I
According to former New Radicals member Gregg Alexander, the hit song “Murder on the Dancefloor” may never have been created if it weren’t for a broken-down car. In a recent and unusual interview, Alexander revealed the story behind the song’s creation and its current popularity due to its feature in the film Saltburn. Unable to go out for a night in Detroit, he picked up his acoustic guitar from the back seat and began singing the iconic lyrics, “it’s murder on the dancefloor, but you’d better not kill the groove”.
This is one of the lines that was included in Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s final version of the song, but several others from the initial demo, such as “I won’t make us hit the hay!” did not make the final cut. For the first time, you can listen to a preview of that demo here, along with a message from Alexander.
“As an artist, I have a passion for creating, but I also produce music on the side. Sophie has mentioned in interviews that the New Radicals’ rough cassette from the 90s, titled ‘Murder’, served as inspiration for our new lyrics. In place of my usual dance-murder metaphors, let’s change things up and ‘hit The Hague’ and then ‘hit the bong’! Interestingly, Sophie also retweeted covers of ‘Murder’ and my bandmate Danielle and I thought it would be cool to share a snippet of the rough track we created and sent to Sophie. This track contains a ‘lost hit’ from the New Radicals, a song that may have never been heard if it weren’t for Sophie’s belief in it and her pop genius. We are forever grateful to Sophie Ellis-Bextor for this opportunity!”
Source: theguardian.com
