| "Drowning" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by the Beat | ||||
| from the album Wha'ppen? | ||||
| A-side | "All Out to Get You" | |||
| Released | 10 April 1981 [1] | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:53 | |||
| Label | Go-Feet | |||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | Bob Sargeant | |||
| The Beat singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Drowning" is a song by British ska/new wave band the Beat, released in April 1981 as the first single from their second album Wha'ppen? . It was released as a double A-sided single with "All Out to Get You" and peaked at number 22 on the UK Singles Chart. [2]
Milo Miles for Rolling Stone described "Drowning" as a "suicide-is-sensuous fable about a harried organization man's death fantasy" and "All Out to Get You" as "[spotlighting] the tensions of adolescence raised to the breaking point by a society in unquiet desperation". [3]
Mark Cooper reviewing for Record Mirror wrote "Drowning has always been a fair enough description of the Beat sensation at its best and their best this is. Sometimes its a pleasure to go under. An utterly original melody, a lazy but taut feel, Saxa's sexy sax, Roger's toasting interlude and a treated riff that surprises and then brings smiles and you realise how preferable 'Drowning' is to sailing". However, he described "All Out to Get You" as "ordinary by comparison, a standard piece of Beat meat, in fact a rewrite of 'Too Nice To Talk To'. You can hear this is the rhythm of the title. But so what, the Beat continue to transform themselves while remaining charming and 'Drowning' will be huge". [4]
7": Go Feet / Feet 6
| Chart (1981) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Ireland (IRMA) [5] | 18 |
| UK Singles (OCC) [2] | 22 |
Beauty and the Beat is the debut album from Californian new wave band the Go-Go's. Released in 1981 on the I.R.S. Records label, the album reached number one on Billboard's Top LPs & Tape chart in March 1982, bolstered by its two big Hot 100 hit singles: "Our Lips Are Sealed" and "We Got the Beat", initially released in 1980, but in a different version. After a long and steady climb, Beauty and the Beat reached number one in the album chart dated March 6, 1982, the week before "We Got the Beat" entered the Top Ten of the Hot 100. The album stayed at the top for six consecutive weeks, and ranked second in Billboard's year-end Top 100 of 1982. The LP sold in excess of two million copies, and was RIAA-certified double platinum, qualifying it as one of the most successful debut albums of all time. Critically acclaimed, it has been described as one of the "cornerstone albums of American new wave".
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