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"Deadweight" | ||||
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Single by Beck | ||||
from the album A Life Less Ordinary soundtrackand Odelay (Deluxe edition) | ||||
Released | October 6, 1997 | |||
Genre | Alternative rock [1] | |||
Length |
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Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | Beck Hansen | |||
Producer(s) | Beck Hansen, The Dust Brothers | |||
Beck singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Deadweight" on YouTube |
"Deadweight" is a single by American musician Beck, [2] released as a single from the soundtrack to the 1997 romantic black comedy film A Life Less Ordinary . The song was nominated for Best Song from a Movie at the 1998 MTV Movie Awards but lost to Will Smith's "Men in Black". The song can also be found on the deluxe version of Beck's fifth studio album, Odelay (1996).
Beck recorded "Deadweight" with the Dust Brothers between Odelay and Mutations . It was released on the soundtrack to A Life Less Ordinary at the end of 1997. In contrast with the buoyant, lively melody, Beck adds his own Gram Parsons-style hard-luck lyrics about gambling, Las Vegas, and loneliness. Beck has mentioned that this song was a part of his "Brazilian trilogy", alongside "Tropicalia" and "Missing". Unlike "Tropicalia", which is a bossa nova song, "Deadweight" uses its Brazilian influence more as part of a larger funky brew. As Beck said in USA Today , "I'm trying to get to a place where this merging of styles is so fluent and natural that you don't notice the different snippets, a musical consciousness where there's no preconceived ideas". An edited version without the synthesizer noise breakdown coda was also put out as a single.
Beck recorded most of the song by himself, playing bass, keyboards, drum machine, and all the guitars; though the scratching is uncredited, it was most likely one of the Dust Brothers, who produced the track.
The remaining two tracks on the single—"Erase the Sun" and "SA-5"—provide direct links to Mutations with lyrical fragments that would end up almost word-for-word in future songs. [3]
The song's music video was directed by Michel Gondry. It features Beck—who lives in a paradoxical world—working at a desk on the beach, then going on holiday to an office. He eventually ends up at a movie theatre showing A Life Less Ordinary. The video is intercut with scenes from the movie. [4]
Chart (1997–1998) | Peak position |
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Australia (ARIA) [5] | 73 |
Iceland (Íslenski Listinn Topp 40) [6] | 18 |
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan) [7] | 60 |
Scotland (OCC) [8] | 20 |
UK Singles (OCC) [9] | 23 |
US Alternative Airplay ( Billboard ) [10] | 16 |
Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
United States | October 6, 1997 | Alternative radio | London | [11] |
United Kingdom | October 27, 1997 |
| Geffen | [12] |
Beck David Hansen, known mononymously as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his experimental and lo-fi style, and became known for creating musical collages of wide-ranging genres. He has musically encompassed folk, funk, soul, hip hop, electronic, alternative rock, country, and psychedelia. He has released 14 studio albums, as well as several non-album singles and a book of sheet music.
Odelay is the fifth studio album by American musician Beck, released on June 18, 1996, by DGC Records. The album featured several successful singles, including "Where It's At", "Devils Haircut", and "The New Pollution", and peaked at number sixteen on the Billboard 200. As of July 2008, the album had sold 2.3 million copies in the United States, making Odelay Beck's most successful album to date. Since its release, the album has appeared in numerous publications' lists of the greatest of the 1990s and of all time.
Midnite Vultures is the seventh studio album by American musician Beck, released on November 23, 1999, by DGC Records. While similar to most of Beck's previous albums in its exploration of widely varying styles, it did not achieve the same blockbuster success as his breakthrough album Odelay, but was still critically acclaimed and commercially successful.
Mutations is the sixth studio album by the American songwriter Beck, released on November 3, 1998, by DGC Records. Though less commercially successful than the preceding Odelay, it won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.
A Life Less Ordinary is a 1997 British romantic black comedy fantasy film directed by Danny Boyle, written by John Hodge, and starring Ewan McGregor, Cameron Diaz, Holly Hunter, Delroy Lindo, Ian Holm and Dan Hedaya. The plot follows two angels who are sent to Earth to help make a disgruntled kidnapper (McGregor) and his hostage (Diaz) fall in love.
