Daydream (Wallace Collection song)

Daydream or Daydream (I fell asleep amid the flowers) is a song originally composed in 1968 by Gunter Kallman and performed by the Gunter Kallman Choir.

Original Song

The original song is a europop hippy strings-and-flute affair which was fairly obscure even at the time and would have been even more so today were it not for the fact that without its chord sequence the vast majority of Bristol trip-hop would simply not exist. As it is the song has been sampled so many times that it is now extremely well-known, although most people have forgotten Gunter Kallman.

Use by Portishead

Portishead were the first known group to sample this song -- using the melody but not the words -- very obviously in two of their songs, however such was Portishead's and subsequently other Bristol act's use of the chord sequence that anyone hearing a song made with it today would immediately call it a Portishead sound.

Obvious Portishead uses of the song are "Sour Times" (essentially the same melody speeded up) and "Glory Box" (at about the same speed but using minor chords). Both songs may be found on the album Dummy.

Use by I Monster

The most famous modern version of the song is by British dance act I Monster who extensively sampled the music, to make the song "Daydream In Blue". This very dance-orientated version uses a new vocalist - although only the chorus line is actually sung, words which are now famous in themselves due to extensive airplay, use in advertisements, and as background music to many TV programmes including the BBC's highly-acclaimed Hustle and Cutting It - as well as the film Layer Cake.

Those lines are as follows:

Daydream, I fell asleep amid the flowers
For a couple of hours on a beautiful day

This version of the song was originally released in 2001, and can be found on I Monster's album 'Neveroddoreven'.

Use by The Beta Band

Incredibly and completely co-incidentally at almost exactly the same time as I Monster were releasing Daydream in Blue The Beta Band were just about to release their single Squares from their new (in 2001) album Hot Shots II. Squares also used the same melody as the original throughout and had the original's chorus line. On realising the clash with I Monster The Beta Band were forced to pull the single and released Broke from the same album instead. Also by complete co-incidence the two vocalists for these two versions sounded almost exactly the same, which led to people thinking that Daydream in Blue might well be the work of The Beta Band or that Squares might be the work of I Monster.