"Mary Pickford" | ||||
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Single by Katie Melua | ||||
from the album Pictures | ||||
Released | 26 November 2007 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 3:12 | |||
Label | Dramatico | |||
Songwriter(s) | Mike Batt | |||
Producer(s) | Mike Batt | |||
Katie Melua singles chronology | ||||
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"Mary Pickford" is a song written and produced by Mike Batt for the Georgian-born, British singer Katie Melua. It is Melua's tenth single and the second from her third album, Pictures . It was originally inspired by a daily facts calendar owned by Batt that one day featured the fact that Mary Pickford used to eat roses.[ citation needed ]
The lyrics talk about the 1910s film actress Mary Pickford and other founders of United Artists. Mentioned in the song are Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, United Artists and Pickfair. [1]
The song can be seen as a pastiche of the classic silent era Joseph H. Santly song At the Moving Picture Ball since they have a similar rhythm, similar subject matter and indeed they list the same silent-era movie stars. However, the song may also be seen as a simple literary archetype having nothing whatsoever to do with the Santly tune, and instead being a reflection upon things in life that, for whatever reason and with whatever lofty components assembled, never seem to work. Furthermore, since United Artists and its cadre were all of the same era and predominantly visible in their day, it's reasonable to conclude that any song written about the era would include Fairbanks, Pickford, Chaplin, et al, not as a borrowed vignette of someone else's work, but from the verified history.
Gladys Marie Smith, known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American film actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the American film industry, she co-founded Pickford–Fairbanks Studios and United Artists, and was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Ketevan "Katie" Melua is a Georgian-British singer and songwriter. She moved to the United Kingdom at the age of eight – first to Belfast, and then to London in 1999. Melua is signed to the small Dramatico record label, under the management of composer Mike Batt, and made her musical debut in 2003. In 2006, she became the United Kingdom's best-selling female artist and Europe's highest selling European female artist.
Call off the Search is the debut studio album by Georgian-British jazz and blues singer Katie Melua, released in 2003.
Robin Hood is a 1922 silent adventure film starring Douglas Fairbanks and Wallace Beery. It was the first motion picture ever to have a Hollywood premiere, held at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre on October 18, 1922. The movie's full title, under which it was copyrighted, is Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood. It was one of the most expensive films of the 1920s, with a budget estimated at approximately one million dollars. The film was a smash hit and generally received favorable reviews.
Michael Philip Batt, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, record producer, director, conductor and former Deputy Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry. Having achieved substantial international success as a solo artist, he is particularly known in the UK for creating The Wombles pop act, writing many hits including the chart-topping "Bright Eyes", and discovering Katie Melua. He has also conducted many of the world's great orchestras, including the London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony and Stuttgart Philharmonic in both classical and pop recordings and performances.
Piece by Piece is the second studio album by British-Georgian jazz and blues singer Katie Melua. It was released on 26 September 2005 by Dramatico Records. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at #1 with 120,459 copies sold in its first week.
"The Closest Thing to Crazy" is the debut single of Georgia-born singer Katie Melua. The song is featured on her first studio album, Call Off the Search (2003). The song was written as part of the musical Men Who March Away', and appeared first in 1995 on Mike Batt's album Arabesque.
"Nine Million Bicycles" is a song written and produced by Mike Batt for the singer Katie Melua's second album, Piece by Piece. It was released as the album's first single in September 2005 and reached number five on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Melua's first top five hit as a solo artist. It was a finalist for The Record of the Year prize, losing to "You Raise Me Up" by Westlife.
"I Cried for You" is a song by Georgian-born singer Katie Melua, released as the second single from her second album, Piece by Piece, on 5 December 2005. The single is a double A-side consisting of "I Cried for You", which is one of Melua's own compositions, and a cover of the Cure's song "Just Like Heaven", the latter of which was the theme song of the film Just like Heaven. "I Cried for You" is inspired by the idea of Jesus and Mary Magdalene having been in a close relationship, and the loss she would have felt.
"Spider's Web" is the sixth single from Georgian-born singer Katie Melua's second studio album, Piece by Piece (2005). The title song was written during the lead up to the Iraq War and is said to be about finding the difference between right and wrong. The single was a bigger success in continental Europe than in Britain, where it reached number 52 on the UK Singles Chart. In the video for this single, there is a visual reference to Schindler's List.
"If You Were a Sailboat" is a song by British singer Katie Melua. Written and produced by Mike Batt, it is Melua's ninth single and the first from her third album, Pictures (2007). Melua said of the song:
What I liked about the song is the fact that a lot of love songs tend to deal with the fluffy nice side of love, but this one deals with how you get very selfish when you fall in love with someone, and you don't want to share them with the world, you just want them all about yourself. What's genius about Mike's lyrics is that instead of saying that directly he uses these crazy strange metaphors, "if you were a piece of wood I'd nail you to the floor" and quite bizarre stuff and I like that. Musically it sounds like a really nice smooth love song, but the message is pretty intense and quite dark.
Mary Pickford (1892–1979) was a Canadian-American motion picture actress, producer, and writer. During the silent film era she became one of the first great celebrities of the cinema and a popular icon known to the public as "America's Sweetheart".
The Knickerbocker Buckaroo was a 1919 American silent Western/romantic comedy film directed by Albert Parker and starring Douglas Fairbanks, who also wrote and produced the film. The Knickerbocker Buckaroo is now considered lost.
Little Annie Rooney is a 1925 American silent comedy-drama film starring Mary Pickford and directed by William Beaudine. Pickford, one of the most successful actresses of the silent era, was best known throughout her career for her iconic portrayals of penniless young girls. After generating only modest box office revenue playing adults in her previous two films, Pickford wrote and produced Little Annie Rooney to cater to silent film audiences. Though she was 33 years old, Pickford played the title role, an Irish girl living in the slums of New York City.
The Katie Melua Collection is a compilation album by Georgian-born British singer and songwriter Katie Melua. The album is a two disc set with 17 songs, three previously unreleased, and a DVD that was filmed in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Live at the O² Arena is a live album by Georgian-born British singer–songwriter Katie Melua. It was recorded on 8 November 2008 at The O2 Arena in London. The CD release of the album contains 19 tracks whereas the vinyl edition features a different track listing with three additional songs, namely "Thank You Stars", "Two Bare Feet" and "Spellbound". Those three tracks are also included in the digital download release of the album.
The Biograph Girl is a musical with a book by Warner Brown, lyrics by Brown and David Heneker, and music by Heneker. Its plot focuses on the silent film era and five pioneers of American cinema - actresses Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish, directors D. W. Griffith and Mack Sennett, and Paramount Pictures founder Adolph Zukor.
Hollywood is a 1923 American silent comedy film directed by James Cruze, co-written by Frank Condon and Thomas J. Geraghty, and released by Paramount Pictures. The film is a lengthier feature follow-up to Paramount's own short film exposé of itself, A Trip to Paramountown from 1922.
Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films including The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro, but spent the early part of his career making comedies.
Ketevan is the sixth studio album by Georgian-British singer Katie Melua, released in the United Kingdom on 16 September 2013 through Dramatico. At birth Melua was given the name Ketevan, but later she adopted the name Katie.