Always the Sun
| Always the Sun | |
|---|---|
| The Stranglers | |
| publication | October 6, 1986 |
| length | 4:04 |
| Genre (s) | Pop , new wave |
| Author (s) | Hugh Cornwell , Jean-Jacques Burnel , Dave Greenfield, Jet Black |
| Producer (s) | The Stranglers |
| album | Dreamtime |
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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Always the Sun is a 1986 song by the Stranglers , written and produced by the band. It appeared on the Dreamtime album .
History of origin
The work on the follow-up album to Aural Sculpture , published in November 1984, proved difficult for the Stranglers and took an unusually long time. From the band's perspective, producer Laurie Latham tried to put his musical stamp on the band, while from Latham's perspective, the band had delivered poor song material. For both sides, the first version of Always the Sun, written jointly by the band, was not a candidate for a single release. The band worked on the piece and the album for months and in between exchanged Latham for the rather unknown producer Mike Kemp until the material was found to be worth releasing. The record company Epic Records selected Always the Sun as the second single after Nice in Nice , which was released in September 1986. Always the Sun followed on October 6, 1986.
reception
Numerous broadcasts on the radio led to the fact that the song after Golden Brown became the most famous song by The Stranglers. However, the placement in the charts with rank 30 in the British single charts was rather modest.
In contrast, the song was a hit in continental Europe, reaching number 15 in France , 16 in Ireland and 42 in the Netherlands .
In his book The Stranglers Song By Song , Hugh Cornwell wrote that he thought the song might do as well as Golden Brown . He recalls being in the middle of the week for charting prediction at Epic parent company CBS Records and was surprised by the bad news. He also wrote: "We gave CBS something great to work with and I could see on the person in charge that he knew he was not doing the job he wanted." (We'd given CBS something great to work with and I could see in this guy's face that he knew he hadn't delivered ”), which leaves the impression that he blames CBS for the bad ranking.
Music video
The music video shows The Stranglers performing the song in a dark room. All members stand on separate small stages while front man Hugh Cornwell stands on the floor below.
When Cornwell sings: Who has the fun? Is it always a man with a gun? (German: Who is having fun? Is it always the man with the gun?) A plaque with an allegorical representation of the sun is shattered by a shot.
After he sang: “Who gets the job of pushing the knob? That sort of responsibility you draw straws for, if you're mad enough ” (German: Who gets the job to push the button? This kind of responsibility for which you draw matches when you're crazy enough) he pushes the red one Button of the light switch, and then blinding white light shines. The video ends with the band members walking up the stairs and marching over a small mountain-like obstacle towards the sunlight.
Cover versions
- 1997: Dire Straits
- 2007: PR cantata
- 2009: Martin Klein
- 2014: Get Well Soon
Others
In Germany, the song was used for commercials in the late 1990s for Herford Pils and in 2002 for Golden Toast .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Sources chart positions: Great Britain - France - Ireland (search) - Netherlands (top 40)
- ↑ David Buckley: No Mercy. The Authorized and Uncensored Biography . Hodder & Stoughton, London 1997, ISBN 0-340-68062-8 , pp. 205 .
- ^ Strong, Martin C. (2003) The Great Indie Discography , Canongate, ISBN 1-84195-335-0 , p. 155
- ↑ Always the Sun in the Official UK Charts (English)
- ↑ Music video from Always the Sun on myvideo.de
- ↑ 'Always the Sun' as a commercial for Herford Pils on Youtube
- ↑ 'Always the Sun' in the commercial song list ( Memento from January 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive )