Solsbury Hill
by Peter Gabriel
- 103
- BPM
- B major
- Key
- 1B
- Camelot
- 68
- Danceability
- 38
- Acousticness
"Solsbury Hill" has turned up in a long list of films, shows and commercials. It was in the 2001 film Vanilla Sky, the 2004 film In Good Company, the trailer for Finding Dory in 2016, the series finale of Halt and Catch Fire and an episode of 9-1-1. It has sold Cingular Wireless, Toyota and Nespresso. Its use in romantic comedy trailers was called "ubiquitous," enough that a satirical re-cut trailer of The Shining borrowed it.
Peter Gabriel wrote the song about a spiritual experience on top of Solsbury Hill in Somerset, England, after he left Genesis, where he had been lead vocalist from the start. It was his debut solo single and the first from his 1977 self-titled album. It reached number 13 in the UK and number 68 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Producer Bob Ezrin disliked the original last line of the chorus, and said the song would not go on the record until they found the right one. They tried "does anyone here know Officer Muldoon?" and considered backmasking. On the final day of mixing, Gabriel changed the line to "grab your things I've come to take you home." Steve Hunter played every guitar part. Robert Fripp had already gone back to London.
Solsbury Hill runs at 103 BPM, the tempo of mid-tempo pop, dancehall and indie. In classical terms it sits in andante territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.33 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 583 ms. It is in B major, Camelot 1B, which shares its notes with Ab minor and mixes cleanly with E major and F# major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.