"Go" is a song by American

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to ...

musician

Moby Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...

, released in March 1991 by record label Instinct as the first single from his self-titled debut album (1992). It peaked within the top ten of the charts in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Background

"Go", in its original form, was first released as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

to Moby's debut single " Mobility" in November 1990. Moby later composed an alternate mix of the song, built around string samples from Angelo Badalamenti's "Laura Palmer's Theme" from the television series '' Twin Peaks'', which was released as a single in its own right in March 1991. The title of the single version, "Woodtick Mix", is a reference to episode seven of ''Twin Peaks'', when special agent Dale Cooper gets shot three times after folding up his bulletproof vest while chasing a wood tick as revealed in episode eight. Moby himself admitted so in his book. "Go" samples the titular vocal from

Tones on Tail Tones on Tail was a British post-punk band formed in 1982, originally as a musical side project of Daniel Ash of the gothic rock group Bauhaus. Their music was described by one critic as "doom-and-dance-pop." History While still a member o ...

's song " Go!". The "yeah" vocal which features prominently in the track is actually a sample from

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '':wikt:soul, soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The ea ...

singer Jocelyn Brown, taken from her 1985 single " Love's Gonna Get You".

Release

"Go" was released in March 1991 by

Instinct Records Instinct Records is a New York City electronic-music record label that first gained prominence in 1989. It is best known for releasing much of Moby's early work. Moby produced a number of tracks under various monikers so that in the early days, ...

. The song peaked within the top ten of the charts in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. An accompanying promotional

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devi ...

for the song was released, directed by Ondrej Rudavsky. Moby recalled, "When it was released, my dream was for it to sell 4,000 copies. It did a couple of million, including compilations. And I really thought that when DJs played 'Go', it was because they were taking pity on me for making such a mediocre song. I guess it's a good thing I'm not a record company executive, huh?" Fourteen different remixes of "Go" were collected and combined into an entire continuous CD as a bonus disc for Moby's 1996 compilation album '' Rare: The Collected B-Sides 1989–1993''. Another mix was produced for the compilation '' I Like to Score'', released the following year. Trentemøller produced a remix for Moby's 2006 compilation '' Go – The Very Best of Moby''; on the UK version of the album, the ''I Like to Score'' mix of the song appears instead.

Drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

group Fourward released a remix of the song on a Moby Remix sampler in 2017.

Legacy

In 2010, "Go" was ranked number 134 in '' Pitchfork''s ''Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s'' list. In 2022, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its co ...

'' ranked it number 69 in their list of ''200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time''.

Track listing

Charts

References

External links

* * {{authority control Moby songs 1991 singles Songs written by Moby Songs written by Angelo Badalamenti 1990 songs Instinct Records singles Music Week number-one dance singles