Numb (Pet Shop Boys song)
Encyclopedia
"Numb" is a song recorded by Pet Shop Boys
and is featured on their album
Fundamental
. It was released on 16 October 2006 as the third single
from that album, peaking at #23 in the UK Singles Chart
(see 2006 in British music
). It is only their second single in 39 releases to miss the UK Top 20 (the other being "Was It Worth It?" from 1991, which peaked at #24).
The ballad
was widely used throughout the year, mainly in an edited version used in a montage for England's elimination from the 2006 FIFA World Cup
on the BBC Match of the Day
programme in early July 2006.
songwriter
Diane Warren
, known for many commercial radio-friendly hits, "Numb" was originally procured by the Pet Shop Boys to be one of the new singles on the 2003 compilation PopArt
. The song was previously offered to rock band Aerosmith
, whose hit "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing
" was written by Warren; it was rejected.
The reputations of the parties involved immediately suggested a stylistic clash; Warren's songs are often heavily emotive love songs (described by the band as the "Los Angeles ballad" style), while the Pet Shop Boys are characterized by largely synthetic sounds and Neil Tennant
's restrained, dispassionate singing. This discontinuity was highlighted by Tennant's often-recounted anecdote of Warren offering the duo another song (still unrecorded to date) titled "Kisses on the Wind", which was flatly rejected due to its title.
Tennant discussed Diane Warren's work in the BBC Radio 2 documentary "Real Song - The Diane Warren Story", which was produced by Malcolm Prince in 2003. The series included Warren's own demo of "Numb".
by Trevor Horn
, the song describes the desire to sequester oneself from the world due to traumatic experiences it has brought about; within the context of Fundamental, it has been observed that the song can be interpreted as a reaction to terrorism and the state of the world brought about in its aftermath.
The original demo
is not orchestrated, relying instead on synthetic sounds. The newly remixed radio version edits out the orchestral opening and the entire second verse, and also repeats the dramatic bridge section, adding harmonized backing vocals the second time. (Despite this work, the music video plays to the original album version instead.)
in November 2003 when "Numb" was planned as a single. They show Pet Shop Boys wearing plague doctor
masks that were bought in Venice
, and were taken at the Jerusalem Tavern in Clerkenwell
, London.
for "Numb" was directed by Julian Gibbs, Julian House, and Chris Sayer, who, as reported by the band's official site, describe it as inspired by "Russian constructivist
cinema". Gibbs had previously directed a 2005 BBC television adaptation of The Snow Queen
, which Sayer worked on as animation director
. In addition, the Gibbs and House pair have previously directed music videos for Primal Scream
, Luke Slater
, and Doves.
and a new remix
of "Psychological" by Ewan Pearson
to be included on the limited edition 12-inch release.
"Bright Young Things" was recorded and written in 2003 with co-production by Chris Zippel. It was originally intended for a film
of the same title made by Stephen Fry
but film producers turned down the track. Neil Tennant stated in June 2006 on the official Pet Shop Boys website that it would be a B-side sometime soon.
The single package also includes a live version of "West End Girls
", which was recorded by BBC Radio 2
at the Mermaid Theatre
in May 2006. This live track is also featured on the Pet Shop Boys first live album, Concrete
which was released the week following this single in October 2006.
The single peaked at #23 in the UK Singles Chart
, becoming the duo's second most unsuccessful single in terms of chart placement after "Was It Worth It" back in 1991.
Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys are an English electronic dance music duo, consisting of Neil Tennant, who provides main vocals, keyboards and occasional guitar, and Chris Lowe on keyboards....
and is featured on their album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
Fundamental
Fundamental (Pet Shop Boys album)
Fundamental is the sixteenth album, the ninth of entirely new music, by the British band Pet Shop Boys. It was released in May 2006 in the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan, and Canada, and was released in late June 2006 in the United States. The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number five on 28...
. It was released on 16 October 2006 as the third single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
from that album, peaking at #23 in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
(see 2006 in British music
2006 in British music
This is a summary of 2006 in music in the United Kingdom including the official single and album charts.-Summary:*At both ends of the year, the chart was dominated by acts from series 2 and series 3 of the television show The X Factor...
). It is only their second single in 39 releases to miss the UK Top 20 (the other being "Was It Worth It?" from 1991, which peaked at #24).
The ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
was widely used throughout the year, mainly in an edited version used in a montage for England's elimination from the 2006 FIFA World Cup
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...
on the BBC Match of the Day
Match of the Day
Match of the Day is the BBC's main football television programme. Typically, it is shown on BBC One on Saturday evenings during the English football season, showing highlights of the day's matches in English football's top division, the Premier League...
programme in early July 2006.
