Pete Tong is one of the most influential and recognizable figures in dance music’s history, mainly due to his lengthy tenure as a host on BBC Radio 1, where he has hosted the weekly Essential Selection and Essential Mix programs since the early ’90s. Through these programs, as well as the FFRR Records label, which he founded, Tong has broken countless club anthems to the general public, elevating dance music into the pantheon of popular culture. He has released numerous best-selling mix CDs, and maintains his status as a major club and festival DJ.
When the BBC began giving airtime to house music, Tong was a natural choice to lead the sessions, and his Essential Selection radio show (broadcast every Friday night, beginning in 1991) became the place for club kids — as well as label executives — to learn about the latest in dance music. Since 1993, he has also hosted Essential Mix, a weekly program emulating the continuous mix format of dance clubs, and featuring a wide range of DJs, both established and rising. Several of the program’s episodes, such as Paul Oakenfold’s 1994 Goa Mix and David Holmes’ 1997 journey through the history of soul music, have become legendary among dance music aficionados.
Tong’s reputation grew as big and as fast as the world-wide popularity of house music during the early ’90s, and he released several collections focusing on the major dance hits of the moment. Numerous volumes of The Annual and Dance Nation (on Ministry of Sound) and Essential Mix series (on FFRR) appeared during the mid-’90s. Keeping up with the biggest sounds of the moment, Tong’s sets incorporated drum’n’bass, big beat, progressive house, trance, garage, and every other dance style that reached mainstream popularity.
In 2016, Tong released Classic House, an album of symphonic interpretations of iconic dance tracks by Moby, Robert Miles, Inner City, and others, featuring the Heritage Orchestra and conductor Jules Buckley. The release hit number one in the U.K., and was certified gold. Tong continued the concept with 2017’s Ibiza Classics and 2019’s Chilled Classics, and in 2021 released Pete Tong + Friends: Ibiza Classics.