Parklife
by Blur
- 136
- BPM
- E major
- Key
- 12B
- Camelot
- 63
- Danceability
- 13
- Acousticness
Phil Daniels was brought in to recite a poem. Blur wanted him for "The Debt Collector", but Damon Albarn could not find a poem he liked, and the song became an instrumental. Daniels was asked to do lead vocals on "Parklife" instead. He did not know the band, but after talking with Albarn he accepted. His arrival revived a group that had grown tired of the track. The studio recording took about forty minutes. He took a cut of the royalties rather than payment upfront.
Graham Coxon said the song was sarcastic and was not about the working class but the park class: dustbin men, pigeons and joggers seen on the way to the studio in Fulham. Albarn said he came up with the idea in a London park, watching people and pigeons.
Blur released it on August 22, 1994, as the third single from the album Parklife. It reached number 10 on the UK Singles Chart and won British Single of the Year and British Video of the Year at the 1995 Brit Awards. At the 1996 Brit Awards, the Gallagher brothers of Oasis sang a drunk version to taunt Blur. The Massed Bands of the Household Division played it at the London 2012 Olympics closing ceremony.
Parklife runs at 136 BPM, the tempo of techno, trance and big-room dance. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.76 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 441 ms. It is in E major, Camelot 12B, which shares its notes with C# minor and mixes cleanly with A major and B major.
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