Yello
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Yello is a Swiss electronica band consisting of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank. They are probably best known for their singles "The Race" and "Oh Yeah", which feature a mix of electronic music and manipulated vocals.
Band history
Yello was originally formed by Boris Blank (keyboards, sampling, percussion, backing vocals) and Carlos Perón (tapes) in the late 1970s. Dieter Meier (vocals, lyrics), a millionaire industrialist and gambler, was brought in when the two founders realised that they needed a singer. Meier and Blank's first release was the 1979 single called "I.T. Splash". The LP Solid Pleasure, featuring the hit dance single "Bostich", was released the following year.[citation needed]
In 1983 Yello received substantial media attention with the release of "I Love You" and "Lost Again". Perón left the band in 1983 to start a solo career. With their 1983 album You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess, the band began a working relationship with Ernst Gamper, whose "corner cut" logo would represent them for three albums, and who would design covers for the group beyond the demise of this logo.[citation needed]
Yello's sound is mainly characterised by unusual music samples, a heavy reliance on rhythm and Dieter Meier's dark voice. Boris Blank has taken a couple of vocal turns; on "Swing" (from You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess) and "Blazing Saddles" (from Flag), and guest vocalists have included Rush Winters (the first female diva to be featured on a Yello recording), Billy MacKenzie, Stina Nordenstam and Shirley Bassey. The group has shared writing credit with MacKenzie and Winters. Yello rarely uses samples from previously released music; nearly every instrument has been sampled and engineered by Boris Blank, who over the years has built up an original sample library of over 100,000 named and categorized sounds.[1]
Meier is also a filmmaker, having written and directed the films Jetzt und Alles and Lightmaker as well as most of Yello's music videos. Additionally, Meier produces his own wine on his ranch.[2]
In 2005, Yello re-released their early albums Solid Pleasure, Claro Que Si, You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess, Stella, One Second and Flag, all with rare bonus tracks, as part of Yello Remaster Series.[citation needed]
A documentary on Yello, Electro Pop made in Switzerland, directed by Anka Schmid was premiered at the Riff Raff cinema in Zurich in September 2005.[citation needed]
Yello were commissioned to produce music for the launch of the Audi A5 at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2007 and for the Audi A5 commercial to be broadcast in May 2007.[citation needed]
Yello music in popular culture
Yello's music has been popular in the TV, advertisement and movie industries.
The single "Oh Yeah" became famous after being featured in the American movies Ferris Bueller's Day Off; The Secret of My Success; Teen Wolf; Planes, Trains & Automobiles; She's Out of Control; K-9; the short film 5 Men and a Limo and more recently Soul Plane. The song is also used on The Simpsons as the theme for the Duffman character. "Oh Yeah" is used as the soundtrack for American football on U.S. TV, in the game Gran Turismo 4, where it is played after a failed license test, and in the television advertisements for Irn-Bru featuring "Raoul". A short excerpt of "Oh Yeah" is also used in the South Park episode Hell on Earth 2006, namely in the making of the Ferrari cake scene. It also featured prominently in commercials for Twix candy bars, and was used extensively in commercials for the now defunct New Zealand department store, DEKA.
The songs "Desire", "Tied Up" and "Otto Di Catania" were used in the 1991 film Dutch.
The songs "Desire", "Moon on Ice" and "Call It Love" were used in season 4 of the TV series Miami Vice.[3]
Another single, "The Race", is well-known in Germany as the theme music to the 1980s pop show Formel Eins and was also used in the movie Nuns on the Run. It also features in The Cutting Edge as the music for the main skaters' short program. "The Race" also featured in the Pink Panther movie of 2006. Moreover, it has been heavily used by Eurosport and numerous car related programmes, as well as the theme music for a British television commercial advertising Scalextric.
