55-426: " Where the Wild Roses Grow " is a murder ballad by Australian rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and pop singer Kylie Minogue . Released in October 1995, it is the fifth song and lead single from the band's ninth studio album, Murder Ballads (1996), released on Mute Records . It was written by the band's frontman, Nick Cave and produced by Tony Cohen and Victor Van Vugt . The accompanying music video
110-467: A chorus of the song during her Showgirl: The Greatest Hits and Showgirl: The Homecoming tours. It reached number eight in Triple J's Hottest 100 in 1995. In 2012, NME listed the song in their 100 Best Songs of the 1990s list at number 35, while in 2014, NME placed it at number 378 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. Cave described writing the song: "Where The Wild Roses Grow"
165-481: A cover version of the song in 1974, produced by Todd Rundgren . The decision to play the song came about after guitarist Mark Farner was heard whistling the song in the studio. The Grand Funk version of the song featured guitars, several layers of harmony, and heavy drums. During the 2000s, this version of the song was featured in advertisements for the Japanese technology and communications company SoftBank , featuring
220-408: A crime or a gruesome death. Their lyrics form a narrative describing the events of a murder , often including the lead-up and/or aftermath. The term refers to the content, and may be applied to traditional ballads, part of oral culture . The term ballad, applied to traditional or folk music, means a narrative song. Within ballads, the "event song" is dedicated to narrating a particular event, and
275-524: A feature of Gaelic or Welsh-language music. The details and locales for a particular murder ballad did change over time. For example, " Knoxville Girl " is essentially the same ballad as "The Wexford Girl" with the setting transposed from Ireland to Tennessee—the two of them are based on "The Oxford Girl", a murder ballad set in England. Many American murder ballads are modified versions of Old World ballads with any elements of supernatural retribution removed and
330-487: A local girl group who would also record for the songwriters. "The Loco-Motion" was the first release by the new Dimension Records company, whose releases were mostly penned and produced by Goffin and King. There are two common versions of the song in circulation: one includes handclaps during the verses; the other has no handclaps. King performed the backup vocals in the recording. In the United States, "The Loco-Motion"
385-474: A related genre, "dying verses", intended for reading rather than singing, a New England tradition from the 18th century. Their relation to courtship murders came in with the 19th century. Murder ballads make up a notable portion of traditional ballads, many of which originated in Scandinavia, England, and lowland Scotland in the premodern era (suggesting an ultimate Germanic cultural origin). In those, while
440-519: A review of Olive Burt's American Murder Ballads and their Stories , states that the song contains "a running prose commentary on the incidents described in many [such] ballads". Suzanne Collins 's Hunger Games Trilogy of books, and the films based upon them, make much of Katniss Everdeen 's ability to sing. " The Hanging Tree " was written specifically for the third film; it follows Appalachian murder ballad style. The Loco-Motion#Kylie Minogue version " The Loco-Motion " (or " Locomotion ")
495-605: A river in a pose reminiscent of Millais ' painting Ophelia (1851–52). The video ends with Cave's character putting a rose in Minogue's mouth and closing her eyelids. Cave and Minogue performed the song together live on stage in London on 3 June 2018 when Kylie made a surprise appearance during the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds set at All Points East festival. Minogue performed the song on
550-456: A semi-legendary poet and singer Marusia Churai . In the song a girl named Hanna being in love with a Cossack Hrytz (Greg) warns him not to go to the parties in a fear of him being seduced by bewitching girls. He didn't listen and fell in love with another girl. Hanna brewed a deadly potion and poured it to Hrytz at supper. When he was buried she went to his grave and told him why she did it. Several historical murder ballads became hit pop songs in
605-489: A single. Initially recorded in a big band style, the project was radically reoriented by producer Mike Duffy, who was on loan to Mushroom from Pete Waterman 's UK company PWL . Duffy recorded a whole new backing track, inspired by the hi-NRG pop of Dead or Alive , but retained Minogue's original vocal. This version was released on July 13, 1987, in Australia, where it became one of the biggest selling Australian records of
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#1732859448336660-621: A staggering 11 weeks.' The music video for "Locomotion" was directed by Chris Langman and filmed at Essendon Airport and the ABC studios in Melbourne, Australia . Choreographer Tania Lacy conceived the video's dance sequences around locomotive movements. For the international release of "The Loco-Motion", footage from the Australian music video was re-edited twice; one version for the US market and another for
