"Set You Free" | ||||
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Single by N-Trance | ||||
from the album Electronic Pleasure | ||||
Released | 4 October 1993 | |||
Recorded | 1992 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | ||||
Length | 4:22 | |||
Label | All Around the World | |||
Songwriter(s) | N-Trance | |||
Producer(s) | N-Trance | |||
N-Trance singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Set You Free" on YouTube |
"Set You Free" is a song written and recorded by English rave band N-Trance, featuring vocals from English singer Kelly Llorenna. It was officially released as a single in October 1993 but did not chart until a re-release in April the following year, just making the UK top 40 at number 39. Another re-release in January 1995 was much more successful, peaking at number two in the UK. Same year, it was included on the band's debut album, Electronic Pleasure (1995). Later, it was remixed and re-released in 2001, this time reaching number four. [2] Its music video was directed by prolific music video director Steve Price.
The song was inspired by a night out in the Haçienda in Manchester that N-Trance's Kevin O'Toole had in 1989. "They used to pass round pints of water, and a woman came up to me and I felt her heartbeat through her top," he said. "The songs created a diary of what was happening at the time." [3]
Llorenna was only 16 when she recorded the vocals in 1992. She told Vice : "Kevin [O'Toole] and Dale [Longworth, the other member of N-Trance] came into my college and asked if anyone sung, and everyone replied 'Kelly sings!'" They later headed to O'Toole's bedroom studio to do a vocal demo. For Llorenna, her vocals "captured that childhood moment in time. It was just me and five lads in a transit van going up to Belfast or Glasgow every week, playing the song for petrol money." She claims that when people hear the opening of the song, which features thunder, lightning and rain, "their faces light up, and they're transported back to where they were." [3]
Larry Flick from Billboard described the song as a "lively Euro-NRG romp". [4] In December 1994, Music Week wrote, "This record is now on its third release simply because retail and club reaction has demanded it. With 50,000 copies already sold, this very Euro dance-style tune could finally make the big time thanks to a strong chorus and less of the normal quota of Euro cheese." [5] In his UK chart commentary, James Masterton said, "I would personally argue that this is a terrible record. It starts promisingly, with a strong melody powerfully sung. Thirty seconds in though this is all but swamped by a frantic rave beat, [...] N-Trance have been making inroads on the chart for over a year now but this is the first major hit for them. It is, as I said, a terrible record, but it has made No.6 first week out so what do I know?" [6]
The 1995 version of "Set You Free" was successful on the charts in Europe, peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart. It peaked at that position during its fifth week on the chart. [7] The single entered the top 10 also in Ireland and the Netherlands, as well as on the Eurochart Hot 100, where it peaked at number nine. Additionally, "Set You Free" was a top 20 hit in Sweden and Switzerland, while reaching the top 50 in Germany. Outside Europe, it was a hit in Australia, where it reached number 11. It earned a gold record there, with a sale of 35,000 singles and a double platinum record in the UK, after 1,200,000 units were sold and streamed.
The accompanying music video for "Set You Free" was directed by prolific music video director Steve Price and shot in various locations in County Durham and North Yorkshire. The video comprises scenes of fireworks, the band dancing and singing in a nightclub, in front of Cliffords Tower in York, England and travelling in a stretched limousine. The scene at Cliffords Tower was fortuitously or coincidentally shot on 3 November 1994, [8] which coincided with an annual Guy Fawkes Night Fireworks display organised by York City Council. The nightclub scenes were shot at Bianco's, Stockton-on-Tees. [8] [9] It is claimed that the video cost around £5,000 to make.[ citation needed ]
|
|
Weekly chartsOriginal version
Remix
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [32] | Gold | 35,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [38] | 2× Platinum | 1,200,000‡ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
United Kingdom | 4 October 1993 | 12-inch vinyl | All Around the World | [39] |
25 April 1994 |
| [40] | ||
2 January 1995 | [41] | |||
United States | 20 June 1995 | Critique | [42] | |
United Kingdom | 10 September 2001 |
| All Around the World | [43] |
Scottish band Frightened Rabbit included a cover of the song on their 2008 single "Head Rolls Off". [44]
In September 2021, English singer Kyla La Grange covered the song, saying "I wanted to re-work it in a way that brought out the sadness". [45]
Kelly Llorenna is an English dance music singer, who was born in Slough, Berkshire and raised in Oldham, Greater Manchester. She is best known as the former lead vocalist for the dance group N-Trance in the 1990s. Their biggest hit was "Set You Free", which made the UK top five in early 1995. Since then she has had six UK top 10 singles.
Grace was a 1990s British dance music act, consisting of the DJs Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne and the jazz singer Dominique Atkins. The group's first single, "Not Over Yet", had lead and backing vocals by the original frontwoman Patti Low. Atkins recorded her own lead vocals for "Not Over Yet" when it was included as the first track on the group's only album If I Could Fly.
"Stayin' Alive" is a song written and performed by the Bee Gees from the Saturday Night Fever motion picture soundtrack. The song was released in 1977 as the second single from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. The band co-produced the song with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson. It is one of the Bee Gees' signature songs. In 2004, "Stayin' Alive" was placed at No. 189 by Rolling Stone on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The 2021 updated Rolling Stone list of 500 Greatest Songs placed "Stayin' Alive" at No. 99. In 2004, it ranked No. 9 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. In a UK television poll on ITV in December 2011 it was voted fifth in "The Nation's Favourite Bee Gees Song".
N-Trance are a British electronic music group who were formed by Kevin O'Toole and Dale Longworth in 1991. The group is known for their European hit songs "Set You Free" and "Electronic Pleasure", and their covers of the 1970s disco songs "Stayin' Alive", "D.I.S.C.O.", "Shake Ya Body", and "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?". They had 14 charting singles in the UK during 1994–2004.
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