"Little Fluffy Clouds" is a single released by the British

ambient house Ambient house is a downtempo subgenre of house music that first emerged in the late 1980s, combining elements of acid house and ambient music. The genre developed in chill-out rooms and specialist clubs as part of the UK's dance music scene. It w ...

group

the Orb The Orb are an English electronic music group founded in 1988 by Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty. Known for their psychedelic sound, the Orb developed a cult following among clubbers "coming down" from drug-induced highs. Their influential 19 ...

. It was originally released in November 1990 on the

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

Big Life Big Life was a record label established in 1987 by Jazz Summers and Tim Parry. It featured hundreds of releases from artists such as The Orb, Stare, Yazz, Junior Reid, Coldcut, De La Soul, and Damage. In 1999, the label was put into receivers ...

and peaked at number 87 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. The Orb also included it on their 1991 double album ''

The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld ''The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld'' is the debut studio album by English electronic music group The Orb, released as a double album on 2 April 1991 by Big Life. It is a continuous, progressive composition evoking a two-hour psychedel ...

''. "Little Fluffy Clouds" was re-released several times with different

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 compan ...

s, with its 1993 re-release reaching number 10 in the UK. It ranked number 275 in ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

ranked it at number 40 on their list of the Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s.

Production

Alex Paterson Alex Paterson (also known as Dr Alex Paterson, born Duncan Alexander Robert Paterson; 15 October 1959 in Battersea, London) is an English musician and co-founder of ambient house group The Orb, in which he has worked since its inception. Life ...

had previously worked with

Jimmy Cauty James Francis Cauty (born 19 December 1956), also known as Rockman Rock, is an English artist and musician, best known as one-half of the duo The KLF, co-founder of The Orb and as the man who burnt £1 million. He is married to artist and mu ...

. Upon Cauty's departure from the Orb, Paterson began work on "Little Fluffy Clouds" with ex-

Killing Joke Killing Joke are an English rock music, rock band from Notting Hill, London, England, formed in 1979 by Jaz Coleman (vocals, keyboards), Paul Ferguson (drums), Geordie Walker (guitar) and Youth (musician), Youth (bass). Their first album, ''Ki ...

member Martin "Youth" Glover. However, because of other production obligations, Glover did not become a permanent member of the Orb. Kris "Thrash" Weston joined the Orb soon after. Weston mixed and engineered several versions of "Little Fluffy Clouds", including the version on ''

''.

Samples

"Little Fluffy Clouds" makes extensive use of clips from an interview with American singer

Rickie Lee Jones Rickie Lee Jones (born November 8, 1954) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and author. Over the course of a career that spans five decades, she has recorded in various musical styles including Rock music, rock, Rhythm and blues, R&B ...

in which she recalls picturesque images of her childhood. The samples are widely believed to have come from a conversation between Jones and

LeVar Burton Levar Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and television host, best known for playing Geordi La Forge in '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (1987–1994). He also played Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries ''Root ...

on the children's television program ''

Reading Rainbow ''Reading Rainbow'' is an American educational children's television series that originally aired on PBS and afterwards PBS Kids and PBS Kids Go! from July 11, 1983 to November 10, 2006, with reruns continuing to air until August 28, 2009. 155 3 ...

'', but in fact originated from an interview disc that was issued with some promotional boxed copies of her album ''

Flying Cowboys ''Flying Cowboys'' is an album by Rickie Lee Jones that was released in September 1989 and produced by Walter Becker of Steely Dan. Background After the release of '' The Magazine'' in 1984, Jones retreated from the limelight. She married Pas ...

''. The interview was not conducted by Burton. The interviewer is not identified on the recording or in the boxed set's liner notes, though a 1993 profile in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' identifies him as "an American DJ" with a "syrupy,

Simon Bates Simon Philip Bates (born 17 December 1946) is an English disc jockey and radio presenter. Between 1976 and 1993 he worked at BBC Radio 1, presenting the station's weekday mid-morning show for most of this period. He later became a regular pres ...

-style tone." :Interviewer: "What were the skies like when you were young?" :Jones: "They went on forever – They - When I w- We lived in Arizona, and the skies always had little fluffy clouds in 'em, and, uh... they were long... and clear and... there were lots of stars at night. And, uh, when it would rain, it would all turn - it- They were beautiful, the most beautiful skies as a matter of fact. Um, the sunsets were purple and red and yellow and on fire, and the clouds would catch the colours everywhere. That's uh, neat 'cause I used to look at them all the time, when I was little. You don't see that. You might still see them in the desert." Jones' record company was upset at the unauthorized use of her voice and initially sought to pursue a claim via the legal system. Big Life chose to

settle Settle or SETTLE may refer to: Places * Settle, Kentucky, United States * Settle, North Yorkshire, a town in England ** Settle Rural District, a historical administrative district Music * Settle (band), an indie rock band from Pennsylvania * ''S ...

out of court for an undisclosed sum of money for use of her voice on the Orb's recording: in 2016, Paterson said the record company paid $5,000 to use the sample. Asked about the sample in an interview years later, Jones referred to the Orb as "those fuckers." The song also uses a harmonica sample from

Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone (; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classica ...

's ''The Man With The Harmonica'' (from the film ''

Once Upon a Time in the West ''Once Upon a Time in the West'' ( , "Once upon a time (there was) the West") is a 1968 epic Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone, who co-wrote it with Sergio Donati based on a story by Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Leone ...

'') and parts of ''

Electric Counterpoint ''Electric Counterpoint'' is a minimalist composition by the American composer Steve Reich. The piece consists of three movements, "Fast," "Slow", and "Fast". Reich has offered two versions of the piece: one for electric guitar and tape (the ...

