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Green Light (Beyoncé song)

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"Green Light"
Song

"Green Light" is a song by American R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles. The song was written by Knowles, Sean Garrett, and Pharrell for Knowles's second solo studio album, B'Day (2006). Produced by The Neptunes, it was released as the fifth UK single on July 30, 2007.

The single performed moderately on charts. "Green Light" peaked at number 12 on the UK Singles Chart and at number 46 in Ireland, and the Freemasons remix of the track peaked at number 20 on the Dutch Top 100 chart.[1] Its accompanying music video is inspired by Robert Palmer's 1985 music video "Addicted to Love". Beyoncé considered the video, which is her second to feature her all-female tour band Suga Mama, her toughest shoot. The Freemasons remix of "Green Light" was on the BBC Radio 1 A-list by July 18 2007.

Background and composition

After filming Dreamgirls in which Beyoncé landed a major role, she went on a month-long vacation. On the break she went to the studio to start working on her second solo album, B'Day.[2] She was inspired by her role and she "had so many things bottled up, so many emotions, so many ideas".[2] Beyoncé contacted American singer-songwriter Sean Garrett, who had worked with her in Destiny's Child and on her 2006 single "Check on It".[3] Together with Pharrell, who had also previously collaborated with Beyoncé, Garrett was booked to Sony Music Studios in New York City, each had studio to work in.[3] The track was co-produced by Beyoncé and The Neptunes, along with "Kitty Kat", and was recorded by Jim Caruana and mixed by Jason Goldstein at the same studio.[4]

"Green Light" is an R&B/funk song performed with rhythmic energy.[5] It is composed in the key of F major and is set in common time.[5] The chord follows the Fm-G♭ key series with an occasional shift to additional B♭m7.[5] "Green Light" features "uh-huh huh huh" vocals and uses brassy stabs which a reviewer from Guardian Unlimited found a "direct echo to 'Crazy in Love'."[6] According to thelondonpaper, the "uh-oh-oh-oh-oh" vocal in the song is an imitation of Amerie's performance in her 2005 single "1 Thing".[7]

The lyrics are constructed in the traditional verse-chorus form. The song starts with an intro in which Beyoncé sings, "Give it to mama". It follows the verse-chorus-verse-verse-chorus pattern giving way to the bridge. Beyoncé repeats the chorus, ending the song.

Release and reception

Beyoncé singing "Green Light", backed with her performing ensemble, during the 2007 The Beyoncé Experience world concert tour

Along with the song "Get Me Bodied", were planned to be released as the next two singles from B'Day, following the lead single "Déjà Vu". Beyoncé aimed the tracks for the international market; but opted for "Ring the Alarm" as the second single, which charted poorly.[8] The single was released in the United Kingdom on July 30, 2007 as the fifth single, following "Beautiful Liar".[9] Along with the release of the single, the remix EP Green Light: Freemasons EP was released on July 27, 2007 as an online digital download.[10]

"Green Light" received positive reception from critics. Eb Haynes of Allhiphop referred to "Green Light" as a "classic Pharrell-Neptunes groove".[11] Andy Kellman of Allmusic described the track as an "ambitious, fleet-footed number that continually switches tempos and sounds".[12] Spence D. of IGN music stated, "'Green Light' brings things back down to pseudo earthiness; both with the slightly more organic sounding Neptunes beat."[13] He felt that the "rippling bassline sounds really familiar, like it's been used in other Neptunes' produced tracks before"....[13]

With the album version of the song being available digitally as soon as the album was released, "Green Light" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number 152 after the video aired in July 2007 and then rose to number 17 on August 6, 2007. Because of heavy radio airplay of the Freemasons remix, as soon as it was available, the song climbed sixty places to number seventeen the following week, and then to number twelve, giving Knowles her eleventh top twenty hit in the UK. "Green Light" became Knowles's highest charting single on downloads alone on the UK Singles Chart without a prominent featured artist. The UK commercial CD single was cancelled at the last minute.[14] The single propelled to number 12 on downloads alone August 20, but failed to reach a higher position due to not having a physical release.[15] "Green Light" stayed on the chart for nine weeks.[16] In Ireland, the single debuted at number 46 on August 23, 2007, and dropped off the chart a week later.[17] The Freemasons remix of the track debuted at number 30 on the Dutch Top 40 chart on September 8, 2007.[18] It propelled to number 19, and peaked at number 18 on September 29.[19] It remained on the chart for six weeks.[20]

Music video

Beyoncé with her back-up dancers on their toes; she considered the scene her toughest shoot, giving her blistered feet and muscle spasms.

The music video for "Green Light" was directed by Melina and co-directed by Beyoncé. Filmed in early 2007, it was one of the videos shot in two weeks for the B'Day Anthology Video Album (2007) and was one out of eight previously unseen clips. "Green Light" was the third video shot during the sessions.[21]

Kitty Kat (Intro)

A one-minute music video for "Kitty Kat" serves as the introduction for the video directed by Melina. The video begins with Beyoncé showing cat-like eyes with leopard print make-up and fashion on. In some clips Knowles plays with an over-sized ball of pink yarn and later plays with an over-sized black cat. The clip ends with Knowles pulling a the over-sized cat on a gold chain off set.