715-528: Is a 1962 pop song written by American songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carole King . "The Loco-Motion" was originally written for R&B singer Dee Dee Sharp , but Sharp turned the song down. The song is especially notable for making three appearances in the American Top 3, each in a different decade: in 1962 by Little Eva (U.S. No. 1); in 1974 by Grand Funk Railroad (also U.S. No. 1); and in 1988 by Kylie Minogue (U.S. No. 3). The song
770-450: Is an enduring example of the dance-song genre ; much of the lyric is devoted to a description of the dance itself, usually performed as a type of line dance . However, the song pre-dates the dance. "The Loco-Motion" was also the second song to reach No. 1 by two different musical acts in America. The earlier song to do this was " Go Away Little Girl ", also written by Goffin and King. It
825-439: Is based upon this recording. Carole King recorded a version of the song under the title "Locomotion" for her 1980 studio album Pearls: Songs of Goffin and King . The album peaked at No. 44 and spawned King's last top 40 hit to-date, " One Fine Day ", which would reach No. 12 on the charts. King also sings the song on her live album The Living Room Tour , released in 2005. The album peaked at No. 17 on
880-465: Is one of only nine songs to achieve this feat. King and Goffin wrote "The Loco-Motion" in hopes to have it recorded by Dee Dee Sharp , who had a hit with " Mashed Potato Time ". Sharp passed on the song, leaving the opportunity open for Eva Boyd, who had recorded the demo. Boyd's version was released, and her name was changed to Little Eva . Boyd was Carole King's babysitter, having been introduced to King and King's husband Gerry Goffin by The Cookies ,
935-483: The 1950s and 1960s, including the Kingston Trio's "Tom Dooley" (as mentioned above), which was a #1 Billboard hit in 1958, Lloyd Price 's version of " Stagger Lee ", which reached the top of the chart in 1959, and Lefty Frizzell 's " Long Black Veil ", which was a hit for a number of artists over the years. Tom Lehrer 's song, " The Irish Ballad ", is a parody of the traditional murder ballad. J.H.P. Pafford , in
990-642: The 1962 Little Eva version of "The Loco-Motion" on Dimension Records was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame . The widely believed story of how the song "The Loco-Motion" came to be is that Carole King was playing music at home and Eva Boyd was doing some chores and started dancing to it, and that was The Loco-Motion dance. However, this is not true. Eva Boyd was introduced to Goffin and King and they liked her singing voice, so they had her record "The Loco-Motion". King stated this during an interview on National Public Radio (NPR) shortly after Little Eva died. As
1045-490: The 1980s. It was later released the same year in New Zealand, Italy, and Sweden. The success of the song in her home country resulted in Minogue's signing a record deal with PWL Records in London and to working with the successful team Stock Aitken & Waterman (SAW). The producers decided to totally re-record Minogue's version of the song, with Pete Waterman slating her original Australian recording, which he claimed
1100-636: The Little Eva version. The Vernons Girls' version stalled at No. 47 in the UK, while the Little Eva version reached No. 2 on the UK charts. It re-entered the chart some 10 years later and almost became a top 10 again, peaking at No. 11. The Little Eva version of the song was later featured in the David Lynch film Inland Empire (2006). "The Loco-Motion" is ranked No. 359 on Rolling Stone ' s list of " The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time ". In 2016,
1155-559: The U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks in May 1974. It also reached number 5 in Australia, peaked at number 1 in Canada, and reached number 11 in Germany. John Lennon , during a 1974 interview discussing recent hit songs, said "I like "Loco-Motion," thought that was a great record." In the 2004 edition of The Rolling Stone Album Guide , Village Voice Media music critic Nick Catucci called
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#17328594483361210-498: The UK charts in June that year. Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue released a cover version of the song in July 1987 as her debut single, under the title "Locomotion". After an impromptu performance of the song at an Australian rules football charity event with the cast of the Australian soap opera Neighbours , Minogue signed a record deal with Mushroom Records to release the song as
1265-424: The US album chart on July 30, 2005. In May 1986, Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin released a cover version of the song as a single. The duo had scored a UK No. 1 hit back in 1981 with their cover of " It's My Party " but had achieved little success since. For this 1986 single, they embarked on a big promotional push in an attempt to gain a second significant hit. The single, however, stalled at No. 70 on