'', a piece for multi-tracked guitars composed by

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, a ...

and recorded by

Pat Metheny Patrick Bruce Metheny ( ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer. He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works, and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progre ...

. According to Glover, the inspiration for the track came when an Orb fan who worked in a Birmingham record shop sent him a tape with ''Electric Counterpoint'' on one side and the Rickie Lee Jones interview on the other. Reich was "genuinely flattered" by the Orb's use of his work and instructed his record company not to sue. Despite this, the Orb did receive a letter from Reich's lawyers several years later, but Paterson described Reich as "a proper gentleman: he wanted 20% from then on and asked us to do a remix of one of his tunes, which we did". Alex Paterson also suggested that the drum track is sampled: "If anyone actually knew where the drums on 'Little Fluffy Clouds' came from, they'd all just die, but I'm not at liberty to tell. Record companies have always warned me, 'Don't tell anyone where you got your samples until we get them cleared!'". He later said that the drum track was sampled from

Harry Nilsson Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 – January 15, 1994), sometimes credited as Nilsson, was an American singer-songwriter who reached the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. His work is characterized by pioneering vocal ove ...

's album ''

Nilsson Schmilsson ''Nilsson Schmilsson'' is the seventh studio album by American singer Harry Nilsson, released by RCA Records in November 1971. It was Nilsson's most commercially successful work, producing three of his best-known songs. Among these was the numbe ...

'', and others have specifically identified this as a sample of Jim Gordon's drum solo from "

Jump Into the Fire "Jump into the Fire" is a song by American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson from his 1971 album ''Nilsson Schmilsson''. It was also issued as the album's second single, after " Without You", and peaked at number 27 on America's ''Billboard'' Hot ...

", slowed down approximately from 45 to 33 rpm. The use of a slowed-down "Jump Into the Fire" was acknowledged by Paterson in a 2016 interview with ''The Guardian'', in which he also said the track included a

Lee "Scratch" Perry Lee "Scratch" Perry (born Rainford Hugh Perry; 20 March 1936 – 29 August 2021) was a Jamaican record producer, composer and singer noted for his innovative studio techniques and production style. Perry was a pioneer in the 1970s development o ...

sample. In 2006 a previously uncredited sample from "Little Fluffy Clouds" was recognised by

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

label director Dan Waite, who identified the first voice heard on the song as that of his cousin

John Waite John Charles Waite (born 4 July 1952) is an English musician. As a solo artist, he has released ten studio albums and is best known for the 1984 hit single " Missing You", which reached No. 1 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and the top ten on ...

. A 1990 John Waite

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

broadcast for the programme ''

You and Yours ''You and Yours'' is a British radio consumer affairs programme, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and produced by BBC News. History ''You and Yours'' began broadcasting in October 1970, when its first presenter was Joan York. In the 1980s it briefly ra ...

'' was sampled and features at the beginning of the track. John Waite can clearly be heard saying, "Over the past few years, to the traditional sounds of an English summer, the drone of lawnmowers, the smack of leather on willow, has been added a new noise...". In 2013, the Orb's management asked John Waite to join them on their 25th Anniversary tour to read the classic line live on stage.

Commercial reception

"Little Fluffy Clouds" reached number 87 on the

and was a dancefloor success. After the popularity of following Orb albums, "Little Fluffy Clouds" was re-released several times, including a 1993 edition which peaked at number 10 on the UK chart.

Track listings

7-inch: Big Life / BLR 33 (UK) # "Little Fluffy Clouds

even inch mk 1 Even may refer to: General * Even (given name), a Norwegian male personal name * Even (surname) * Even (people), an ethnic group from Siberia and Russian Far East ** Even language, a language spoken by the Evens * Odd and Even, a solitaire game w ...

(4:05) # "Little Fluffy Clounds mbient mk 1 (4:29) 12-inch: Big Life / BLR 33T (UK) # "Little Fluffy Clouds ance mk 2 (8:26) # "Into the Fourth Dimension

dit DIT or dit may refer to: People * Dit name, an alternative family name, e.g., in French Canadian historical traditions * Dit Clapper (1907–1978), Canadian ice hockey player Information technology * Directory information tree * dit (unit), a ...

(7:03) # "Little Fluffy Clounds mbient mk 1 (4:29) 12-inch: Big Life / BLR 33R (UK) # "Little Fluffy Clouds (drum & vox version)" (7:10) # "Little Fluffy Clouds

(4:05) # "Into the Fourth Extension" (9:05) CD: Big Life / BLRD 98 (UK) # "Little Fluffy Clouds

(4:05) # "Little Fluffy Clouds ance mk 2 (8:26) # "Into the Fourth Dimension

(7:03) # "Little Fluffy Clounds mbient mk 1 (4:29) 12-inch: Mercury / 865139-1 (US) # "Little Fluffy Clouds umulonimbus Mix (6:10) # "Little Fluffy Clouds is joint don't argue mix (6:38) # "Little Fluffy Clouds

even Inch MK 1 Even may refer to: General * Even (given name), a Norwegian male personal name * Even (surname) * Even (people), an ethnic group from Siberia and Russian Far East ** Even language, a language spoken by the Evens * Odd and Even, a solitaire game w ...

(4:05) # "Little Fluffy Clouds nner Master Mix (3:58) # "Outlands ountain of Elisha (8:00) CD: Mercury / 865139-2 (US) # "Little Fluffy Clouds

(4:05) # "Little Fluffy Clouds nner Master Mix (3:58) # "Little Fluffy Clouds umulonimbus Mix (6:10) # "Little Fluffy Clouds ance MK 2 (8:26) # "Little Fluffy Clouds eavyweight Dub (6:30) # "Outlands ountain of Elisha (8:00)

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1990 singles The Orb songs 1990 songs Songs written by Youth (musician) Big Life Records singles