Daydream (Wallace Collection song)

"Daydream" is a song recorded in 1969 by the Belgian band Wallace Collection. It was composed by band members Sylvain Vanholme and Raymond Vincent, with David MacKay^[1] who also produced the single.^[2] The song is in the symphonic pop/rock genre, and uses strings and flutes. The song was a hit in mainland Europe, though popularity didn't make it to English speaking countries, despite its use of English lyrics. The song was covered several times, most notably by the Gunter Kallmann Orchestra in 1970.

The song takes its melody from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet.^[3] It also uses the second theme from the second movement of Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 1.

"Daydream" found new life, starting in the 1990s, as a source of samples in trip hop, electronica and hip hop music. It has even been (mistakenly) credited as having created the Bristol Sound , although the sample that Portishead and Tricky used for "Glory Box" and "Hell Is Round the Corner" respectively is in fact from the similar sounding Isaac Hayes track "Ike's Rap II" from his 1971 album Black Moses.

Cover versions

The French pop star Claude François, known for writing the original "My Way," released his cover "Rêveries" in April 1969.

The British group The Motowns released an Italian-language cover, "Sogno, sogno, sogno" ("I dream"), in 1969.

The song was covered in 1970 by the German vocal group the Gunter Kallmann Chorus, and this version was used on a popular easy listening record of the time. As such Gunter Kallmann is occasionally mis-credited as the original author of the song. The Gunter Kallmann version is often sampled instead of the original.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Samples

"Daydream" has been sampled on the following songs:

• "Gangsta Rap" by Hamburg rap group Fettes Brot, on their 1995 album Auf Einem Auge Blöd.
• A remix of "She Said" by The Pharcyde released on Go! Discs Records in 1996. The remix was produced by Fuzz Face (i.e. Geoff Barrow) and tWANK Boy.
• "Les Lions vivent dans la brousse" by Lyon rap group AL & DJ Duke, released on compilation Duke Flava by DJ Duke in 1997.
• Cut Killer's mixtape, Cut Killer Show Présente: Operation Freestyle of 1998.
• "On a Beautiful Day", by British electronica/alternative rock band Skinny, from their 2001 album Taller (samples the Gunter Kallman Choir version).
• "Hood Dreamin" by Guru (with a sped-up version of the song), from his 2005 solo album Version 7.0: The Street Scriptures.
• "The Highest Commitment" by Qwel and Maker, in some live versions (samples the Gunter Kallmann Choir version)
• "Rêverie", by French DJ Lord Funk (a remix of the French version, "Rêveries").
• "Daydreamin'" by Lupe Fiasco featuring Jill Scott, on his 2006 debut album Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor.
• "Rewind" by Roger Molls on the album "Rewind" 2010

Daydream in Blue

The most famous use of "Daydream" is in the song "Daydream in Blue" by British electronic music duo I Monster. I Monster released two very different versions of the song. The first, which was included on their first album, the 1998 These Are Our Children, does not sample "Daydream", but instead has newly recorded vocals and instrumentation, as well as new lyrics that begin, "I dream a dirty dream of you, baby".

The second version of "Daydream in Blue" was originally released as a single in 2001, then included on their 2003 album Neveroddoreven. This version is a remix of the Gunter Kallmann Choir recording, and the added vocals are processed through a vocoder.

A music video was made for the 2001 version. It features a puppet of Jarrod Gosling and a blonde woman appears in both human and doll form. He fantasises about her throughout the video. The video begins with I Monster using a synthesizer to play the song. A puppet of Gosling is then seen lying down in a miniature garden filled with trees and flowers (hence, "I fell asleep amid the flowers") He spots the woman who appears in both human and doll form in the video. The two can be seen in a bed and the field and by a pond together. The woman often teases Gosling by spanking herself and exposing her breasts to him.

"Daydream in Blue" has been used in advertisements, and as background music to many TV programmes and films, including the BBC's Hustle and Cutting It, as well as the films Layer Cake, Steal (a.k.a. Riders) and the 2004 Belgian drama Le Dernier Jour (The Last Day).

The 2001 "Daydream in Blue" was sampled on the 2006 Lupe Fiasco/Jill Scott song "Daydreamin'". While a popular AT&T commercial is often said to use the I Monster version, it is actually the Lupe Fiasco/Jill Scott version.

Squares

Coincidentally, at almost exactly the same time as I Monster were releasing their "Daydream in Blue" single, The Beta Band were planning to release their single "Squares" from their 2001 album Hot Shots II. "Squares" also used the same melody as the original throughout and has the original song's chorus line; additionally, the vocal styles are very similar. On realizing the clash with I Monster, The Beta Band decided to pull the single and released "Broke" from the same album instead. "Squares", however, may be found on the first soundtrack for HBO's Six Feet Under.

Soundtrack appearances

In Norway, this song has become widely known through its use as background music in a series of televised information snippets regarding mountain safety. The snippets were produced by the Norwegian Red Cross and broadcast annually through the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, chiefly around the Easter holidays.^[8] The original series was broadcast from 1969, but the theme tune was not introduced until 1972. From 1989 the broadcasts featured Åsleik Engmark as the lost skier, Severin Suveren (Severin Sovereign), who would disregard the guide lines and thus find himself in difficult situations.

The Belgian film Mr. Nobody in 2009 also used this song several times in the movie.

References