Something in the Air

"Something in the Air" is a song recorded by Thunderclap Newman, a band created by Pete Townshend for The Who's former roadie John 'Speedy' Keen who wrote and sang the song, from their only album Hollywood Dream. It was a UK #1 single for three weeks in July 1969. The song has been used for films, television and adverts, and has been covered by several artists.

1 Thunderclap Newman
2 Production
3 Reception
4 Soundtrack
5 Covers
6 Chart performance (Thunderclap Newman version)
7 Chart performance (Tom Petty version)
8 References

Thunderclap Newman

In 1969, Pete Townshend, The Who's guitarist, was the catalyst behind the formation of the band. The concept was to create a band to perform songs written by former Who roadie and drummer/singer John 'Speedy' Keen, who had written "Armenia City in the Sky", the first track on The Who Sell Out.^[1] Townshend recruited General Post Office engineer and jazz pianist Andy 'Thunderclap' Newman (a friend from art college),^[2] and 15-year-old Glaswegian Jimmy McCulloch.^[3] Keen played the drums and sang the lead.

Production

Townshend produced the single,^[4] arranged the strings, and played bass under the pseudonym Bijou Drains. Originally titled Revolution but later renamed to avoid confusion with the Beatles' 1968 song of that name, "Something in the Air" captured post-flower power rebellion, marrying McCulloch's sweeping acoustic and glowing electric guitars, Keen's powerful drumming and yearning falsetto, and Newman's felicitous piano solo.

Reception

The single reached No. 1 on the UK charts just three weeks after release, holding off Elvis Presley in the process. The scale of the song's success surprised everyone and there were no plans to promote Thunderclap Newman with live performances. Eventually a line-up - augmented by Jim Pitman-Avory on bass and McCulloch's elder brother Jack on drums - played a handful of gigs. Personal records say the band played live only five times, although Keen referred to a two-month tour, playing "everywhere". In the UK, a follow-up single, "Accidents", came out only in May 1970 and charted at No. 44 for a week. An album, Hollywood Dream, peaked in Billboard at No. 163. Thus, the song and the band were forever linked as a one hit wonder. Labelle recorded an emotional cover of it alongside "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", for their 1973 album, Pressure Cookin'.

Soundtrack

"Something in the Air" appeared on the soundtracks of the several films The Magic Christian (1969) and The Strawberry Statement (1970) (which helped the single reach No. 25 in the United States) and later Kingpin (1996), Almost Famous (2000),The Dish (2000) ,and The Girl Next Door (2004). It also appeared on and was the title of the second disc in the Deluxe Edition of the Easy Rider soundtrack.

"Something in the Air" has been used extensively in television, most notably on an advertisement for British Airways which featured PJ O'Rourke. The song also appeared in a retro TV advert for the Austin Mini in the early 1990s, featuring 1960s fashion model Twiggy. More recently, a version of the song was used in the advertisements for the mobile phone service provider TalkTalk. (A similar advert for TalkTalk shown at the beginning of advert breaks during Big Brother features the opening bars). It is also used as the 'on hold' music for The Carphone Warehouse, of which Talk Talk is a part. The song was also featured in the pilot episode of the American television show Aliens in America and in the third season episode Bad Earl of My Name Is Earl. A version of the song recorded by Ocean Colour Scene was previously used by telephone provider Ionica. In 2008, this song appeared in a Coca-Cola commercial in Taiwan.

Covers

The song has been covered by a number of artists including: The Mandrake Memorial in 1969; Labelle in 1973; Herbie Mann in 1974;Gamma in 1980; Fish in 1991; The Lightning Seeds and Trip Shakespeare in 1992; Tom Petty in 1993; Eurythmics in 1999; the U.K. Subs in 2000; The Superjesus in 2001; Elbow and Wellwater Conspiracy in 2003, Hayley Sanderson in 2006. and Donald Fagen with the Dukes of September and Polyphonic Spree live in 2010.

Chart performance (Thunderclap Newman version)

Chart (1969)	Peak position
Dutch Singles Chart	9
UK Singles Chart	1
US Billboard Hot 100 Chart	37

Chart performance (Tom Petty version)

Chart (1994)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Album Rock Tracks	19
Canadian RPM Top Singles	26
UK Singles Chart	53

References

^ John Dougan, The Who sell out, page 98. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006, ISBN 0826417434. http://books.google.com/books?id=pVRFX1ibwFMC&pg=PA98&dq=Thunderclap+Newman&lr=&as_brr=3&client=firefox-a#v=onepage&q=Thunderclap%20Newman&f=false. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
^ Kim Cooper, David Smay, Lost in the grooves, page 165. Routledge, 2005, ISBN 0415969980. http://books.google.com/books?id=o4wRvuoA0QYC&pg=PA165&dq=Thunderclap+Newman&client=firefox-a#v=onepage&q=Thunderclap%20Newman&f=false. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
^ Jeremy Simmonds, The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars, page 124. Chicago Review Press, 2008, ISBN 1556527543. http://books.google.com/books?id=bMBf3TYZigQC&pg=PT143&dq=Thunderclap+Newman&client=firefox-a#v=onepage&q=Thunderclap%20Newman&f=false. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
^ Dave Spencer, A Smudge on My Lens, page 97. Troubador Publishing Ltd, 2008, ISBN 1906510784. http://books.google.com/books?id=MXkF1c8uRsoC&pg=PA97&dq=Thunderclap+Newman&lr=&as_brr=3&client=firefox-a#v=onepage&q=Thunderclap%20Newman&f=false. Retrieved 2009-11-20.

Preceded by "The Ballad of John and Yoko" by The Beatles	UK number one single 2 July 1969 (3 weeks)	Succeeded by "Honky Tonk Women" by The Rolling Stones