Wish You Were Here (Rednex song)
| Wish You Were Here | |
|---|---|
| Rednex | |
| publication | 1995 |
| length | 3:57 |
| Genre (s) | Country - pop , ballad |
| Author (s) | L. Teijo |
| Producer (s) | Denniz Pop , Max Martin |
| Label | Jive , zomba |
| album | Sex & Violins |
Wish You Were Here is a song by Swedish Country - Dance band Rednex of 1995. The third single from her debut album Sex & Violins was of L. Teijo written as well as Denniz Pop and Max Martin produced.
Music and lyrics
Wish You Were Here is a country- pop - ballad , which represents a radical break compared to the previous songs of the band. While completely dispensing with the typical Rednex connection of dance elements with fiddles and banjos , the song is characterized by melodic guitar playing, gentle but distinctive keyboards, a dramatic, ever-increasing structure, a bridge made up of a choir of background singers, and a composition in minor. It is also noticeable that with Mary Joe only the female lead voice can be heard. Her expressive singing style can be compared to that of Dolly Parton .
In terms of content, Rednex are much more serious than on the partly ironic and easily digestible predecessor songs: Wish You Were Here is about the grueling loneliness of a straw widow whose husband is far away from her for reasons that are not explained in detail. She wants him back with her, and at the same time asks him if he's still reciprocating her feelings. In the refrain , the metaphor of a cold hearth is used to represent the protagonist's emotional state, which is increasing into negative; the second stanza is about how your subjective sense of time seems longer since his absence.
The song has often been linked to the death of the sung through the music video , but the actual lyrics suggest that the man is still alive. However, Rednex, with a new line-up, released a newly recorded version of the song 22 years later, which was officially titled the Memorial Version and replaced the lines that imply the man's liveliness with neutral ones.
Music video
The music video shows Mary Joe singing with a tormented, melancholy look sitting in a meadow, while she looks back on her relationship with her husband. You can see memories of the two going for a walk, Mary Joe washing her husband's head, or mediating a quarrel between him and another man. Her happy facial expression in the past is contrasted with the cloudy look of the present. Battle scenes, which also take place on a meadow, are repeatedly faded in. Several soldiers fall, including how her husband sinks to the ground, which makes it clear that he fell victim to the war. Towards the end of the video you can see Mary Joe walking with a torch through the meadow strewn with war corpses at night and looking at the faces of the dead.
The music video for the “Memorial Version” released in 2017 is dedicated to Deputy Carl Howell , who was killed in action in 2015 . The narrator sings the song alternately against a black background and a perforated, waving leather flag, which was also shown in the original video, while texts and photos about the life and death of the mourned person are faded in.
success
Charts and chart placements
The song was a huge commercial success in several European countries. In Germany and Switzerland the song became Rednex's second number one hit after Cotton Eye Joe , in Austria and Norway , together with Old Pop in an Oak, the band's first three singles were all at the top of the charts. In her homeland of Sweden the song reached number three.
In Austria the song stayed at the top position for ten weeks and was the most successful title of 1995 (followed by the previous single Old Pop in an Oak , which lasted just as long there), in Switzerland and Germany the success was enough for third place . in Germany, Wish You were Here certified platinum in Austria and Switzerland with gold.
| Charts | Top ranking | Weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Chart placements | ||
 Germany (GfK)
|
1 (29 weeks) | 29 |
 Austria (Ö3)
|
1 (27 weeks) | 27 |
 Sweden (GLF)
|
3 (22 weeks) | 22nd |
 Switzerland (IFPI)
|
1 (30 weeks) | 30th |
Awards for music sales
| Country / Region | Award | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales) |
||
|
Germany (BVMI)
|
 platinum
|
500,000 |
 Norway (IFPI)
|
platinum
|
10,000 |
|
Austria (IFPI)
|
 gold
|
25,000 |
|
Switzerland (IFPI)
|
gold
|
25,000 |
| All in all |
2 × gold, 2 × platinum |
560,000 |
Cover versions
In the same year as Rednex celebrated great success with Wish You Were Here , the German Eurodance project Urgent C covered the song in a modern dance garb, dominated by danceable kicks in 4/4 time.
Another Eurodance version with similar characteristics was released in the same year by the German formation Jam Tronik as Wish You Were Here (The Dance Version) .
The German pop singer Catlén covered the song in 1996 under the title I wish you were here on her album of the same name with German lyrics. While their version is musically close to the original, the text is independent and does not represent an exact translation.
The American rock band Blackmore’s Night released a cover version of the title on their 1997 album Shadow of the Moon . This version largely sticks to the original in tone and tempo, but has been expanded to include a guitar solo . In addition, the line “Don't you know the stove is getting colder” in the chorus has been changed to “Don't you know the snow is getting colder”.
In 2006 the song appeared on the Love Songs compilation of the then Deutschland sucht den Superstar participant. It was sung by the candidate Anna-Maria Zimmermann and is an exact copy of the original in music and text.
The German producer Jan Wayne and singer Scarlet recorded a hands-up version of the title in 2008 , which is typical for the genre with hard, pounding bass drums and a catchy Supersaw motif and, despite the identical text and melody, has a completely different, danceable tone.
In 2017, the Swedish pop singer Julia Lindholm released a song titled You to lose on her album Leb die Moment , on which she sings well-known Swedish songs with German lyrics, which takes over the melody of Wish You Were Here , but independently in terms of content and production sounds.
Rednex themselves re-recorded their 2017 hit with the title Wish You Were Here (Memorial Version) in memory of Deputy Carl Howell, who was shot in action in 2015. In the same year, the band also performed at a benefit event in his honor in the United States. The structure of the song remained largely unchanged despite the band's different line-up, although a more opulent instrumentation was used and the lines “I got feelings for you, babe / Do you still feel the same?” in the first verse were changed to “I still have feelings for you, dear / Oh, they're here all the same”. Despite the popularity of the original version, the new recording was not a global success.
Web links
swell
- ↑ Wish You Were Here. Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
- ^ Music & Media: New Releases . In: Music & Media . tape 12 , no. 11 , March 18, 1995 ( americanradiohistory.com [PDF]).
- ↑ Wish You Were Here (lyrics). Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Wish You Were Here (Official Video). Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Wish You Were Here (Memorial Version) (Official Video). Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Charts. Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Annual charts Ö. Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Old Pop in An Oak Charts. Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Annual charts D. Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Annual charts, p. Accessed March 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Officialcharts.de (accessed on March 10, 2019)
- ↑ austriancharts.at: Rednex in the Austrian charts (accessed on March 10, 2019)
- ↑ swedishcharts.com: Rednex in the Swiss charts (accessed on March 10, 2019)
- ↑ hitparade.ch: Rednex in the Swiss hit parade (accessed on March 10, 2019)
- ↑ Gold / platinum database. musikindustrie.de, accessed on April 11, 2019 .
- ↑ IFPI Norsk platebransje ( Memento from November 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) ifpi.no, accessed on April 11, 2019 (Norwegian).
- ↑ Gold & Platinum. ifpi.at, accessed on April 11, 2019 .
- ↑ precious metal. hitparade.ch, accessed on April 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Urgent C version. Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Jam Tronik version. Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Catlén version. Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
- ^ Blackmore's Night Version. Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
- ↑ DSDS version. Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Jan Wayne & Scarlet version. Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Julia Lindholm version. Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Rednex appear at the commemorative event. Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Memorial Version. Retrieved March 9, 2019 .