"Rock DJ" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Robbie Williams | ||||
from the album Sing When You're Winning | ||||
B-side | "Talk to Me" | |||
Released | 31 July 2000 | |||
Studio |
| |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 4:15 | |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) |
| |||
Producer(s) |
| |||
Robbie Williams singles chronology | ||||
|
"Rock DJ" is a song by English singer and songwriter Robbie Williams, featured on his third studio album, Sing When You're Winning (2000). The song was released on 31 July 2000 as the lead single from the album. It samples Barry White's song "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me", "Can I Kick It?" by A Tribe Called Quest and has a quote from "La Di Da Di" by Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh.
"Rock DJ" reached number one in Costa Rica, Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom whilst reaching the top 10 in Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, and Switzerland. It was the fourth-best-selling song of 2000 in the UK. The music video features Williams trying to impress a female DJ by stripping naked and eventually resorting to removing his skin and muscles, ending up as a skeleton. The song won British Single of the Year, and the video won British Video of the Year at the 2001 Brit Awards.
The song became Robbie Williams' third number-one solo single in the United Kingdom, going on to sell over 600,000 copies and being certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). [1] The song also became a hit around Europe, charting inside the top 10 in several countries and becoming his first number-one single in New Zealand. The song also became a top-five hit in Australia, where it went on to sell over 70,000 copies, being certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). [2] In the United States, the track reached number 24 on the Billboard Dance Club Play chart. "Rock DJ" was named the Best Song of 2000 at the MTV Europe Music Awards and Best Single and Best Video at the Brit Awards 2001.
The accompanying music video for "Rock DJ" was directed by Vaughan Arnell. It was released on 6 July 2000. It begins with Williams dancing on a roller disco with women skating around him. He wants to get the attention of the female DJ (played by Lauren Gold) standing above the stage, so he begins taking off his clothes. She ignores him at first, but after she finally notices he is completely naked, he proceeds with stripping off his skin, muscles and organs, until the only thing left of him are his bones, which is performed by special effects. In the end, the DJ dances with his skeleton. The video ends with the note, "No Robbies were Harmed During the Making of this Video", a jocular take on the "No animals were harmed" note. The skinless Robbie also appears on the single's cover art, as well as on the cover of the DVD release of In and Out of Consciousness: Greatest Hits 1990–2010 in 2010.
The video's ending (beginning with Williams taking off his skin) was cut by most music channels around Europe, including VIVA, MCM, The Box and VH1 Europe. However, in the recent years, some of the music channels in Europe (including MTV Classic and VH1 Europe) airs the "studio recording" version of the music video, even on late night, which made the edited version of the music video fall into obscurity. Examples of TV stations that still play the full video are Bulgarian channel MM, former German located channel B.TV (often in daytime) and Canadian channel MusiquePlus, some channels ran the edited video during the day and the unedited one overnight, while The Hits played a version which cut from Williams dancing in his underwear to dancing as a skeleton, filling the gap by repeating previous footage. This is the version that is currently played on channels owned by The Box Plus Network. In 2001, "Rock DJ" won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Special Effects. In 2006, it was voted by viewers as the seventh Most Groundbreaking Video Ever on MTV and in 2007 it was ranked at number 48 on MuchMusic's 50 Most Controversial Videos. The video was banned in Dominican Republic due to allegations of Satanism. [3]
The video has been shown numerous times on Fuse's Pants-Off Dance-Off , despite its gory content. Toward the end of the dancer's dancing/stripping to it when the video is shown in the background like any other, they only show Williams, briefly, ripping and throwing his skin, and dancing in muscle form before cutting to the hostess of the show. The video appears as an instance of the re-use of the motif of "dancing with the dead" in a book about medieval images of death and dying in art and literature. [4]
A second video shows Williams in a studio while recording the song. [5]
UK CD and cassette single, Australian CD single [6] [7]
UK DVD single [8]
European CD single [9]
European maxi-CD single [10]
Credits are taken from the Sing When You're Winning album booklet. [11]
Studios
Personnel
Weekly charts | Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [2] | Platinum | 70,000^ |
New Zealand (RMNZ) [57] | Gold | 5,000* |
United Kingdom (BPI) [1] | 2× Platinum | 1,200,000‡ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref(s). |
---|---|---|---|---|
Australia | 31 July 2000 | CD | Chrysalis | [58] |
United Kingdom |
| [59] [60] [61] | ||
United States | 22 August 2000 | Contemporary hit radio | Capitol | [62] [63] |
25 September 2000 | [64] [65] | |||
17 October 2000 | Rhythmic contemporary radio | [66] |
"Millennium" is a song by English singer Robbie Williams from his second studio album, I've Been Expecting You (1998). On 7 September 1998, it was released as the first track from the album and became Williams' first single to top the UK Singles Chart. The song also received extensive airplay in the United States and Canada, where it was the lead single from Williams' 1999 compilation album, The Ego Has Landed.
