Young Folks

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“Young Folks”

Single by Peter Bjorn and John featuring Victoria Bergsman
from the album Writer's Block

B-side

"Ancient Curse"

Released

June 2006

Format

CD, 7" Vinyl

Peter Bjorn and John featuring Victoria Bergsman singles chronology

"Young Folks"
(2006)

"Let's Call It Off"
(2006)

"Young Folks" is the first single from Peter Bjorn and John's third album Writer's Block, released in 2006. The single features Victoria Bergsman of The Concretes as a guest vocalist. The chorus is based on the song Rich Folks Hoax by Rodriguez.

The first song attracted notice on websites such as MySpace and YouTube, and was used in a number of commercials and television shows (see below). Only since mid-2007 has the song earned extensive airplay on American radio, most notably on dance radio outlets like KNHC/Seattle, KNGY/San Francisco and Sirius Satellite's The Beat.

The song was ranked #5 on Pitchfork Media's "Top 100 Tracks of 2006"^[1] list. Pitchfork reviewed the song on 19 July 2006, giving it three out of five stars [1]. The song was also voted #2 in the 2006 NME Track of the Year poll.^[2] Planet Sound named this their #2 single of 2006. The song was named the number one song of 2007 according to the iTunes Music Store. Y-Rock On XPN also named the song #1 of 2007.

On Peter Bjorn and John's recent Australian tour, Victoria Bergsman's vocals were performed by Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura. The group performed the song on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on 29 January 2007, and on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on 18 May 2007 (the latter with Tonight Show Band member Vicki Randle on bongos). On 29 September 2007, the band played "Young Folks", with Victoria Bergsman's vocals, on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross on BBC1.

The single was re-released on 17 September 2007, when it reached number 13 in the UK, beating the original chart position of number 33 in 2006.

The accompanying video was directed by Ted Malmros with animation by Graham Samuels.

1 Vinyl track listing
2 CD track listing
3 Covers
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Vinyl track listing

"Young Folks" feat. Victoria Bergsman
"Ancient Curse"

[edit] CD track listing

"Young Folks" feat. Victoria Bergsman
"Ancient Curse"
"All Those Expectations"

[edit] Covers

English indie band, The Kooks made a cover of "Young Folks" which is included in a CD album in a special box set issue of the music magazine, NME.
German singer Nena covered "Young Folks" together with Oliver Pocher and Stephan Remmler in German as "Ich kann nix dafür" (German for "It's not my fault") for the movie Vollidiot.
Japanese singer Shugo Tokumaru covered the song in 2006 for the Cokemachineglow fantasy covers podcast. It was released as a single in Japan and received considerable airplay.
Kanye West sampled this song for a track by the same name, and "Interviews (Interlude)" both on his mixtape Can't Tell Me Nothing.
James Blunt covered this song in September 2007 on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge ^[3] and later that month at KLLC's Now & Zen Fest ^[4].
Dawn Landes has also covered this song.
Pete Yorn often covers the song at his live shows.
The Kooks and Little covered this song in May 2008 on Taratata (French TV show) ^[5].