Forever Young (Alphaville song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Forever Young” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||
| Single by Alphaville from the album Forever Young |
|||||
| B-side | "Welcome to the Sun " | ||||
| Released | September 1984 | ||||
| Format | 7" single 12" maxi |
||||
| Genre | Synthpop | ||||
| Length | 3:50 | ||||
| Label | WEA | ||||
| Writer(s) | Bernhard Lloyd Marian Gold Frank Mertens |
||||
| Producer | Colin Pearson Wolfgang Loos Andreas Budde |
||||
| Alphaville singles chronology | |||||
|
|||||
"Forever Young" is the title track from German rock/synthpop group Alphaville's 1984 debut album. Though it was not the group's highest-charting European hit and failed to reach the American Top 40 despite three separate U.S. single releases, "Forever Young" became something of a pop standard and has been covered by numerous artists since its 1984 debut.
Contents |
[edit] Alphaville version
Originally released by Alphaville as a single in 1984, "Forever Young" was available in both its original mix and also in a dance version titled the "Special Extended Mix." Over the years the band has released several remixes and demo versions of the song.
The song's music video shows the band performing in one of the halls at Holloway Sanatorium in Virginia Water, Surrey. A number of ragged people ranging from children to the elderly awake to observe the band, then walk through a diamond-shaped glowing portal.
[edit] Influence
"Forever Young" has become something of a pop culture standard. It has been performed by numerous musical groups and in different versions and has appeared in television series, movies, and advertisements. The song plays during scenes in the television series Passions, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (episode 103: "Underage Drinking: A National Concern"), the North American version of Queer as Folk (season 1, episode 18), and One Tree Hill (season 4, episode 16). It also plays in the movie Listen to Me and during the school dance scene of the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite. In 2006 and 2007 the song was used in advertisements for the Scandinavian banks SEB in Estonia and Sweden, and Nordea in Denmark. It also appeared in prom-themed advertisements for Saturn Ion automobiles.
In Argentina it was also used in advertisements for Consolidar AFJP, a Pension Retirement Fund.
Just a year after the song's initial release, pop singer Laura Branigan covered "Forever Young" on her album Hold Me and began a tradition of performing the song as an encore at her concerts. In 1996 the Canadian eurodance group Temperance released a cover version of the song which reached number 8 on the Canadian Dance Chart. Idol 2006 contestant Sara Burnett performed "Forever Young" on the Swedish television show. Her performance qualified her for the show's top 10 and appears on the soundtrack Det bästa från idol 2006 (The best from Idol 2006). Other artists to have covered "Forever Young" in the years since its original release include Tracy Huang, DJ Space C, David Monte Cristo, DJ Company, Karel Gott, Paul Michiels, Dune, B-Charme, BnH, Wakin Chau, Fire & Ice, Interactive, Ella, Tune Up!, Axel Rudi Pell, Wayne Wonder and Atrocity. In 2001 Swedish group Ainbusk re-wrote the song in their native language as an existential Christmas carol titled "Förevigt nu".
[edit] Track listings
|
|
[edit] Chart positions
| Chart (1984-1985)[1] | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austrian Singles Chart | 17 |
| French Singles Chart | 13 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 3 |
| Swedish Singles Chart | 1 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 3 |
| Preceded by "The Never Ending Story" by Limahl |
Swedish number one single December 21, 1984 |
Succeeded by "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid |
[edit] Youth Group version
| “Forever Young” | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Single by Youth Group from the album Casino Twilight Dogs |
||
| Released | 2006 | |
| Genre | Indie rock | |
In 2005 Australian rock band Youth Group were asked by the producers of the hit American television series The O.C. to record a cover version of "Forever Young" for use in an episode of the show, after their single "Shadowland" had appeared in a previous episode and received a positive response. Their version of "Forever Young" not only played during an episode, but was used as theme music during Australian advertisements for the show's third season and was included on the soundtrack album Music from the OC: Mix 5. The song became a hit in Australia, receiving radio play on rock station Triple J and soon being picked up by other stations. A single released in the country debuted at #2 on the ARIA charts, was ranked #1 in digital downloads, and was certified gold in sales.[2] The song was included on the band's album Casino Twilight Dogs released internationally later that year. A music video was released consisting of footage from the early-1970s Australian youth television program GTK, showing Australia's first skateboarding contest being held at the Coca-Cola factory in Frenchs Forest, New South Wales in 1975. The song is played throughout a 2007 Ad for Tourism New Zealand's "youngest country on earth" campaign.
[edit] Chart positions
| Preceded by "Flaunt It" by TV Rock featuring Seany B |
Australian ARIA Singles Chart number-one single April 2, 2006 - April 9, 2006 |
Succeeded by "Flaunt It" by TV Rock featuring Seany B |
| Preceded by "Flaunt It" by TV Rock featuring Seany B |
Australian ARIA Singles Chart number-one single April 16, 2006 - April 23, 2006 |
Succeeded by "SOS" by Rihanna |
[edit] References
- ^ "Forever Young", in various Singles Chart Lescharts.com (Retrieved February 24, 2008)
- ^ Casino Twilight Dogs. Epitaph Records website (2006). Retrieved on 2007-07-02.
