, who has had a string of hits over a 40-year period but has never before recorded a dance song, said he was thrilled.

Festival hit

Coolio is on the same label

Harris, who has recently found renewed success on the festival scene, tried out the song this summer.

"I did it at Glastonbury and got a fantastic reaction, so much so that I had to do it again. It's been the same at all the festivals like Womad and Guildford", he said.

"Everybody was up for dancing to it. I couldn't believe the audience reaction. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be doing dance music," he said.

'Very big'

Richard Chamberlain, UK managing director of Tommy Boy Records said he was instantly smitten.

"It's very rare in this industry when something lands on your desk and you immediately think 'this is amazing and very big'.

Rolf Harris presents BBC One's Animal Hospital

"It's basically a dance record but the sort of thing that would appeal to anybody who goes to Ibiza or who has known Rolf's songs from throughout his career," he said.

The label, which has an option to release further tracks by the entertainer, is due to issue the record in September.

'Frantic beat'

Rolf, who scored a number one with Two Little Boys in 1969, said he was inspired to write the track after hearing something on Radio 1.

"They were playing a really frantic beat with fast drums but there was no vocal. I kept waiting for it to come in and in the end I started working out something that would fit.

"I was trying to get something multisyllabic and a bit of a tongue-twister, like the Court Of King Caractacus, to go with the rhythm," he explained.

Harris was finally inspired by the British weather, which had taken a turn for the better, and called the song Fine Day.

Harris described hearing the end-product, co-written by his musical collaborator Steve Lima: "It blew my head off. My little grandson who is only four was there and he was away dancing, he loved it."