Golden Brown
Template:Distinguish Template:About Template:Use dmy dates
Template:Use British English Template:Infobox song
"Golden Brown" is a song by English rock band the Stranglers, released as a 7-inch single on EMI's Liberty label in 1982. Noted for its distinctive harpsichord instrumentation, it was the second single released from the band's sixth studio album La Folie (1981). The single peaked at No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart, making it the band's highest-charting single in the country.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Composition
[edit]The main body of the song has a triple metre waltz rhythm, with beats grouped in threes, but the instrumental parts add an extra beat to create a phrase of thirteen beats.<ref name='goldradiouk'>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name='allmusic'>Template:Cite web</ref> The thirteen beats appear in the sheet music as alternating bars of Template:Music and Template:Music,<ref name=musicnotes>Template:Cite web</ref> which has also been described as three bars of Template:Music followed by one bar of Template:Music.<ref name=nomercy>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp<ref name="songbysong">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp Sheet music of "Golden Brown" on musicnotes.com is published in B-flat minor.<ref name=musicnotes/>
The music was largely written by keyboardist Dave Greenfield and drummer Jet Black, with lyrics by singer/guitarist Hugh Cornwell.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The music was adapted from an unused part of "Second Coming", a track which featured on their previous album.<ref name=lafolie>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp
According to bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel, the song's atypical style for the group was intended to defy expectations: "The whole thing about that song is it really represented us sticking our fingers up to our detractors".<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>
Lyrics
[edit]In his 2001 book The Stranglers Song by Song, Cornwell states: Template:"'Golden Brown' works on two levels. It's about heroin and also about a girl... both provided me with pleasurable times."<ref name="songbysong"/>Template:Rp
Release and reception
[edit]Initially, the band's label was hesitant to release the song as a single. Burnel recalled, "We had to insist on it being released. We'd been taken over by EMI and they thought we were awful – and they hated 'Golden Brown'. They said: this song, you can't dance to it, you're finished".<ref name=":0" /> The label ultimately released the song during the Christmas season, leaving it to compete with Christmas songs. Burnel stated, "They thought, it's weak, it's gonna die, it's gonna drown in the tsunami of Christmas shit… but it didn't. It developed legs of its own, it became a worldwide hit".<ref name=":0" />
Originally featured on the group's album La folie, which was released in November 1981, and later on the US pressings of Feline (1983), "Golden Brown" was released as a single in January 1982, and was accompanied by a music video. The single reached No. 2 in the official UK Singles Chart in February 1982.<ref name="UK" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> David Hamilton, disc jockey on the middle-of-the-road and comparatively conservative BBC Radio 2, made the single his "record of the week".<ref name="twomey" /> In a 2017 interview for Dutch television station Top 2000 a gogo, Hugh Cornwell said that he believed the song would have made it to the top spot if bassist Burnel had not told the press that it was about heroin, at which point broadcasters removed it from their playlists. "I would have waited till it got to Number 1 and then said it," he commented.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> EMI instead blamed the single's failure to reach the top spot on sales of both the studio and live single releases of the Jam's "Town Called Malice", the number one single at the time, being counted together.<ref name="500 Number One Hits">Template:Cite book</ref> The song also reached the Top 10 in Ireland, Flanders, the Netherlands, and Australia.
In 1995, Black, Burnel and Greenfield appeared with impressionist Rory Bremner on his satirical Christmas special performing a parody version of the song about future Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was then Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
In a 2012 BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the nation's favourite singles to have peaked at number two, "Golden Brown" ranked fifth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In January 2014, NME ranked the song at No. 488 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Music video
[edit]
The video for "Golden Brown" was directed by Lindsey Clennell.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It depicts the band members as explorers in Egypt in the 1920s and performers for a fictional "Radio Cairo".
The video is intercut with stock footage of the Giza pyramid complex, the Mir-i-Arab Madrasah in Bukhara, the Shah Mosque in Isfahan, the Great Sphinx, sailing feluccas, Bedouins riding camels, and camel racing in the United Arab Emirates. The performance scenes were filmed in the Leighton House Museum in Holland Park, London, which was also featured in the video for "Gold" by Spandau Ballet in 1983.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Track listing
[edit]Songs, lyrics and music by the Stranglers.
7-inch: Liberty / BP 407 (UK)
[edit]Side one<ref name="BEL"/>
- "Golden Brown" – 3:28
Side two<ref name="BEL"/>
- "Love 30" – 3:57
1991 7-inch: Epic / 656761 7 (UK)
[edit]Side one<ref name="BEL"/>
- "Golden Brown" – 3:29
Side two<ref name="BEL"/>
- "You" – 3:09
1991 Reissue – CD-Maxi: Epic / 656761 2 (UK)
[edit]- "Golden Brown" – 3:31<ref name="BEL"/>
- "You" – 3:08
- "Peaches" – 3:59
- "Skin Deep (12-inch Version)" – 7:09
Charts
[edit]Weekly charts
[edit]| Chart (1982) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | 10 |
| France (IFOP)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | 73 |
| Chart (1991)1 | Peak position |
|---|
Remix
Template:Single chart| Chart (2013) | Peak position |
|---|
Year-end charts
[edit]| Chart (1982) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report)<ref name="aus82">Template:Cite web</ref> | 95 |
Certifications
[edit]Template:Certification Table Top Template:Certification Table Entry Template:Certification Table Bottom
Cover versions and samples
[edit]In 1996, British hip hop group Kaleef's re-working of the song reached number 22 on the UK Singles Chart.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1997, a cover version by soul singer Omar reached number 37 in the UK.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2007, British singer Jamelia released the single "No More", which heavily samples "Golden Brown".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2012, Cornwell sang a mariachi version of the song, backed by Mexican-British band Mariachi Mexteca (later known as the Mariachis).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2020, British YouTuber and saxophonist Laurence Mason's cover of "Golden Brown" in the style of Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" was viewed over a million times, leading to a commercial release via Amazon and iTunes and as a vinyl single under the title Take Vibe EP.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The vinyl release stayed two weeks in the top 40 of the Official Vinyl Singles Chart, peaking at No. 24.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> By 2025, the video had received more than 11 million views.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>