"Emma" | ||||
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Single by Hot Chocolate | ||||
from the album Cicero Park | ||||
B-side | "Makin’ Music" (UK) "A Love Like Yours" (US) | |||
Released | 25 February 1974 | |||
Genre | British soul [1] | |||
Length | 3:52 | |||
Label | RAK, Big Tree (US) | |||
Songwriter(s) | Errol Brown, Tony Wilson | |||
Producer(s) | Mickie Most | |||
Hot Chocolate singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Emma" (TopPop, 1974) on YouTube |
"Emma" is a 1974 song by the British soul band Hot Chocolate. Written by band members Errol Brown (vocals) and Tony Wilson (music), the song address themes of suicide, early death and lost childhood. Brown's lyrics celebrate his recently deceased mother. Their rawness was developed after the producer Mickie Most asked him for further "depth and darkness". [2]
Emma reached number 3 in the UK Singles Chart and number 8 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The song details the love of the (nameless) singer and a girl called Emmalene from the age of five, through a wedding at 17 until her suicide at an unspecified later date. Emma it seems wanted to be a "movie queen" but could never find the breaks and eventually kills herself because she "just can't keep on living on dreams no more."
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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United Kingdom (BPI) [14] | Silver | 250,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
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