Emma (song)

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Emma, also known as Emma, Emmaline or Emmeline, is a song by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson released as a single by Hot Chocolate in 1974. It made No.3 in the UK charts and No.8 in the US.

[edit] Plot

The song details the love of the (nameless) singer and a girl called Emmaline from the age of five all through a wedding at seventeen until her suicide at an unspecified later date. Emma it seems wanted to be a "movie queen" but could never find the breaks and eventually kills herself with the line "I just can't keep on living on dreams no more."

[edit] Later Use

This rather dark song (by Hot Chocolate's standards) again saw the light of day around 1985 when The Sisters of Mercy started performing a live (and considerably "gothed up") version of it with Andrew Eldritch's voice making it darker still and the guitar and bass of Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams making for a slower and much more funereal style. Their version was released on the b-side of the 12" version of their 1988 single, "Dominion".

Chicago's Urge Overkill also performed a version of this song on their 1990 Touch and Go Records release "Supersonic Storybook".