"Golden Brown" is a song by the English rock band the Stranglers. It was released as a 7" single, on Liberty, in December 1981 in the United States and in January 1982 in the United Kingdom. It was the second single released from the band's sixth album La folie. It peaked at No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart, the band's highest ever placing in that chart. In January 2014, NME ranked the song as No. 488 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It has also been recorded by many other artists.
Overview
Originally featured on the group's album La folie, which was released in November 1981, and later on the USA pressings of Feline, "Golden Brown" was released as a single in December 1981, and was accompanied by a video. It reached No. 2 in the official UK Singles Chart in February 1982, remaining there for two weeks behind double A-sided record "Town Called Malice/Precious" by the Jam. David Hamilton, disc jockey on the comparatively conservative BBC Radio 2, which was a middle-of-the-road music radio station at that time, made the record his single of the week. The single was a top 10 hit around the world, including Australia. It was also featured in the film Snatch and is included on its soundtrack album.
Meaning
There has been much controversy surrounding the lyrics. In his book The Stranglers Song By Song, Hugh Cornwell states "'Golden Brown' works on two levels. It's about heroin and also about a girl." Essentially the lyrics describe how "both provided me with pleasurable times."
Musical composition
The main body of the song has a 6/8 feel and is pitched halfway between the keys of E minor and E-flat minor, possibly to accommodate the tuning of the harpsichord. The instrumental introduction, in B minor, is unconventional. The keyboard and harpsichord vamp in 3/4, and in the head every fourth bar is in 4/4. The music was largely written by keyboardist Dave Greenfield and drummer Jet Black, with lyrics by singer/guitarist Hugh Cornwell. The BBC newsreader Bill Turnbull attempted to waltz to the song in the 2005 series of Strictly Come Dancing. In February 2012, when interviewing Stranglers bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel on BBC Breakfast, Turnbull described the attempted dance as "a disaster", Burnel responded that the alternating time signatures made "Golden Brown" impossible to dance to; in contrast, a song written entirely in 6/8 is not unusual in waltzing.
In a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the nation's favourite singles to have peaked at number two, conducted in late 2012, "Golden Brown" ranked fifth behind "Vienna", "Fairytale of New York", "Sit Down" and "American Pie", and just ahead of "Waterloo Sunset" and "Penny Lane"/"Strawberry Fields Forever".
Cover versions
In 1996, British hip hop group Kaleef had a UK Top 40 hit with their re-working of this song. In 1997, soul singer Omar revived the song and took it back into the UK Top 40.
