Birthday (7:33)
208,963 plays (57,780 listeners)
“Birthday” is a song written and recorded by Icelandic band The Sugarcubes for their 1988 debut album Life’s Too Good. It was their first international single and the first single released from the album. The Icelandic-language version “Ammæli” was released on an Iceland-only single Einn Mol Á Mann (One Cube Per Head) the previous year and was included as the B-side on the international single.
After “Birthday” became the single of the week in Melody Maker magazine and NME in August 1987, and was selected as number one in John Peel’s Festive Fifty list, the band attained worldwide recognition and success.
According to Björk, “Birthday” is a “tasteless pop song” about a five-year-old girl who has a love affair with the man next door, who is celebrating his fiftieth birthday.The chorus features Björk singing a wordless melody with a distinctive loudness and force of voice. This song was most recently covered by The Mars Volta.
References
1.“It’s a story about a love affair between a five year old girl, a secret and a man who lives next door. The song’s called Birthday because it’s his fiftieth birthday, but not many people can figure that out of the lyrics ‘cos it’s more about the atmosphere around it and how they touch. It’s a tasteless pop song - not even that. A pop song - very unusual”
B-side - “Christmas Eve”“
Released - October 1987 (1987-10),
Format - 7”, 12”, cassette, CD
Genre - Alternative rock
Length - 3:58
Label - One Little Indian
Writer(s) - The Sugarcubes
Producer - Ray Shulman, Derek Birkett
After “Birthday” became the single of the week in Melody Maker magazine and NME in August 1987, and was selected as number one in John Peel’s Festive Fifty list, the band attained worldwide recognition and success.
According to Björk, “Birthday” is a “tasteless pop song” about a five-year-old girl who has a love affair with the man next door, who is celebrating his fiftieth birthday.The chorus features Björk singing a wordless melody with a distinctive loudness and force of voice. This song was most recently covered by The Mars Volta.
References
1.“It’s a story about a love affair between a five year old girl, a secret and a man who lives next door. The song’s called Birthday because it’s his fiftieth birthday, but not many people can figure that out of the lyrics ‘cos it’s more about the atmosphere around it and how they touch. It’s a tasteless pop song - not even that. A pop song - very unusual”
B-side - “Christmas Eve”“
Released - October 1987 (1987-10),
Format - 7”, 12”, cassette, CD
Genre - Alternative rock
Length - 3:58
Label - One Little Indian
Writer(s) - The Sugarcubes
Producer - Ray Shulman, Derek Birkett
Video
Added by tearecords
Music video directed by Martin Hart & Andy Lee, 1987
Share Video
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Albums featuring this track
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Alternative Eighties (disc 1)
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Shouts
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feefafo wrote:
Pretty.
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blueboy3670 wrote:
Great vocals!
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cycmsounds wrote:
Love playing this on my birthday!
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manuzani wrote:
this song is so unbeliveably beautiful. it gets me outta myself...
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olavolalo wrote:
one of my favorite song !
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ha_ti wrote:
;)
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bubble-kid wrote:
"she's painting huge books and glues them together" <3
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Constellation66 wrote:
Astonishing song! LOVE THE BJORK VOCALS!
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bwanaDik wrote:
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. finally we may listen to the original!!!!!
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elkesommer wrote:
This remix is disgusting! Delete! Where's the original version? Keep stats clean!
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Enkeli6 wrote:
I love her voice.
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Jazinka wrote:
love it!
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mekaro wrote:
totally in love with her voice in this song!
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bwanaDik wrote:
stupid remix. last.fm give us the original dope!
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TuneBlendR wrote:
t h R o a t y
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leidyd wrote:
UMM
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Simeon2020 wrote:
This is a remix version from "It's it" (Tommy D?) There's an even better mix with very heavy dub bass. The original release as shown on the video above should be the one that get's played here. Really it's Bjork though - you could put that vocal over anything and I would still melt.
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icaroicaroicaro wrote:
a chain offffffffffffffffffffflowers dan dan dan ran dan dan dan dan dan dan du dan daran dan
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leenyq wrote:
listening to a weird funky house version....not sure about it...
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miss--C wrote:
LOVE! LOVE! LOVE! THIS SONG.........
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Recent Activity
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Hells_Satans, destinysagent, kuryozum and 1 other person loved The Sugarcubes – Birthday. Thursday evening
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ashdinosaur added Birthday to ashdinosaur’s library. Wednesday evening
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cherryframboise added Birthday to her Loved Tracks. Tuesday evening
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goldmissyasmin tagged Birthday with ‘björk’. Tuesday evening
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DigitalAsperger, antiXcristo, takenepojken and 4 other people loved The Sugarcubes – Birthday. Tuesday evening
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Arn0 tagged Birthday with ‘pop’. Sunday afternoon
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TLFKAI added Birthday to the playlist birthday. Saturday evening
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TLFKAI, lbraghetto, adeyjarvis and 5 other people loved The Sugarcubes – Birthday. Saturday evening
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jorgebh6a and TheBowWitch added The Sugarcubes – Birthday to their libraries. 8 days ago
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mamesa, Eythur and OfnkO loved The Sugarcubes – Birthday. 9 days ago
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