Beautiful Life (song)
| "Beautiful Life" | ||||||||
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| Single by Ace of Base | ||||||||
| from the album The Bridge | ||||||||
| Released | November 7, 1995 (North America), January 1, 1996 (Europe) | |||||||
| Genre | Eurodance, Hi-NRG | |||||||
| Length | 3:38 | |||||||
| Label | Arista | |||||||
| Writer(s) | Jonas Berggren, John Ballard | |||||||
| Producer | Jonas Berggren, Denniz Pop, Max Martin | |||||||
| Ace of Base singles chronology | ||||||||
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"Beautiful Life" is the title of a song by Swedish band Ace of Base, released in the Autumn of 1995. In North America it was the first single released from the band's The Bridge; in Europe it followed "Lucky Love".
The song was written on January 1, 1994 by band member Jonas Berggren while he was in the Canary Islands. His earlier song "The Sign" had just hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. Berggren incorporated gospel elements into the song, and the single proved quite successful worldwide, reaching #15[1] on the Billboard Hot 100 in December, 1995 and on the UK Singles Chart. It also hit #1 on the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.
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[edit] Music video
[edit] Bubbles Version
The video for the song was directed by Richard Heslop, who would go on to direct the band's later video for "Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry". The video included computer-generated bubbles which whisked the band from place to place.
[edit] US Version
According to music channel VH1 in the United States, the band's record label, Arista Records, insisted the bubbles be removed from the video, leading to a somewhat strange-looking U.S. video, with the band members looking at (and reacting to) bubbles that were no longer there. In Europe, both the versions (bubble video and bubble-free) were released.
[edit] Other videos
In addition to the two alternate videos, remix videos were also created, and in 1998 VH1 released a Pop-up Video version of the video.
[edit] Critical reception
J.D. Considine of Spin magazine said in a writeup about The Bridge that "the real genius of Ace of Base lies not with perky singing... but with the ability to make melancholy sound so damned appealing." The evaluation continues to narrow in scope as he continues to say "even the cheerfully titled 'Beautiful life' dampens its club-savvy stomp with a heartbreaking minor key chorus."[2]
[edit] Tracklistings
[edit] United Kingdom CD 1 / Australian CD
- Beautiful Life (Single Version)
- Beautiful Life (12" Extended Version)
- Beautiful Life (Junior's Circuit Bump Mix)
[edit] United Kingdom CD 2
- Beautiful Life (Single Version)
- Beautiful Life (Vission Lorimer Club Mix)
- Beautiful Life (Lenny B.'s House of Joy Club Mix)
- Beautiful Life (Uno Clio Mix)
[edit] US Maxi Single
- Beautiful Life (Single Version)
- Beautiful Life (12" Extended Version)
- Beautiful Life (Junior's Circuit Bump Mix)
- Beautiful Life (Vission Lorimer Club Mix)
- Beautiful Life (Lenny B's House Of Joy Club Mix)
- Beautiful Life (Uno Clio Mix)
[edit] Personnel
- Vocals by Linn Berggren, Jenny Berggren, Jonas Berggren
- Backing Vocals and cue choir by Jeanette Söderholm
- Music by Jonas Berggren
- Lyrics by Jonas Berggren and John Ballard
- Produced by Denniz Pop, Max Martin and Jonas Berggren
- Recorded and produced at Cheiron Studios
[edit] Charts
[edit] Peak positions
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[edit] End of year charts
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[edit] Chart successions
| Preceded by "Be My Lover" by La Bouche |
Billboard Hot Dance Club Play number-one single January 6, 1996 - January 12, 1996 |
Succeeded by "If I Were You" by k.d. lang |
| Preceded by "El Tiburón" by Proyecto Uno |
Canadian RPM Dance chart number-one single January 29, 1996 (1 week) |
Succeeded by "Missing" by Everything but the Girl |
[edit] Cover versions
Indie band Jukebox The Ghost recorded a cover of the song for Engine Room Recordings' compilation album Guilt by Association Vol. 2, which was released in November 2008.[20]
[edit] Appearances in other media
- This song was included on the Night at the Roxbury (1998) soundtrack and was featured in the advertising campaign for the movie.
- The song was the first to be played the night that the Florida Marlins won Game 7 of the 1997 World Series.
- The song was also heard in the Adam Sandler films, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry from 2007 and You Don't Mess With The Zohan from 2008.
[edit] References
- ^ "Billboard - Google Boeken". Books.google.com. 1995-12-16. http://books.google.com/books?id=JA0EAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&lr=#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
- ^ J.D. Considine (February 1996), Ace of Base - The Bridge, Spin magazine
- ^ "Australian-charts.com – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Hung Medien. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
- ^ "Ace of Base – Beautiful Life – Austriancharts.at" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Hung Medien. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
- ^ "Ultratop.be – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Ultratop & Hung Medien / hitparade.ch. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
- ^ "Ultratop.be – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life" (in French). Ultratop 40. Ultratop & Hung Medien / hitparade.ch. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
- ^ Canada top singles peak
- ^ Canada dance peak
- ^ "Lescharts.com – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life" (in French). Les classement single. Hung Medien. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
- ^ "Die ganze Musik im Internet: Charts, News, Neuerscheinungen, Tickets, Genres, Genresuche, Genrelexikon, Künstler-Suche, Musik-Suche, Track-Suche, Ticket-Suche – musicline.de" (in German). Media Control Charts. PhonoNet GmbH. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
- ^ Search for Irish peaks
- ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life" (in Dutch). Mega Single Top 100. Hung Medien / hitparade.ch. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
- ^ "Charts.org.nz – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life". Top 40 Singles. Hung Medien. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
- ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life". Singles Top 60. Hung Medien. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
- ^ "Ace of Base – Beautiful Life – swisscharts.com". Swiss Singles Chart. Hung Medien. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
- ^ "Archive Chart" UK Singles Chart. Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
- ^ "Ace Of Base Album & Song Chart History" Billboard Hot 100 for Ace Of Base. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
- ^ a b c Allmusic. Ace of Base | Billboard Singles.
- ^ Canada Top 50 Dance Tracks of 1996
- ^ Matthew Solarski (19 November 2008). "My Brightest Diamond, Frightened Rabbit Do Covers". Pitchfork. http://pitchfork.com/news/34070-my-brightest-diamond-frightened-rabbit-do-covers/. Retrieved 2009-06-11.
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