The Flame (Cheap Trick song)
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| "The Flame" | ||||
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| Single by Cheap Trick | ||||
| from the album Lap of Luxury | ||||
| B-side | "Through the Night" | |||
| Released | July 25, 1988 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length |
05:37 (Album and Single Version) 04:47 (7" Edit) |
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| Label | Epic | |||
| Writer(s) | Bob Mitchell Nick Graham |
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| Producer | Richie Zito | |||
| Cheap Trick singles chronology | ||||
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| "The Flame" | ||||||||
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| Single by Erin Hamilton | ||||||||
| from the album One World | ||||||||
| Released | 1999 | |||||||
| Genre | Dance | |||||||
| Writer(s) | Bob Mitchell Nick Graham |
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| Erin Hamilton singles chronology | ||||||||
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"The Flame" is a hit power ballad by Cheap Trick, released on July 25, 1988. The song was first offered to English singer Elkie Brooks, who turned it down. Written by Bob Mitchell and Nick Graham, the song was initially released on Cheap Trick's Lap of Luxury album. "The Flame" reached number one on the American Billboard Hot 100 in 1988 when issued as a single;[1] it also reached number one in Australia[2] and Canada. The success of the song brought the group out of a years-long commercial slump and back into music industry prominence.
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[edit] Background
According to lead vocalist Robin Zander, "The band was very skeptical about performing this song live, because we only liked to perform songs written by us. However, a young man from, oh, I don't know, somewhere, confirmed to us after a show in Florida about a week after the song was released that the song was great and, get this, would be a #1 single. As we joked about the guy's prediction, we later realized whoa! This guy was right. I thank him for that."
[edit] Chart performance
| Chart (1988) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart[3] | 1 |
| Canadian Retail Sales Chart[4] | 18 |
| Canadian Singles Chart[5] | 1 |
| German Singles Chart[6] | 32 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart[7] | 11 |
| UK Singles Chart[8] | 77 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100[9] | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart[10] | 3 |
[edit] In Popular Culture
- "The Flame" was covered in 1998 by electronic dance music singer Erin Hamilton. Included on her 1999 album One World, the song was a top-twenty hit on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart. Nine years later, the song was remixed and re-released as "The Flame 08" and this version went to number one on the U.S. dance chart, becoming Hamilton's first chart-topper.
- Other covers of "The Flame":- Jennifer Rush recorded the song in 1997 for her her album "Credo" released by EMI in that year. After the Rain (Virgin) was the first album by Irish girl group Bellefire, and this included a version of "The Flame", recorded in 2001. More recently Dare, fronted by ex - Thin Lizzy keyboard player Darren Wharton, recorded the song on their 2009 album Arc of the Dawn.
- In 2004, "The Flame" was performed on the second season of Australian Idol by eventual winner Casey Donovan on the Final 6 80's theme night. Donovan recorded the song as her cover song on the series cast album, Australian Idol Season 2 The Final 10 Cast Album.The Flame seemed an odd choice for Donovan's cover on the cast album because even though she was praised for the performance, there were several other performances where she received a "Touchdown" from judge Mark Holden and this wasn't one of them.After this performance, Donovan was placed in the Bottom two for the first time on the verdict show, which further adds to this being an odd choice for this to be her cast album cover.
- This song is also covered by Greg Bowler in his forthcoming (2010) album "Korean Karaoke Knights". It is closely aligned to the artist's established style of challenging established genre norms, being an acid house fusion of Finnish humppa and reggae.
- In The Looney Tunes Show episode, "Fish and Visitors", Yosemite Sam (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) briefly sings 'The Flame' on karaoke.
- In The One Tree Hill (TV Series) episode "Forever and Almost Always" Peyton tells Haley that if she gets in trouble to quote song lyrics like "After the fire, after all the rain, I will be the flame."
[edit] references
- ^ "Cheap Trick US chart history". Billboard. http://www.billboard.com/#/artist/cheap-trick/chart-history/4276. Retrieved 2010-08-28.
- ^ ""The Flame" Australian chart progression". Hung Medien. http://www.australian-charts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Cheap+Trick&titel=The+Flame&cat=s. Retrieved 2010-08-28.
- ^ http://australian-charts.com/
- ^ www.collectionscanada.gc.ca
- ^ www.collectionscanada.gc.ca
- ^ http://www.musicline.de/
- ^ http://www.charts.org.nz/
- ^ http://www.chartstats.com/
- ^ http://www.billboard.com/
- ^ http://www.allmusic.com/
| Preceded by "Dirty Diana" by Michael Jackson |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single (Cheap Trick version) July 9 - July 16, 1988 |
Succeeded by "Hold On to the Nights" by Richard Marx |
| Preceded by "Beautiful" by Taylor Dayne |
Hot Dance Club Play number one single (Erin Hamilton version) April 12, 2008 |
Succeeded by "I'm a Fire" by Donna Summer |
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