"Kids" is a duet between singers Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue, released on 9 October 2000 as the second single from Williams' third studio album, Sing When You're Winning, and as the third single from Minogue's seventh studio album, Light Years.
"She's the One" is a song by British rock band World Party. It was written and produced by Karl Wallinger for World Party's fourth studio album, Egyptology (1997). The song won an Ivor Novello Award in 1997. It was featured in the 1997 movie The Matchmaker and the 1998 movie The Big Hit. World Party performed the song live on British TV show, Later... with Jools Holland in 1998. Robbie Williams released a cover of the song in 1999, which reached number one in the UK Singles Chart.
"No Regrets" is a song by English singer Robbie Williams. It was released on 30 November 1998 as the second single from his second studio album, I've Been Expecting You (1998). The track was written by Williams and Guy Chambers and features backing vocals from Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys and Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy. In the United Kingdom, the song was released as a double A-side with a cover of Adam and the Ants' "Antmusic".
"Supreme" is a song by English singer Robbie Williams for his third studio album, Sing When You're Winning (2000). Chrysalis Records released the song as the third single from the album on 11 December 2000. Commercially, the single reached number four on the UK Singles Chart, topped the charts of Hungary and Poland, and peaked within the top 10 in six additional European countries and New Zealand.
"Let Love Be Your Energy" is a song by English singer Robbie Williams, released in April 2001 as the fourth single from his third studio album, Sing When You're Winning (2000). The song reached number 10 in the United Kingdom and entered the top 40 in several other countries. It was not released in Australia until 2002, when it peaked at number 53 on the ARIA Singles Chart. The music video for the single was presented in animation. It featured a cartoon facsimile of Williams always on the run in search of love. There is a second, raunchier version of the video depicting animated nudity and sex.
"Angels" is a song by the English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams. It was included on Williams's debut solo album, Life thru a Lens (1997), and released as a single on 1 December 1997 by Chrysalis. "Angels" was written by Williams and Guy Chambers, who produced alongside Steve Power. The song is based on an earlier version written by Ray Heffernan.
"Freedom! '90" is a song written, produced, and performed by English singer-songwriter George Michael, and released by Columbia Records in October 1990. The "'90" added to the end of the title is to prevent confusion with a hit by Michael's former band Wham!, also entitled "Freedom". The song's backing beat is a sample from James Brown's song "Funky Drummer".
"Radio" is a song by British pop singer Robbie Williams, co-written by Williams and Stephen Duffy. It was the first single from Williams' compilation album Greatest Hits, released in 2004. Williams wrote the song's distinctive synth-pop melody by attempting to play Harold Faltermeyer's "Axel F" on an electronic keyboard from memory. "Radio" is Williams's first solo outing without the involvement of long-time producer and co-writer Guy Chambers, and is particularly notable as Williams's last UK number-one for eight years, until 2012's "Candy".