1320-458: The United States to promote "The Loco-Motion", where she did many interviews and performances on American television. The song was used in the comedy film Arthur 2: On the Rocks . "The Loco-Motion" debuted at number 80 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and later peaked at number three for two weeks. The song was Minogue's second single to chart in the U.S., but her first to reach the top ten. To this day,
1375-621: The Week, writing, "Cave and Kylie isn't actually that strange. After all, Minogue, who, judging by her vocals, may possibly own a copy of this year's Mercury Awards winner, has nothing to lose. [...] You know exactly what this sounds like. Morricone , Leone , Peckinpah , blah blah. Cut to the final reel, though, and even I'm shocked. Down by the river, "He" kneels above "Her" with a rock in his fist, and calmy batters her brains out, whispering ...all beauty must die... " Pan-European magazine Music & Media commented, "Written especially for Minogue,
1430-700: The Wild Roses Grow" number 27 in their list of " NME Writers' Top 50 Singles of 1995". In her show on German ARD national public television, German comedian Carolin Kebekus criticized the song as inappropriately romanticizing femicide . The music video for "Where the Wild Roses Grow", commissioned by Emma Davies for Mute Records, shot by American photographer and music video director Rocky Schenck and produced by Nick Verden for Atlas Films, shows Kylie Minogue in character, apparently having been murdered by Nick Cave's character. We see her in ghost-like form and also in
1485-491: The album of murder ballads". Sylvia Patterson from NME declared it as a "riverside melodrama duet of violin wobbles and breathy husks". She wrote, "Croaky, in a very real sense. A tense, ghostly, Grimm 's fairytale wherein the midget fights gamely to keep her voice tied to the whispering reeds while the nutter secures his to the coal bunker at the core of the earth. And, possibly because they're both undeniably unhinged, it's... quite good." In December 1995, NME ranked "Where
1540-513: The children of those who knew and sang them. These children are now, of course, old men and women. Some of the best examples of western murder ballads will be lost forever when these people die. While in Ukrainian folklore tradition the murder ballad genre is not as distinct though there are few folk songs that definitely stand out. One of them is the very popular song from the 18th century called "Oi Ne Khody Hrytsiu" (" Don't Go to Party ") written by
1595-404: The cover "embarrassing". Disco group Ritz covered this song in 1979. Their version peaked at number one in New Zealand for seven non-consecutive weeks in 1980, becoming the most successful record of the year there. The Ritz version was also a top-20 hit in Australia, Sweden, and Switzerland. The live arrangement that Kylie Minogue performed on her Golden Tour and Summer 2019 Tour
1650-410: The diminutive singer forms an unlikely but stunning combination with Cave. It is a brooding and haunting song that finds Cave in a sombre, Leonard Cohen -type mood against Minogue's declaring diction. The tension gradually builds up as each tells their version of a tale of murder." A reviewer from Music Week gave it four out of five, adding, "Nick croons while Kylie purrs in this folksy foretaste of
1705-506: The focus transferred to the slaughter of the innocent. For example, the English ballad "The Gosport Tragedy" of the 1750s had both murder and vengeance on the murderer by the ghosts of the murdered woman and her unborn baby, who call up a great storm to prevent his ship sailing before tearing him apart. In contrast, the Kentucky version, " Pretty Polly ", is a stark and blood-soaked murder ballad with
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1760-522: The following concert tours: Minogue appeared as a surprise guest at Coldplay 's Enmore Theatre show in Sydney , Australia, on 19 June 2014, where they performed the song as a duet. Cave and Minogue performed the song at the Glastonbury Festival 2019 . Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds did live performances of this song featuring a duet between Nick Cave and Blixa Bargeld from the mid to late 90s. Many of
1815-446: The murder ballad is a type of event song in which the event is a murder. This definition can be applied also to songs composed self-consciously within, or with reference to, the traditional generic conventions. Atkinson, referring to traditional English ballads, comments that "there is no shortage of murders in the corpus of ballads [...] and few of them are concealed with any success." Perspectives are numerous. Some murder ballads tell
