Forever Young (Alphaville song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses of the name, see Forever Young.

Forever Young was the title track from West German rock/synthpop group Alphaville's 1984 debut album. Though it was not Alphaville's highest-charting European hit ("Big In Japan" was), and despite its failure to even once crack the American Top 40 in three separate U.S. single releases, "Forever Young" quickly became something of a modern day pop standard, and has been covered by numerous artists since its 1984 debut. The song was also very popular in the 1980s as a prom theme.

"Forever Young" glorifies youth by expressing a fear of aging and death. Written during the Cold War, its swooping and hopeful chorus stands in relief against the verses' "hoping for the best, but expecting the worst; are you gonna drop the bomb or not?" The song is known for its closing quasi-fugue of synthesized trumpets.

Originally released by Alphaville as a single in 1984, "Forever Young" was available in both its original mix and also in the dance version: the "Special Extended Mix." Over the years, the band has also released several remixes and demos of the song.

Among the many artists to have covered the song:

Laura Branigan, Youth Group, Temperance, Countdown Singers, DJ Space C, David Monte Cristo, DJ Company, Dune, BnH, Emil Wakin Chau, Fire & Ice, Interactive, Waterboy, Ella, Tune Up!, Axel Rudi Pell, and Swedish quartet Ainbusk who in 2001 re-wrote the song into an existential Christmas carol in Swedish called "Förevigt nu".

Australian band Youth Group covered the song for their third studio album Casino Twilight Dogs.

Youth Group were asked to do a cover of the song for the hit American television show, The O.C.. As well as being used in an episode of the show, the song was used as the theme song for season three ads in Australia, which began in early 2006. It also features on the compilation soundtrack, Music from the OC: Mix 5.

"Forever Young" debuted on the ARIA charts at #2 and was #1 in digital downloads in Australia and has been certified gold in Australia. The single, sometimes referred to as the Forever Young EP, contains three tracks; "Forever Young", "Someone Else's Dream" and an edited version of "Forever Young".

The original music video featured different aged people waking up, listening to Alphaville singing, then walking off into a triangle to seemingly nowhere. Another video consisted of footage of teenagers skating, taken from the Australian youth programme GTK which aired from 1969 to 1975. The skating footage is from the first skateboard contest in 1975 held at the Coca Cola factory at Frenchs Forest, New South Wales, Australia. "Forever Young" is also the title of several other unrelated songs, some of which are relatively famous in their own right, including those sung by Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, and Meat Loaf.

[edit] Trivia

In 2004, the song was used on the NBC daytime drama series Passions. In the scene, Tabitha Lenox casts an aging spell on Kay Bennett right as she's about to seduce Fox Crane, turning Kay into an old woman. Tabitha's "good witch" daughter Endora Lenox reverses the spell by conjuring up a stereo in the upstairs bedroom where Fox and Kay are. The stereo plays the song as Kay gets changed back and she and Fox share a kiss.
In October 2006, "Forever Young" by Alphaville was used by Swedish bank SEB in a television advertisement encouraging people to save money for their pension.
Sara Burnett sang "Forever Young" at Idol 2006. By singing it she qualified herself to the top 10. The song also appears on "Det bästa från idol 2006" ("The best from Idol 2006")
A cover of this song is also used in the TV-show The OC, performed by Youth Group.
"Forever Young" was also used in the prom scene of the 2004 movie Napoleon Dynamite. The song was also featured in the episode Underage Drinking: A National Concern of the sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
"Forever Young" was used in the ending scene of episode 18 of first season of the US version of Queer as Folk
"Croatian punk band "Hladno Pivo" (english "Cold Beer") made reference to "Forever Young" in their song "Für Immer Punk"
In March 2007, "Forever Young" by Alphaville was used by Danish bank Nordea in a television advertisement encouraging people to save money for their pension.
Forever Young was used in a Saturn Ion "Prom" commerical where a car drives through a town and teenagers are dancing to Forever Young.