"Somethin' Stupid", or "Something Stupid", is a song written by C. Carson Parks. It was originally recorded in 1966 by Parks and his wife Gaile Foote, as Carson and Gaile. A 1967 version by Frank Sinatra and his daughter Nancy Sinatra became a major international hit, reaching number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the UK Singles Chart. In 2001, a cover version by British vocalist Robbie Williams and Australian actress Nicole Kidman reached number one in the UK Singles Chart.
"South of the Border" is a song by English recording artist Robbie Williams, released as the third single from his debut studio album, Life thru a Lens (1997). The song reached No. 14 on the UK Singles Chart, his only single to miss the top 10 until "Sin Sin Sin" in 2006. This was the only Life Thru a Lens single that did not appear on Williams' Greatest Hits album (2004).
"Feel" is a song by British singer-songwriter Robbie Williams. It was released on 2 December 2002 as the lead single from his fifth studio album, Escapology (2002). The song became an international hit, peaking at number one in the Czech Republic, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and Romania and reaching the top five in several other countries, including Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. It also reached number 28 on the U.S. Adult Pop Airplay.
"Strong" is a song by English recording artist Robbie Williams. It was released on 15 March 1999 as the third single from his second studio album, I've Been Expecting You (1998). The song managed to break into the top five in the United Kingdom. The B-side is the live version of "Let Me Entertain You" recorded at the 1999 Brit Awards, the performance was included on the single in the enhanced section.
"Sexed Up" is a song by British pop singer Robbie Williams, released as the fourth and last single from his album Escapology in November 2003. It was originally recorded for Natalie Imbruglia, who turned it down. Williams had earlier released it in 1998 in demo form as the B-side to his single "No Regrets".
"Come Undone" is a song by British singer Robbie Williams for his fifth studio album Escapology (2002). Written by Williams, Boots Ottestad, Ashley Hamilton, and Daniel Pierre, it was released as the second single from Escapology on 31 March 2003 by Chrysalis Records. "Come Undone" peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart and reached the top 20 in seven other European countries.
"Lazy Days" is a song by English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams. It was released in the United Kingdom on 14 July 1997 as the second single from his debut studio album, Life thru a Lens (1997). According to Williams, the song is about being young, optimistic about the future and not afraid of committing mistakes. The song became a top-10 hit in the United Kingdom, peaking at number eight on the UK Singles Chart. A demo version of "Lazy Days" is included as a B-side on the "Millennium" CD2 single.
"Old Before I Die" is a song by English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams, released as the first single from his debut album, Life thru a Lens (1997). The Oasis-influenced song became a number-two hit in the United Kingdom and a number-one hit in Spain following its release on 14 April 1997. Williams wrote the song along with Desmond Child and Eric Bazilian, with production by Guy Chambers and Steve Power.
"Eternity" / "The Road to Mandalay" is the fifth single from English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams' third studio album, Sing When You're Winning (2000). "Eternity" does not appear on the album but was later included on Williams' Greatest Hits album in 2004. The lyrics of "Eternity" were written as a tribute to Williams' close friendship with Geri Halliwell. Brian May of Queen plays electric guitar on the track.
"Better Man" is a song by English pop singer Robbie Williams, released as the final single from his third studio album, Sing When You're Winning (2000), in October 2001. It was released only in Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America. A music video for the Australian release was produced in 2001, reusing scenes from Williams' "Eternity" music video intercut with a live performance of "Better Man" from his The Sermon on the Mount Tour in Manchester, England, in October 2000, overdubbed with the studio version.
"It's Only Us" is a song by English singer Robbie Williams, released as a double A-side with a cover of "She's the One" on 8 November 1999. Unlike "She's the One", "It's Only Us" was a brand new recording made for the FIFA 2000 soundtrack. As such, it did not originally appear on I've Been Expecting You but was eventually added to its 2002 reissue.
The video's ending was cut by most music channels around Europe, including VIVA, MCM and MTV with VH1 Europe decided to use its own video for the song, created from studio footage.
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link){{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link){{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link){{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link){{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link){{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)