1870-585: The murder is committed, the murderer usually suffers justice at the hands of the victim's family, even if the victim and murderer are related (see "Edward/Son David", "The Cruel Brother", and "The Two Sisters" for examples). In these ballads murderous women usually burn while males hang—see "Lamkin" and some Scottish versions of "The Two Sisters". Within the context of the British isles, murder ballads are only found in English and Scots-speaking regions (broadly, England, lowland Scotland, and northeastern Ireland), and are not
1925-514: The next day. A CD of the track—which had Blixa Bargeld singing Minogue's lines—was sent to Minogue's parents' house (as she was staying there at the time) prior to her recording the song. This Bargeld duet track was featured on Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds B Sides and Rarities on disc 2, track 12, released in 2005. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Kylie Minogue first performed the song publicly on 4 August 1995 in Cork , Republic of Ireland. According to
1980-407: The occasions were captured on video by fans and can be seen on video media websites. A guide track with the Bad Seeds guitarist, Blixa Bargeld, singing Kylie Minogue's vocal part was released on the compilation B-Sides & Rarities . Shipments figures based on certification alone. Murder ballad Murder ballads are a subgenre of the traditional ballad form dealing with
2035-477: The old broadside tradition , noting that: Western settlers found murder and bloodshed fascinating, and composed local ballads. But with printing facilities scarce, many of these items were not published at all while others saw fame only briefly in the columns of the local newspapers. As a result, true western ballads of murder—except those about such famous outlaws as Jesse James , Cole Younger , Sam Bass , and their ilk—have been entirely lost, or are known only to
2090-668: The original "The Loco-Motion" was recorded by King herself. Producer Pete Waterman has also stated he believes it is King singing on the recording. In 1962, the French singer Sylvie Vartan recorded a cover of "The Loco-Motion" in French, called "Le Loco-motion". Vartan's version went to number 1 in France on October 13, 1962, and remained there for one week. 7-inch EP: "Le Loco-motion" / "Aussi loin que j'irai" / "Oui c'est lui" / "Comme l'été dernier" RCA Victor 76.593, 86.593 (1962, France) American rock band Grand Funk Railroad recorded
2145-465: The pop group SMAP . SMAP also used the song on their television variety show SMAP×SMAP for a music video, singing along to the original Grand Funk recording rather than covering it. The song is available as downloadable content for Rock Band 3 . "The Loco-Motion" appeared on Grand Funk Railroad's album Shinin' On and was released as a single in February 1974, eventually peaking at No. 1 on
2200-415: The rights to her recordings, it seems $ 50 was actually her weekly salary during the years she was making records (an increase of $ 15 from what Goffin and King had been paying her as nanny). In 1971, she moved to North Carolina and lived in obscurity on menial jobs and welfare until being rediscovered in 1987. She died of cervical cancer in 2003. Top-40 DJ Dan Ingram has been quoted as saying that he believes
2255-527: The second of two B-sides , "The Ballad of Robert Moore & Betty Coltrane" / "The Willow Garden", released on the CD-Maxi single version. Although the song does not feature on a Minogue studio album , it can be found on her compilations Hits+ , Greatest Hits 1987–1999 , Ultimate Kylie , The Abbey Road Sessions and Step Back in Time: The Definitive Collection . Minogue performed
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2310-611: The sheet music edition published by SheetMusicNow.com, "Where The Wild Roses Grow" is written in the compound time signature of 6/8 and is set in the key signature of G minor at a tempo of 56 beats per minute. Larry Flick from Billboard wrote, "This is not a joke. Not since Debbie Gibson contributed backing vocals on the Circle Jerks 's cover of the Soft Boys ' "I Wanna Destroy You" has there been such an odd collaboration of musical talent. Australia's queen of bubble-gum pop meets
2365-452: The song came before the dance, there was no dance when the song was originally written. When the song became a smash hit, Eva Boyd ended up creating a dance to go along with the song. King stated this in her "One to One" concert video. In live performances of the song, Little Eva can be seen doing her version of the dance. Another bit of the conventional lore is that Boyd received only $ 50 for "The Loco-Motion". However, although she never owned
2420-585: The song in the United Kingdom debuted and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart — the highest entry on the UK charts by a female artist. It remained in the number two position for four weeks before falling to number three. With sales of 440,000 it was the eleventh best selling single of the year. The song became Minogue's third top five single in the UK and remains one of her most successful single releases to date. During late 1988, Minogue traveled to