Guero is the ninth studio album by American musician Beck, released on March 29, 2005, by Interscope Records. It was produced with John King and Mike Simpson of the Dust Brothers, who had worked with Beck on his 1996 album Odelay, as well as Tony Hoffer.
"Jump" is a song by American rock band Van Halen. It was released in December 1983 as the lead single of their sixth studio album, 1984. It is Van Halen's most successful single, reaching number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song differs from earlier Van Halen songs in that it is driven by a keyboard riff, although the song does contain a guitar solo. David Lee Roth dedicated the song to martial artist Benny "The Jet" Urquidez, of whom he was a student. In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked "Jump" at number 177 on its updated list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
"Where It's At" is a song by American alternative rock musician Beck, released in May 1996 by DGC and Bong Load as the first single from his fifth album, Odelay (1996). Beck wrote the song in 1995 with its co-producers John King and Michael Simpson, and premiered it at Lollapalooza the same year, in a version very similar to its incarnation on Odelay. He has performed the song often since 1995, frequently experimenting with the music and lyrics. It's music video was directed by Steve Hanft.
"Hard to Say I'm Sorry" is a 1982 power ballad by the group Chicago. It was written by bassist Peter Cetera, who also sang the lead vocals on the track, and producer David Foster. It was released on May 17, 1982, as the lead single from the album Chicago 16. On September 11 it reached No. 1 for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the group's second No. 1 single. It was their first top 50 hit since "No Tell Lover" in 1978 and it spent twelve weeks in the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100. The single was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in September of the same year. Songwriter Cetera, a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), won an ASCAP Pop Music Award for the song in the category, Most Performed Songs.
"Dedicated To The One I Love" is a song written by Lowman Pauling and Ralph Bass that was a hit for the "5" Royales, the Shirelles, the Mamas & the Papas and Bitty McLean. Pauling was the guitarist of the "5" Royales, the group that recorded the original version of the song, produced by Bass, in 1957. Their version was re-released in 1961 and charted at number 81 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"Danger Zone" is a song, with music composed by Giorgio Moroder and lyrics written by Tom Whitlock, which American singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins recorded and released in 1986. The song was one of the hit singles from the soundtrack to the 1986 American film Top Gun, the best-selling soundtrack of 1986, and one of the best-selling of all time. According to Allmusic.com, the album "remains a quintessential artifact of the mid-'80s" and the album's hits "still define the bombastic, melodramatic sound that dominated the pop charts of the era". The song is also featured in the 2022 sequel film Top Gun: Maverick and its soundtrack, using the same original recording.
"Tropicalia" is a song from Beck's 1998 album Mutations. It was released as a single in the UK in December 1998. The B-side "Halo of Gold" is a drastically reworked cover version of "Furry Heroine " by Skip Spence.
The Information is the tenth studio album by American musician Beck, released on October 3, 2006 by Interscope Records. It was produced and mixed by Nigel Godrich, with whom Beck recorded Mutations (1998) and Sea Change (2002). Recording took place from 2003 to 2006, with Beck concurrently working on 2005's Guero with the Dust Brothers. The album received positive reviews from critics and made several publications' year-end lists.
"Devils Haircut" is a song by the American musician Beck, released in December 1996 by DGC Records as the second single from his fifth album, Odelay (1996). Both co-written and co-produced by Beck, the song peaked at number 94 on the US Billboard Hot 100, number 23 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and number 22 on the UK Singles Chart. Its music video was directed by Mark Romanek and filmed in New York City. Q Magazine included "Devil's Haircut" in their list of the "1001 Best Songs Ever" in 2003.
"The New Pollution" is a song by American musician Beck, released as the third single from his fifth album, Odelay (1996). It samples the song "Venus" by Joe Thomas. In the US, the song peaked at number 78 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number nine on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart. In Europe, it was a Top 10 hit in Iceland, peaking at number nine.
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"As Long as You Follow" is a song by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac. Performed by Christine McVie and written alongside her then-husband, Eddy Quintela, the song was one of two new tracks on the band's 1988 greatest hits album, along with "No Questions Asked". Lead guitarist Rick Vito singled out the guitar solo on "As Long as You Follow" as his best work with Fleetwood Mac.
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