Helicopter (Bloc Party song)

Last updated
"Helicopter"
BlocParty-HelicopterCoverUS.jpg
Single by Bloc Party
from the album Silent Alarm
B-side "Skeleton"
Released25 October 2004 (2004-10-25) [1]
Genre
Length3:40
Label Wichita
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Bloc Party singles chronology
"Little Thoughts/Tulips"
(2004)		"Helicopter"
(2004)		"Tulips"
(2005)
Audio sample
30-second excerpt of "Helicopter".

"Helicopter" is a song by English rock band Bloc Party, originally released as a stand-alone single in the UK in October 2004 and appeared later on the Little Thoughts EP ; it was released two years later as a single from their debut album, Silent Alarm , in the US. The song received acclaim, reaching number 26 on the UK Singles Chart but failing to chart on the US Hot 100. It did however chart on the US Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart. Various remixes of the song have been produced. The song was included in the music video games Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock , Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure , Burnout Revenge , FIFA 06 , [[FIFA 23], “Colin McRae DiRT 2” and the episode "Alma Matter" from the sixth season of The Crown .

Contents

Composition

"Helicopter" is an indie rock [2] [3] and garage rock [4] song, written by all band members prior to their debut studio album, Silent Alarm . Composed in B minor, it was written in common time and has a quick tempo of 171 beats per minute. [5] The main riff was adapted from "Set The House Ablaze", a song by The Jam featured on the 1980 album Sound Affects . [6]

The song's critical references to the United States, and lines such as "just like his dad – the same mistakes", led to journalists believing that the song was an attack on George W. Bush, whose father George H. W. Bush had also led American military intervention in the Middle East. [7] [8] Okereke denied these suggestions in an interview with Pitchfork in August 2005 saying "It's frustrating that people attribute something to certain songs and that's not what they're about at all. [...] It's kinda patronizing". [9]

Music video

The official video is displayed in black and white and shows the band playing in an old, empty house, intercut with surreal imagery. It has received the most views of any of Bloc Party's songs on YouTube, gaining over 30 million views. [10] A remastered version with HD video and audio can be found here.

Track listings

UK 7-inch

  1. "Helicopter"
  2. "Skeleton"

UK CD

  1. "Helicopter"
  2. "Always New Depths"
  3. "Tulips" (Minotaur Shock mix)

US CD

  1. "Helicopter" (Diplo remix)
  2. "Helicopter" (Weird Science remix featuring Peaches)
  3. "Helicopter" (Whitey remix)
  4. "Helicopter" (Original version)

US 12-inch

  1. "Helicopter" (Diplo remix)
  2. "Helicopter" (Weird Science remix featuring Peaches)

Charts

Chart (2004-06)Peak
position
Sweden (Hitlistan) [11] 51
UK Singles (OCC) [12] 26
U.S. Hot Singles Sales ( Billboard ) [13] 34

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI) [14] Gold400,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ↑ "New Releases: Singles". Music Week . 23 October 2004. p. 23.
  2. ↑ Boydston, Joshua (17 February 2015). "A tribut to Bloc Party's Silent Alarm". Oxford Karma. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  3. ↑ Taylor, Benji (14 August 2013). "Review: Bloc Party - 'The Nextwave Sessions'". Pretty Much Amazing. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  4. ↑ Fleischer, Norman (2 February 2015). "Hoping For a Miracle: 10 Years of Bloc Party's 'Silent Alarm'". Nothing but Hope and Passion . Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  5. ↑ Commercial sheet music for "Helicopter". Wichita Recordings Music Publishing. Distributed by International Music Publications. Retrieved 10 February 2009.
  6. ↑ Thomas, Lou. "BBC - Music - Review of The Jam - Sound Affects: Deluxe Edition". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  7. ↑ Connick, Tom (2 February 2015). "So Here We Are: Bloc Party's 'Silent Alarm' ten years on". DIY . Retrieved 16 March 2025.
  8. ↑ "Bloc Party : Silent Alarm". NME . 12 September 2005. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
  9. ↑ Warren, Jamin (28 August 2005). "Bloc Party". Pitchfork . Retrieved 16 March 2025.
  10. ↑ Video on YouTube
  11. ↑ "Bloc Party discography". Swedishcharts. Archived from the original on 24 October 2012. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
  12. ↑ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company.
  13. ↑ "Bloc Party Chart History: Hot Singles Singles Sales". Billboard. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  14. ↑ "British single certifications – Bloc Party – Helicopter". British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved 30 August 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.