"I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" | ||||
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Single by Nick Lowe | ||||
from the album Jesus of Cool | ||||
B-side | "They Called It Rock" | |||
Released | 17 February 1978 | |||
Genre | New wave [1] | |||
Length | 3:10 | |||
Label | Radar | |||
Songwriter(s) | Nick Lowe, Andrew Bodnar, Steve Goulding | |||
Producer(s) | Nick Lowe | |||
Nick Lowe singles chronology | ||||
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Official audio | ||||
"I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" on YouTube |
"I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" is a song written by Nick Lowe, Andrew Bodnar, and Steve Goulding and performed by Lowe. It reached number 7 on the UK Singles in 1978. [2] The song was featured on his 1978 album, Jesus of Cool . [3]
The song was produced by Lowe. [4] It shared a title with the David Bowie song "Breaking Glass"; Lowe commented, "This sounds so unlike me, but I wasn't aware he had a song called 'Breaking Glass.' ... But Bowie was the guy who had that title first of all. I think the music on my 'Breaking Glass' has something to do with him. I think I pinched something off of him in the music." [5]
Lowe reflected on the song in an interview with GQ in 2011, saying that he did not perform the song live as it could not be effectively performed solo. He explained, "There's one song of mine called 'I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass,' which was a fairly big hit in Europe, and people ask me for that sometimes, and I just don't do it. It's a really good record, but there's not actually any song there. It was a half-baked idea I had when I went to the studio, and the bass player and drummer sort of put a little sauce in it. But if I played it with just an acoustic guitar, the audience would probably give me a little clap in recognition, but by verse two, they'd be looking at their fingernails, waiting for the next one. There really isn't anything to it." [6]
When Lowe filmed a performance of "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" for Top of the Pops in 1978, he brought his future wife Carlene Carter to the set as part of their first date. Carter recalled, "I went to see him at Top of the Pops. He was doing 'I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass' in his Riddler suit, covered with question marks. We had chemistry." [7]
Brinsley Schwarz were a 1970s English pub rock band, named after their guitarist Brinsley Schwarz. With Nick Lowe on bass and vocals, keyboardist Bob Andrews and drummer Billy Rankin, the band evolved from the 1960s pop band Kippington Lodge. They were later augmented by Ian Gomm on guitar and vocals.
Nicholas Drain Lowe is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer. A noted figure in pub rock, power pop and new wave, Lowe has recorded a string of well-reviewed solo albums. Along with being a vocalist, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica.
The Auteurs were a British alternative rock band of the 1990s, and a vehicle for songwriter Luke Haines. Several bands influenced by the Auteurs have taken their names from the band's songs. The Polish band Lenny Valentino name is derived from a song on the Auteurs' album Now I'm a Cowboy and Valet, a band based in Minneapolis took its name from the song "Valet Parking" from another album, New Wave.
Lester Bowie was an American jazz trumpet player and composer. He was a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and co-founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
Luke Michael Haines is an English musician, songwriter and author. He has recorded music under various names and with various bands, including The Auteurs, Baader Meinhof and Black Box Recorder.
How I Learned to Love the Bootboys is the fourth and final album by British rock band the Auteurs. It was released on 5 July 1999 through Hut and Virgin Records. Following their third studio album After Murder Park (1996), Haines started the Baader Meinhof and Black Box Recorder projects. He regrouped with the Auteurs to start work on a concept album under the name ESP Kids, though sessions halted as Black Box Recorder worked on their debut album England Made Me (1998). The Auteurs re-started recording their next album in January 1998 at RAK Studios in London; Hut and Virgin were not happy with the lack of single-sounding songs. After writing "The Rubettes", the band finished recording in April 1998. How I Learned to Love the Bootboys is a glam rock album that takes atmospheric influence from England Made Me.
Carlene Carter is an American country music singer and songwriter. She is the daughter of June Carter Cash and her first husband, Carl Smith.
Terrence Williams is a Welsh rock drummer. During the 1970s and early 1980s Williams was drummer with Dave Edmunds / Rockpile and Man. Rockpile split in 1981 and Williams joined Dire Straits from 1982 until 1988.
Jesus of Cool is the solo debut album by British singer-songwriter Nick Lowe. Produced by Lowe, it was released in March 1978 by Radar Records in the UK.
"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" is a 1974 song written by English singer/songwriter Nick Lowe. Initially released by Lowe with his band Brinsley Schwarz on their 1974 album The New Favourites of... Brinsley Schwarz, the song was released as a single and did not chart.
Christie Malry's Own Double Entry by Luke Haines is the soundtrack to the film of the same name, based on a novel by B. S. Johnson and directed by Paul Tickell. The album includes a cover of the Nick Lowe song "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" from Lowe's Jesus of Cool album.
Bowi was the first EP released on Stiff Records. Recorded by Nick Lowe, who had also released the first Stiff single, the title and cover were intended as a humorous response to the David Bowie album Low, which had been released earlier in the year. Lowe decided that as Bowie had made an album with his name, but without the final e, he would reciprocate by making a record with Bowie's name, also lacking the final e.
Roger Béchirian is an English engineer and record producer. Béchirian was a key player in the British new wave scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s, best known for his work with Nick Lowe, Paul Carrack, Elvis Costello, The Undertones, Dave Edmunds, The Monkees, the Flamin' Groovies, and Squeeze. He was also a member of the pseudonymous new wave group Blanket of Secrecy, which issued one album in 1982. More recently, Béchirian has worked with the Trashcan Sinatras and Bell X1.
"Cruel to Be Kind" is a song co-written by Nick Lowe and his former bandmate Ian Gomm while the pair were in Brinsley Schwarz. The song only appeared as a 1978 B-side until Columbia Records convinced Lowe to rerecord it as a potential solo single. Musically, the song was inspired by "The Love I Lost" by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, an influence reflected in more recent performances of the song.
Phillip Sanford Wilson was an American blues and jazz drummer, a founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
Breaking glass is the action of damaging or destroying a glass object. It may also refer to:
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Andrew Bodnar is an English bass player who grew up in Clapham, South London. He and drummer Steve Goulding met and began playing together as a rhythm section while still at school. They spent their teenage years auditioning and busking whenever they could, and were gigging around London with a cajun-influenced band called Bontemps Roulez just prior to forming The Rumour in 1975. Bodnar is probably best known for his membership with Graham Parker and The Rumour (1975-1980), for playing the distinctive reggae-flavored bassline on "Watching the Detectives" by Elvis Costello, and for bass playing and co-writing "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" by Nick Lowe.
Nick Lowe is an English singer-songwriter, musician, and producer. His discography consists of 14 studio albums, 1 live album, 3 EPs, 23 singles, and 6 compilations. In addition, he has been a performer and producer on numerous albums by other artists.
Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry is a 2000 film directed by Paul Tickell from a screenplay by Simon Bent, based on the 1973 novel of the same name by B. S. Johnson.