To get the effect of Knowles riding the cat, Melina used a large plastic cow covered in a black fur drape for Knowles to perform on. The video was originally going to be its own music video as seen in the behind the scenes of B'Day Anthology with Knowles wearing more outfits and shooting more scenes than shown. The full video has never been released.

Green Light

The clip was inspired mainly by Robert Palmer's 1985 music video "Addicted to Love" with its "stone-faced models pretending to play guitars".[22] "Green Light" was considered by Beyoncé as a modern version of the video because they used the instruments as props, where she pretended as a rock star. She revealed that the scenes reminded her of Vanity 6.[22]

Beyoncé considered "Green Light" the "toughest video" to shoot.[22] Besides from dressing in latex rubber clothing, she and her back-up dancers had to wear ballet-pointe heels.[21] The shoes blistered her feet and gave muscle spasms due to the 18-hour session.[21] Beyoncé invited her all-female tour band, Suga Mama, to make their second appearance in a video after their debut performance on the 2006 music video of "Irreplaceable". The video was posted on the MTV Overdrive on March 28, 2007.

Charts

Chart (2007) Peak
position
European Hot 100 Singles (Billboard)[23] 59
Ireland (IRMA)[24] 46
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[1] 20
UK Singles (OCC)[25] 12

Track listing

US Freemasons EP[26]
  1. "Green Light (Freemasons Remix)" – 3:19
  2. "Beautiful Liar (Freemasons Club Remix)" (featuring Shakira) – 7:31
  3. "Déjà Vu (Freemasons Radio Mix)" (featuring Jay-Z) – 3:15
  4. "Ring the Alarm (Freemasons Club Mix Radio Edit)" – 3:26
Promo CD single [27]
  1. Green Light - 3:30
  2. Green Light (Freemasons Radio Vox) - 3:22
  3. Green Light (Freemasons Club Vox) - 8:25
Irish Promo CD single [28]
  1. Green Light - 3:29

Official Versions/Remixes

  • Original Version
  • Video Version - Kitty Kat (Prelude), Greenlight
  • DJ Escape & Dom Capello Club Mix
  • DJ Escape & Dom Capello Dub
  • Freemasons Club Vox Mix
  • Freemasons Club Vox Mix Edit
  • Swizz Beats Remix feat. Young Buck (Dirty)
  • Swizz Beats Remix feat. Young Buck (Clean)

References

  1. ^ a b ""Greenlight"". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2010-10-14. Cite error: The named reference "Hung Medien" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Reid, Shaheem. "Be All You Can, B." MTV News. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  3. ^ a b Conniff, Tamara (June 16, 2006). "Beyoncé Builds Buzz For 'B-Day'". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  4. ^ B'Day eluxe edition - CD liner notes, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, (2007) {{citation}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ a b c "Beyoncé Digital Sheet Music: Green Light". Musicnotes.com. Musicnotes Inc. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  6. ^ Robinson, Peter (September 17, 2006). "Beyoncé, B'Day". Guardian Unlimited. Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 2008-02-10.
  7. ^ Mackenzie, Malcolm (July 30, 2007). "Interview: Amerie". thelondonpaper. News International Free Newspapers Ltd. Archived from the original on October 14, 2007. Retrieved 2008-02-11. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Concepcion, Mariel (August 16, 2006). "Beyoncé Rings The Alarm on Vibe.com". VIBE. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  9. ^ "Green Light the next single". Sony BMG UK. Sony BMG Music Entertainment (UK). July 27, 2007. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  10. ^ "Beyoncé - Green Light Freemasons - EP". iTunes Store. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
  11. ^ Haynes, Eb (September 20, 2006). "B'Day". Allhiphop. Infinity, Allhiphop.com, Inc. Retrieved 2008-02-10.
  12. ^ Kellman, Andy. "B'Day". Allmusic. Macrovision Company. Retrieved 2008-02-10.
  13. ^ a b D., Spence. "Beyoncé - B'Day: Sophomore slump narrowly avoided". IGN. IGN Entertainment, Inc. Retrieved 2008-02-10.
  14. ^ "UK Singles Top 75". αCharts. August 6, 2007. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  15. ^ "UK Singles Top 75 The album version peaked at number seventy-seven one week before the Freemasons remix became available. url=http://acharts.us/uk_singles_top_75/2007/34". αCharts. August 20, 2007. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help); Missing pipe in: |title= (help)
  16. ^ ""Green Light" Global Positions and Trajectories". αCharts. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  17. ^ "Ireland Singles Top 50". αCharts. August 23, 2007. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  18. ^ "Dutch Top 40". αCharts. September 8, 2007. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  19. ^ "Dutch Top 40". αCharts. September 29, 2007. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  20. ^ ""Green Light" (fremasons remix) Global Positions and Trajectories". αCharts. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  21. ^ a b c Vineyard, Jennifer. "Beyoncé: Behind The B'Day Videos - Part 3". MTV. MTV Network. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  22. ^ a b c Vineyard, Jennifer. "Beyoncé: Behind The B'Day Videos - Part 1". MTV. MTV Network. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  23. ^ "Beyoncé – Chart Search" Billboard European Hot 100 Singles for Beyoncé. [dead link]
  24. ^ "Chart Track: Week 34, 2007". Irish Singles Chart.
  25. ^ "Beoyncé: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company.
  26. ^ "iTunes Store - Beyoncé - Green Light - Freemasons EP". Itunes.apple.com. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
  27. ^ [1]
  28. ^ [2]

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