Yello created the soundtracks for the British comedy film Nuns on the Run and the American movie The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, and recorded a version of "Jingle Bells" for the film The Santa Clause. A small fraction of the song "Lost again" was used in the movie Planes, Trains & Automobiles.
Swiss car firm Rinspeed produced the "Yello Talbo" concept car in 1996 in association with the group.[4]
In 1995 Yello composed the soundtrack for Manga Video's version of the anime movie Space Adventure Cobra released in 1982 in Japan. The soundtrack consists of Drive/Driven, Daily Disco, Rubberbandman, Do It, Of Course I'm Lying, Suite 909, How How, Night Train, Fat Cry, Hawaiian Chance, Sweet Thunder, Poom Shanka, Blue Green and Dr. Van Steiner. In addition to these tracks however, there was also some tracks done exclusively for the movie that would later be reused and become the song Beyond Mirrors on Yello's Pocket Universe album in 1997.
Discography
Notable singles
| Year | Single | UK | U.S. | Billboard Dance/Club Chart | Additional information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Bostich | - | - | 23 | |
| 1982 | You Gotta Say Yes to Another Success/Heavy Whispers | - | - | 42 | |
| 1983 | I Love You | 41 | - | 16 | |
| 1983 | Lost Again | 73 | - | - | |
| 1984 | Pumping Velvet | - | - | 12 | |
| 1985 | Vicious Games | - | - | 8 | |
| 1986 | Oh Yeah | - | 51 | 35 | Features in the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off |
| 1986 | Goldrush | 54 | - | - | Features Billy MacKenzie |
| 1987 | The Rhythm Divine | 54 | - | - | Features Billy MacKenzie and Shirley Bassey |
| 1988 | The Race | 7 | - | 33 | |
| 1988 | Tied Up | 60 | - | 9 | |
| 1989 | Of Course I'm Lying | 23 | - | - | |
| 1990 | Unbelievable | - | - | 22 | |
| 1993 | Jungle Bill | - | - | 40 | |
| 1994 | Do It | - | - | 46 | |
| 1995 | Tremendous Pain | - | - | 7 | |
| 1996 | How How | - | - | 28 | |
| 1996 | Jingle Bells | - | - | 44 | |
| 1997 | On Track | - | - | 16 |
Studio Albums
| Year | Album | Label | UK | U.S. | Additional information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Solid Pleasure | Mercury Records | |||
| 1981 | Claro Que Si | Ralph Records | |||
| 1983 | You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess | Stiff Records/Mercury | - | 184 | |
| 1985 | Stella | Stiff/Mercury | - | - | |
| 1986 | 1980-1985 The New Mix in One Go | Mercury | - | - | Remix album |
| 1987 | One Second | Mercury | - | 92 | features appearances from Billy MacKenzie and Shirley Bassey |
| 1988 | Flag | Mercury | - | 152 | |
| 1991 | Baby | Mercury/PolyGram | 37 | - | |
| 1994 | Zebra | Fourth & Broadway | - | - | |
| 1995 | Hands on Yello | Urban Records/Motor Music | - | - | Remix album |
| 1997 | Pocket Universe | PolyGram | - | - | features an appearance from Stina Nordenstam |
| 1999 | Eccentrix | Mercury | - | - | Remix album |
| 1999 | Motion Picture | Polygram | - | - | |
| 2003 | The Eye | Motor Music | - | - | |
| 2007 | Progress and Perfection | Not On Records | - | - |
Citations
- ^ http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/dec94/yello.html Boris Blank interview in Sound On Sound
- ^ Ojo De Agua
- ^ "A track listing of the soundtracks of the Miami Vice seasons". Retrieved 2007-06-06.
- ^ "The Rinspeed website". Retrieved 2007-06-06.
External links
- Official site (requires browser plug-in to navigate)
- Dieter Meier's Official site (requires browser plug-in to navigate)
- The Yello Site (requires browser plug-in to navigate)
- Detailed discography on Discogs
- Photographyes and singles "Yello"