| "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 single, 7" | |||
| Genre | Indie pop, neo-psychedelia | |||
| Length | 4:01 | |||
| Label | Wichita Recordings | |||
| Peter Bjorn and John singles chronology | ||||
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"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.
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The song first attracted notice on websites such as MySpace and YouTube, and was used in a number of European commercials and television shows. 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". It is notable for being a popular song with whistling (the whistling was originally added in as a placeholder for another instrument [3]). The whistling and part of the song have a tune reminiscent of the "oriental riff".
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.[2] The song was also voted #2 in the 2006 NME Track of the Year poll.[3] 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. In October 2011, NME placed it at number 91 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".[4]
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 video was directed by Ted Malmros with animation by Graham Samuels. It has been featured in the SingStar game series on Singstar Pop 2, as well as the Xbox 360 game Lips.
The video starts off with Peter and Victoria sitting in a park, on a bench. Peter teaches Victoria how to whistle. Then the video switches over to them both sitting in a bus where the song starts. Throughout the video, scenes of the band playing the song can be seen and eventually the video ends with a big party where everybody "seems to disappear".
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. When the band performed the song at the 2007 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Bergsman's vocals were performed by Bebban Stenborg of Shout Out Louds. On Peter Bjorn and John's 2008 Australian tour, Victoria Bergsman's vocals were performed by Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura.
Vinyl release
CD release
The song is featured on the 2007 compilation album, Acoustic 07, the FIFA 08 soundtrack, and was also used in the E3 trailer of Lips, the video game. Gossip Girl also uses this track for its theme and it was featured in the 2008 motion picture 21. From March 2009 the song is used in adverts for the UK DIY Retailer Homebase.The song also appeared during Will's video project on the 2009 film Bandslam. It was also used for the season two promo of Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry?[8]
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