"More Than This" is a 1982 single by English rock band Roxy Music. It was released as the first single from their final album, Avalon, and was the group's last Top 10 UK hit. Although it only reached #102 in the United States, it remains one of Roxy Music's best-known songs in America. The American alternative rock band10,000 Maniacs released a successful cover version in 1997 which peaked at #25, and British singer Emmie released a dance cover version which reached #5 in the UK in January 1999. The cover of the single's release is the painting Veronica Veronese, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, which was completed in 1872 with Alexa Wilding as the model.
Composition
The song was written by the lead singer Bryan Ferry, who has stated in interviews that he began writing the songs for Avalon while on the western coast of Ireland, which he believes contributed to the dark melancholy of the album. "More than This" is somewhat unusual for a pop song in that Ferry's lead vocals end at 2:45 minutes, leaving the last 1:45 minutes as a synthesizer-driven instrumental outro.
In 1997, a cover performed by 10,000 Maniacs with Mary Ramsey on lead vocals was a single from their album Love Among the Ruins becoming a US hit when it reached 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. The video for the cover was filmed at House on the Rock. A live version was also included on their 2016 album Playing Favorites.
Jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter and singer Norah Jones covered the song for Hunter's 2001 album Songs from the Analog Playground.
Bill Murray performed the song in the film Lost in Translation, directed by Sofia Coppola. Murray sings in a scene where his character is at a karaoke party. His performance is included as a hidden track after a period of silence at the end of the soundtrack album.
The song is played in the movie Matchstick Men when Roy Waller, Nicolas Cage and his teenage daughter Angela are in a bowling alley together.
The song is featured in Community, season 5 episode 6, “Analysis of Cork-Based Networking”
The song is featured in The Americans season 5 episode 4, "What's the matter with Kansas?"
The song is featured on the soundtrack to the 2018 movie "The Book Club".
