| "Nine Million Bicycles" | ||||||||||
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| Single by Katie Melua | ||||||||||
| from the album Piece by Piece | ||||||||||
| B-side | "Market Day in Guernica", "Stardust" | |||||||||
| Released | September 19, 2005 (UK) | |||||||||
| Format | CD single, digital download | |||||||||
| Genre | Pop/Jazz/Blues | |||||||||
| Length | 3:15 | |||||||||
| Label | Dramatico | |||||||||
| Writer(s) | Mike Batt | |||||||||
| Producer | Mike Batt | |||||||||
| Katie Melua singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"Nine Million Bicycles" is a song written and produced by Mike Batt for the singer Katie Melua's second album, Piece by Piece. It was released as the album's first single in September 2005 (see 2005 in music) and reached number five on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Melua's first top five hit as a solo artist. (She had previously participated in Band Aid 20's 2004 number-one charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?"). It was a finalist for The Record of the Year prize, losing to "You Raise Me Up" by Westlife.
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According to Melua, the inspiration for the song came from when her interpreter during her time in Beijing[1], China, was showing her and her manager, Mike Batt, around the city. The interpreter gave them information about Beijing, including that there are supposedly nine million bicycles in the city. Batt wrote a song based around the title "Nine Million Bicycles" upon his return to England two weeks later, and it was one of the last songs to be recorded for Piece by Piece. Adrian Brett, who played the ethnic flutes on Batt's album Caravans (1978), contributed to the song; an ocarina was used for the low sounds, and a Chinese bamboo flute for the high sounds.[2]
Melua said that she liked the song "because it is a simple juxtaposition of a trivial idea ("Nine Million Bicycles") against an important idea ("I will love you till I die")".[2] The website indieLondon named it one of the "highlights" of Piece by Piece, describing it as "genuinely sweet ... The meandering blasts of flute that weave their way throughout lend the song a Chinese feel and make it quite enticing."[3]
The single's video, directed by Kevin Godley, features Melua being dragged across the floor through a variety of settings, including a brief shot of the Summer Palace (Yiheyuan, Chinese: 颐和园/頤和園) in Beijing, until she returns to a picnic in a park with her friends.
The song was featured prominently in a high-profile radio and television advertising campaign for the Slovenian cell-phone operator Mobitel.
| Chart | Peak Position |
|---|---|
| Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[4] | 4 |
| France (SNEP)[5] | 56 |
| Germany (Media Control AG)[6] | 31 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 11 |
| Italy (FIMI)[7] | 17 |
| Netherlands (Mega Single Top 100)[8] | 2 |
| Norway (VG-lista)[9] | 10 |
| Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[10] | 43 |
| UK Singles Chart | 5 |
| Europe Official Top 100 | 12 |
In 2005, Melua was criticised by writer and scientist Simon Singh for inaccurate lyrics referring to the size of the observable universe ("We are 12 billion light-years from the edge. That's a guess — no-one can ever say it's true"). Melua and Singh met, and Melua re-recorded a tongue-in-cheek version of the song that had been written by Singh:
"We are 13.7 billion light-years from the edge of the observable universe; that's a good estimate with well-defined error bars/and with the available information, I predict that I will always be with you".
Later Melua revealed that she 'should have known better' as she used to be a member of the Astronomy club at school.
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