"I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair)" | ||||
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Single by Sandi Thom | ||||
from the album Smile... It Confuses People | ||||
B-side |
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Released | 3 October 2005 | |||
Length | 2:30 | |||
Label | Viking Legacy, [1] Sony BMG, RCA | |||
Songwriter(s) | Tom Gilbert, Sandi Thom | |||
Producer(s) | Ian Brown, Stephen Darrell Smith | |||
Sandi Thom singles chronology | ||||
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Re-issued cover art | ||||
"I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair)" is the debut single of Scottish singer-songwriter Sandi Thom, released in October 2005. The song was written by Thom and Tom Gilbert. Following a re-release in 2006, the song topped the singles charts of Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
Thom has said on her website that she wrote the song after being robbed of her mobile phone and other belongings one evening, leaving her completely lost and without any way of contacting her family, friends, or the bank. She says, "I wondered if that had happened to me back in the days of the hippies what would I have done and would I have freaked out so much?" [sic] [2]
Although only physically released in the United Kingdom on 22 May 2006, download sales the week before are counted for the purpose of charts, and it achieved number fifteen on this basis in the general charts (and number seven in the download-only chart). The physical release had three formats: two CD versions (one featuring the radio mix and "A Light as Bright as Ours", another featuring the radio mix, the album mix, a further remix, "May You Never" and the music video), and also as a 7-inch vinyl record backed with Stranglers cover "No More Heroes".
The song was nominated for Record of the Year but lost to "Patience" by Take That.[ vague ]
Thom has been the subject of criticism by many artists within the recording world, most notably from Lily Allen, the Fratellis, and the Automatic. [3] James Frost and Robin Hawkins from the Automatic stated that "If she was a punk rocker with flowers in her hair she'd get the shit kicked out of her by other punk rockers, for having flowers in her hair. [...] I haven't found anyone who's told me they like that song and bought it." [4] Charlie Brooker also heavily criticised the intense public relations efforts to make the single popular. [5]
The song was released on 3 October 2005 by Viking Legacy Records, reaching number 55 in the UK Singles Chart. [1] [6] It was re-released in May 2006 on Sony BMG's RCA Records label, selling 39,797 copies in the week ending 3 June 2006, enough to reach number one on the UK Singles Chart, replacing Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" following a nine-week run. [7] It spent one week at the top spot and went on to be the UK's fifth-best-selling single of the year. [8] The single also spent 10 weeks at number one in Australia, where it finished the year as the country's highest-selling single. [9] [10] It received a double platinum certification from the Australian Recording Industry Association. [11]
The music video was shot in Bethnal Green in London and is all one shot.
UK CD1 (2005) [12]
UK CD2 (2005) [13]
UK 7-inch single (2006) [14]
UK CD1 (2006) [15]
| UK CD2 and Australian CD single (2006) [16]
European CD single (2006) [17]
|
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [11] | 2× Platinum | 140,000^ |
Sweden (GLF) [36] | Gold | 10,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [37] | Gold | 400,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
"Let's Dance" is the first single from English boy band Five's third and final studio album, Kingsize. The song was written by Richard Stannard, Julian Gallagher, Ash Howes, Martin Harrington, Abz Love, Jason "J" Brown, and Sean Conlon and produced by Stannard and Gallagher. Released on 13 August 2001, "Let's Dance" charted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Five's third and final number-one single, and was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). The song also peaked at number two in the Irish Singles Chart and became a top-10 in hit in Australia, Flanders, Greece, and Romania.
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Alexandria "Sandi" Thom is a Scottish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Banff, Scotland. She became widely known in 2006 after her debut single, "I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker ", topped the UK Singles Chart in June of that year, as well as in Australia, Ireland, and her native Scotland. The single became the biggest-selling single of 2006 in Australia, where it spent ten weeks at the top of the ARIA Singles Chart.
Smile... It Confuses People is the debut studio album by Scottish singer Sandi Thom. It was released in both Ireland and the United Kingdom on 5 June 2006 by RCA Records. The album is a mix of pop and folk, predominantly written by Thom herself alongside Tom Gilbert.
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