Kodachrome (song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Kodachrome" is a song written and recorded by Paul Simon. It appeared on his 1973 album There Goes Rhymin' Simon.

The song is named after the Kodak 35mm Film Kodachrome. He also made a reference on the line "I got a Nikon Camera". The song became a major hit in the United States, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, but it was not a hit in Britain, most likely because British radio would not play the trademarked name.

Kodak required the album to note that Kodachrome is a trademark of Kodak. In the late 1990s, Kodak used the song in commercials to sell film.

The lyrics on There Goes Rhymin' Simon differed in wording from those on the The Concert in Central Park and Paul Simon's Concert in the Park, August 15, 1991 albums. The former said, "...everything looks worse in black and white," but the latter said, "...everything looks better in black and white." The original wording clearly makes more sense in a song about the preeminence of color film. The word/concept reversal may, however, more clearly indicate a sense of nostalgia, in our advertising-intensive, multimedia-enabled, heavily networked and, especially, "technicolor" world.^{[citation needed]}

This song is also featured in the 1993 film Coneheads. This song is played while they show home videos of Connie Conehead growing up in the 1970s.