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Beautiful Life (song)

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"Beautiful Life"
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
Producer Denniz Pop Max Martin
Ace of Base singles chronology
"Lucky Love"
(1995)		 "Beautiful Life"
(1995)		 "Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry"
(1996)
Music sample
Beautiful Life

"Beautiful Life" is a hit 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.

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]

Contents

[edit] 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] Tracklistings

[edit] United Kingdom CD 1 / Australian CD

  1. Beautiful Life (Single Version)
  2. Beautiful Life (12" Extended Version)
  3. Beautiful Life (Junior's Circuit Bump Mix)

[edit] United Kingdom CD 2

  1. Beautiful Life (Single Version)
  2. Beautiful Life (Vission Lorimer Club Mix)
  3. Beautiful Life (Lenny B.'s House of Joy Club Mix)
  4. Beautiful Life (Uno Clio Mix)

[edit] US Maxi Single

  1. Beautiful Life (Single Version)
  2. Beautiful Life (12" Extended Version)
  3. Beautiful Life (Junior's Circuit Bump Mix)
  4. Beautiful Life (Vission Lorimer Club Mix)
  5. Beautiful Life (Lenny B's House Of Joy Club Mix)
  6. Beautiful Life (Uno Clio Mix)

[edit] Official Versions/Remixes

  • Album/Single Version
  • 12" Extended Version
  • Digimix
  • Digimix Long Version
  • Direct Hit Mix
  • Direct Hit Remix
  • Junior Vasquez Mix
  • Junior's Circuit Bump Mix
  • Junior's Circuit Bump Edit
  • Junior's Circuit Bumper Edit
  • Junior's Circuit Bump Dub
  • Lenny B's House Of Joy Club Mix
  • Lenny B's Edit
  • Lenny B's Euro Vogue Mix
  • Lenny B's Euro Vogue Edit
  • MTV Party To Go Mix
  • Uno Clio Mix
  • Uno Clio Dub
  • Vission Lorimer Club Mix
  • Vission Lorimer Radio Edit
  • Vission Lorimer Anthem Mix
  • Humpty Vission Lorimer Anthem Edit

[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

Chart (1995–1996) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[3] 11
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 75)[4] 24
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[5] 15
Belgium (Ultratop 40 Wallonia)[6] 13
Canadian RPM Dance Chart[7] 1
France (SNEP)[8] 10
Netherlands (Mega Single Top 100)[9] 27
New Zealand (RIANZ)[10] 44
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[11] 22
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[12] 33
UK Singles (The Official Charts Company)[13] 15
US Billboard Hot 100[14] 15
U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream[15] 10
U.S. Billboard Rhythmic Top 40[15] 18
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play[15] 1

[edit] End of year charts

End of year chart (1996) Position
Canada Dance (RPM)[16] 12
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 94

[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.[17]

[edit] Appearances in other media

[edit] References

  1. ^ "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. 
  2. ^ J.D. Considine (February 1996), Ace of Base - The Bridge, Spin magazine 
  3. ^ "Australian-charts.com – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Hung Medien. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  4. ^ "Ace of Base – Beautiful Life – Austriancharts.at" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Hung Medien. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  5. ^ "Ultratop.be – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Ultratop & Hung Medien / hitparade.ch. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  6. ^ "Ultratop.be – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life" (in French). Ultratop 40. Ultratop & Hung Medien / hitparade.ch. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  7. ^ Canada dance peak
  8. ^ "Lescharts.com – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life" (in French). Les classement single. Hung Medien. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  9. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life" (in Dutch). Mega Single Top 100. Hung Medien / hitparade.ch. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  10. ^ "Charts.org.nz – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life". Top 40 Singles. Hung Medien. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  11. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life". Singles Top 60. Hung Medien. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  12. ^ "Ace of Base – Beautiful Life – swisscharts.com". Swiss Singles Chart. Hung Medien. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  13. ^ "Archive Chart" UK Singles Chart. The Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  14. ^ "Ace Of Base Album & Song Chart History" Billboard Hot 100 for Ace Of Base. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  15. ^ a b c Allmusic. Ace of Base | Billboard Singles.
  16. ^ Canada Top 50 Dance Tracks of 1996
  17. ^ 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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