2475-673: The song remains as her highest-charting single in the United States; however, her second overall and most recent song to reach the top ten, 2002's " Can't Get You Out of My Head ", ended up outselling "The Loco-Motion". In Canada, the song also reached the top five in the pop sales chart. In 2023, Robert Moran of Australian daily tabloid newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald ranked the song as Minogue's 17th best song (out of 183), describing it "a surprisingly gritty sex track built on chugging synths and girl-group harmonies". The Song reached number one in South Africa, and remained in that position for
2530-430: The story from the point of view of the murderer, or attempt to portray the murderer in a somewhat sympathetic light, such as " Tom Dooley ". A recording of that song sold nearly four million copies for The Kingston Trio in 1958. Other murder ballads tell the tale of the crime from the point of view of the victim, such as " Lord Randall ", in which the narrator becomes ill and discovers that he has been poisoned. Others tell
2585-439: The story with greater distance, such as " Lamkin ", which records the details of the crime and the punishment without any attempt to arouse sympathy for the criminal. Supernatural revenge wrought by the victim upon the murderer sometimes figures in murder ballads such as " The Twa Sisters " (also known as "Binnorie" or "Minnorie" Child Ballad #10). Daniel A. Cohen comments that the murder ballads should be distinguished from
2640-573: The title "The Loco-Motion". This release, also a major success, reached the top five in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This version of the track substitutes the Australian term railway for the American term railroad in the song's lyrics. The 1987 "Locomotion" release was a huge hit in Minogue's native Australia, reaching number one on the Kent Music Report singles chart and remaining there for seven weeks. The 1988 release of
2695-587: The top ten in that country. It charted again at the bottom of the German Top 100 in 2008 because of digital downloads after it was used in a soap opera. "Where the Wild Roses Grow" was also certified gold in Australia for selling 50,000 copies. Cave was inspired to write "Where the Wild Roses Grow" after listening to the traditional song " Down in the Willow Garden ", a tale of a man courting a woman and killing her while they are out together. Cave arranged this tale as
2750-456: The underground art rock of Nick Cave on this moody track. Forget " Loco-Motion ": Minogue carries her own as Cave catapults his vocals into a moody pit of musical melancholy and lyrical despair. Brilliant." Another Billboard editor, Paul Verna, complimented it as a "ghostly beautiful duet". James Masterton for Dotmusic described the song as "a gorgeous, mellow 1940s -sounding ballad ." Simon Price from Melody Maker named it Single of
2805-558: The victim being betrayed by the man she loves, stabbed in the heart, and buried in a shallow grave. The epilogue describes her killer being hanged by the community and his soul burning in hell and a "debt to the Devil" in a few versions. African music traditions brought by slaves blended with the conventions. Olive Burt noted that the murder ballad tradition of the American Old West is distinct to some extent from that of ballads rooted in
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#17328594483362860-490: Was directed by Rocky Schenck . The song received a positive reception from music critics and became the band's most successful single worldwide, reaching No. 3 in Norway, the top five in Australia, and the top twenty in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and New Zealand. It also received a limited promotional release in the United States. The song was certified gold in Germany in 1996 for 250,000 copies sold, despite never reaching
2915-411: Was poorly produced. Original producer Mike Duffy instead blamed the decision to re-record on Waterman's alleged wish to claim the prestige and royalties that looked set to roll in from the track's looming placement of the soundtrack of the 1988 film Arthur 2: On the Rocks , starring Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli . On July 28, 1988, the re-recorded version produced by SAW was released worldwide with
2970-461: Was the seventh most successful single of 1962, according to Billboard . It was also the third most successful single of 1962 in South Africa. In March 1965, Little Eva sang the song on the ABC-TV series Shindig! , and this is the only known video of her singing this song. A cover version of the song was recorded quickly by British girl group The Vernons Girls and scored the chart the same week as
3025-426: Was written very much with Kylie in mind. I'd wanted to write a song for Kylie for many years. I had a quiet obsession with her for about six years. I wrote several songs for her, none of which I felt was appropriate to give her. It was only when I wrote this song, which is a dialogue between a killer and his victim, that I thought finally I'd written the right song for Kylie to sing. I sent the song to her and she replied
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