History
Composed by Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
Diane Warren
Diane Warren
Diane Eve Warren , is a US songwriter. Her songs have received six Academy Award nominations, five Golden Globe nominations, including one win and seven Grammy Award nominations, including one win. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001...
, known for many commercial radio-friendly hits, "Numb" was originally procured by the Pet Shop Boys to be one of the new singles on the 2003 compilation PopArt
Pop Art: Pet Shop Boys - The Hits
PopArt: Pet Shop Boys – The Hits is the fourteenth album by the UK electronic music duo Pet Shop Boys. It was released in 2003. PopArt is a compilation of Pet Shop Boys' top-20 UK singles along with two new tracks, "Miracles" and "Flamboyant" which have subsequently also been...
. The song was previously offered to rock band Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
, whose hit "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing
I Don't Want to Miss a Thing
"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" is a song performed by American rock band Aerosmith for the 1998 film Armageddon. Written by Diane Warren, the song debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 . The song stayed at number one for four weeks from September 5 to September 26, 1998...
" was written by Warren; it was rejected.
The reputations of the parties involved immediately suggested a stylistic clash; Warren's songs are often heavily emotive love songs (described by the band as the "Los Angeles ballad" style), while the Pet Shop Boys are characterized by largely synthetic sounds and Neil Tennant
Neil Tennant
Neil Francis Tennant is an English musician, singer and songwriter, who, with bandmate Chris Lowe, makes up the successful electronic dance music duo Pet Shop Boys.-Childhood:...
's restrained, dispassionate singing. This discontinuity was highlighted by Tennant's often-recounted anecdote of Warren offering the duo another song (still unrecorded to date) titled "Kisses on the Wind", which was flatly rejected due to its title.
Tennant discussed Diane Warren's work in the BBC Radio 2 documentary "Real Song - The Diane Warren Story", which was produced by Malcolm Prince in 2003. The series included Warren's own demo of "Numb".
Song
Heavily orchestrated, with strings arrangedString orchestra
A string orchestra is an orchestra composed solely or primarily of instruments from the string family. These instruments are the violin, the viola, the cello, the double bass , the piano, the harp, and sometimes percussion...
by Trevor Horn
Trevor Horn
Trevor Charles Horn CBE is an English pop music record producer, songwriter, musician and singer. He was born in Houghton-le-Spring in north-east England....
, the song describes the desire to sequester oneself from the world due to traumatic experiences it has brought about; within the context of Fundamental, it has been observed that the song can be interpreted as a reaction to terrorism and the state of the world brought about in its aftermath.
The original demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
is not orchestrated, relying instead on synthetic sounds. The newly remixed radio version edits out the orchestral opening and the entire second verse, and also repeats the dramatic bridge section, adding harmonized backing vocals the second time. (Despite this work, the music video plays to the original album version instead.)
Sleeve
The sleeve photography was taken by Sam Taylor-WoodSam Taylor-Wood
Samantha "Sam" Taylor-Wood OBE , born Samantha Taylor, is an English filmmaker, photographer, and visual artist. Her directorial feature film debut came in 2009 with Nowhere Boy, a film based on the childhood experiences of The Beatles songwriter and singer John Lennon...
in November 2003 when "Numb" was planned as a single. They show Pet Shop Boys wearing plague doctor
Plague doctor
A plague doctor , was a special medical physician who saw those who had the bubonic plague. They were specifically hired by towns that had many plague victims in times of plague epidemics. Since the city was paying their salary they treated everyone, the rich and the poor...
masks that were bought in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, and were taken at the Jerusalem Tavern in Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...
, London.
Music video
The music videoMusic video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "Numb" was directed by Julian Gibbs, Julian House, and Chris Sayer, who, as reported by the band's official site, describe it as inspired by "Russian constructivist
Constructivism (art)
Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, which was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th...
cinema". Gibbs had previously directed a 2005 BBC television adaptation of The Snow Queen
The Snow Queen
The Snow Queen is a fairy tale by author Hans Christian Andersen . The tale was first published in 1845, and centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by a little boy and girl, Kai and Gerda....
, which Sayer worked on as animation director
Animation director
An animation director is the director in charge of all aspects of the animation process during the production of an animated film or animated segment for a live-action film...
. In addition, the Gibbs and House pair have previously directed music videos for Primal Scream
Primal Scream
Primal Scream are a Scottish alternative rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie and now based in London. The current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes , Martin Duffy , and Darrin Mooney...
