Making Plans for Nigel

"Making Plans for Nigel"
Single by XTC
from the album Drums and Wires
B-side
  • "Bushman President"
  • "Pulsing Pulsing"
Released 1979 (1979)
Length 4:14
Label Virgin
Songwriter(s) Colin Moulding
Producer(s) Steve Lillywhite
XTC singles chronology
"Life Begins at the Hop"
(1979)
"Making Plans for Nigel"
(1979)
"Ten Feet Tall"
(1980)

"Life Begins at the Hop"
(1979)
"Making Plans for Nigel"
(1979)
"Ten Feet Tall"
(1980)
Audio sample
  • file
  • help

"Making Plans for Nigel" is a song written by Colin Moulding for the English rock band XTC, released as the lead single from their 1979 album Drums and Wires. It spent 11 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 17.[1] The song also reached #12 on the Canadian chart and remained on the charts there for 22 weeks.[2]

The lyrics are told from the point of view of parents who are certain that their son Nigel is "happy in his world", affirming that his future in British Steel "is as good as sealed", and that he "likes to speak and loves to be spoken to". As a response to the song, British Steel reportedly gathered four Sheffield employees named Nigel to talk about job satisfaction for the trade publication Steel News.[3]

In 2016, "Making Plans for Nigel" was ranked number 143 on Pitchfork's list of the 200 best songs of the 1970s.[3]

Personnel

As written on the record sleeve.[4]

XTC

Technical

References

  1. "Official Charts: XTC". Official Charts. The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved 2016-06-05. N.B. This site displays 'compressed' (with exclusion rules applied) singles chart peaks between numbers 76–100.
  2. "Image: RPM Weekly, April 19, 1980". RPM Weekly. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 2017-01-23.
  3. 1 2 Pitchfork Staff (August 22, 2016). "The 200 Best Songs of the 1970s". Pitchfork.
  4. Drums and Wires, Virgin Records, 1979 - record sleeve
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.