, Luke Slater
Luke Slater
Luke Slater is an English electronic musician, DJ and record producer, who has concentrated on techno since the beginning of the 1990s....
, and Doves.
Single release
The Pet Shop Boys official website announced the release of a new radio edit of "Numb" as the third single from Fundamental, accompanied by new songs "Party Song" and "Bright Young Things" as B-sidesA-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
and a new remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
of "Psychological" by Ewan Pearson
Ewan Pearson
Ewan Pearson is an English electronic music producer/remixer who works under various aliases including Maas, Sulky Pup, Villa America, World of Apples, and Dirtbox. He is also in Partial Arts with Al Usher. He has remixed for artists such as Cortney Tidwell, Seelenluft, Ladytron, Depeche Mode,...
to be included on the limited edition 12-inch release.
"Bright Young Things" was recorded and written in 2003 with co-production by Chris Zippel. It was originally intended for a film
Bright Young Things
Bright Young Things is a 2003 British drama film written and directed by Stephen Fry. The screenplay, based on the 1930 novel Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh, provides satirical social commentary about the Bright Young People: young and carefree London aristocrats and bohemians, as well as society in...
of the same title made by Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
but film producers turned down the track. Neil Tennant stated in June 2006 on the official Pet Shop Boys website that it would be a B-side sometime soon.
The single package also includes a live version of "West End Girls
West End Girls
"West End Girls" is a song by British pop duo Pet Shop Boys. Written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, the song was released twice as a single. It is a synthpop song, influenced by hip hop music. The lyrics focus on class, and inner-city pressure, and were inspired by T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land...
", which was recorded by BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
at the Mermaid Theatre
Mermaid Theatre
The Mermaid Theatre was a theatre at Puddle Dock, in Blackfriars, in the City of London and the first built there since the time of Shakespeare...
in May 2006. This live track is also featured on the Pet Shop Boys first live album, Concrete
Concrete (Pet Shop Boys album)
Concrete is the seventeenth album by the British band Pet Shop Boys. It was released on 23 October 2006.Due to be called Concert, on 20 September 2006, Pet Shop Boys announced that the album was going to be called Concrete, which was the title that they originally wanted for the album...
which was released the week following this single in October 2006.
The single peaked at #23 in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
, becoming the duo's second most unsuccessful single in terms of chart placement after "Was It Worth It" back in 1991.
7": Parlophone / R6723 (United Kingdom)
- "Numb" (radio edit) - 3:27
- "Party song" - 3:44
- "Party song" includes elements of "That's the Way (I Like It)That's the Way (I Like It)"That's the Way " is a song written by H.W. Casey and Richard Finch, and recorded and released in 1975 by KC and the Sunshine Band for their eponymous second album...
" by KC and the Sunshine BandKC and the Sunshine BandKC and the Sunshine Band is an American musical group. Founded in 1973 in Miami, Florida, their style has included funk, R&B, and disco. Their most well known songs include the disco hits "That's the Way ", " Shake Your Booty", "I'm Your Boogie Man", "Keep It Comin' Love", "Get Down Tonight", "Give...
- "Party song" includes elements of "That's the Way (I Like It)
12": Parlophone: 12R6723 (United Kingdom)
- "Numb" (album version) - 4:44
- "Numb" (accapella)
- "Psychological" (Ewan Pearson vocal remix)
12": Parlophone / REMIXES01 (United Kingdom)
- "Psychological" (Ewan Pearson vocal remix)
- "Psychological" (Ewan Pearson dub)
- "Minimal" (Radio Slave mix)
- Promo 12"
CD: Parlophone / CDR6723 (United Kingdom)
- "Numb" (radio edit) - 3:27
- "West End girls" (live at the Mermaid TheatreMermaid TheatreThe Mermaid Theatre was a theatre at Puddle Dock, in Blackfriars, in the City of London and the first built there since the time of Shakespeare...
)
CD: Parlophone: CDRS6723 (United Kingdom)
- "Numb" (demo) - 3:40
- "Party song" - 3:44
- "Bright young things" - 4:57
- "Numb" (video)
- Tracks 2 and 3 on this disc are reversed, making the track listing incorrect.
CD: Parlophone / Numb01 (United Kingdom)
- "Numb" (radio edit) - 3:27
- "Numb" (album version) - 4:44
- Promo CD in cardboard sleeve
Chart performance
| Chart (2006) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
23 |
| German Singles Chart | 72 |