"Symphonies" is a song by British musician

Dan Black Daniel Black (born 16 November 1975) is an English singer-songwriter and vocalist. He was a member of alternative rock band The Servant (band), the Servant, before their split in 2007. He is also a vocalist for the Italian British group Plane ...

, released as the first single from his 2009 debut album '' UN''. Evolving from his previous single "HYPNTZ", the track was written, composed, and produced by Black himself. The track was released as the U.S.

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

"Single of the Week" for the week of 28 December 2009 and the video was released on iTunes for free for the week of 15 March 2010. A remix of the song was recorded with

Kid Cudi Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi (born January 30, 1984), also known by his stage name Kid Cudi ( ), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor and fashion designer. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Cudi would move to New Yo ...

, and was released as a bonus track in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The track has also been used in the "A More Exciting Place to Live" ad campaign by Virgin Media in the UK. It was also used in 2010 comedy film ''

Easy A ''Easy A'' (stylized as ''easy A'') is a 2010 American teen romantic comedy film directed by Will Gluck, written by Bert V. Royal, starring Emma Stone, Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson, Thomas Haden Church, Dan Byrd, Amanda Bynes, Penn Badgle ...

'' and used on the ''

NBA 2K11 ''NBA 2K11'' is a 2010 basketball simulation video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports. It was released in October 2010 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, and Nintend ...

'' soundtrack.

Conception and production

In 2008, Black originally recorded a song called "HYPNTZ", which interpolated lyrics from " Hypnotize", a song by

The Notorious B.I.G. Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), better known by his stage names the Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or simply Biggie, was an American rapper. Rooted in East Coast hip hop and particularly gangsta ...

(Christopher Wallace), and sampled the drum beat from

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to the ...

's "

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". However, the night before the video was shot, Wallace's estate informed Black of its objection to the song. Black reworked new lyrics for the song and added vocals, retitling it "Symphonies". The track prominently samples the

City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (Czech: ''Filharmonici města Prahy'') is a classical orchestra, predominantly composed of Czech classical, jazz and guest musicians. The history of the orchestra goes back to the Film Symphony Orchestr ...

's cover of the main theme from the film ''

Starman ''StarMan'' is a 1996 fantasy novel by Australian writer Sara Douglass. It follows the second book in the series, '' Enchanter'', with Axis marching north with his army to confront a formidable enemy. Background ''StarMan'' was first published ...

'' written by

Jack Nitzsche Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche ( '; April 22, 1937 – August 25, 2000) was an American musician, arranger, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He first came to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spec ...

. The sample appears throughout the track, mainly during the chorus. An instrumental version of the track was featured on a Virgin Media advertisement. The remixed version of the song with Kid Cudi has also been used in

2K Sports 2K is an American video game publisher based in Novato, California. 2K was founded under Take-Two Interactive in January 2005 through the 2K Games and 2K Sports labels, following Take-Two Interactive's acquisition of Visual Concepts that same m ...

video game, ''

''. A Dada Life remix of the song is used in the trailer for the HBO series, Euphoria.

Music video

The song's music video features many fictional movie trailers, with each movie's title being the line of the song that is said while the trailer is shown. The video was nominated for Best Special Effects in a Video and

Breakthrough Video Breakthrough or break through may refer to: Arts Books * ''Break Through'' (book), a 2007 book about environmentalism by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger * ''Break Through'' (play), a 2011 episodic play portraying scenes from LGBT life * ...

at the

2010 MTV Video Music Awards The 2010 MTV Video Music Awards took place on September 12, 2010 at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, honoring the best music videos from the previous year. Chelsea Handler hosted the event, the first woman in sixteen years – since the 1994 MTV ...

, but lost in both categories.

Track listing

CD single # "Symphonies" - 3:43 7" Single :A. "Symphonies" - 3:43 :B. "Symphonies" ( Passion Pit Remix) – 4:24 Limited Edition 12" Single :A1. "Symphonies" (Passion Pit Remix) – 4:24 :A2. "Symphonies" (Hot City Remix) – 5:16 :B. "Symphonies" (Duff Disco Remix) - 6:03 United Kingdom Remix EP # "Symphonies" (Passion Pit Remix) – 4:24 # "Symphonies" (Hot City Remix) – 5:16 # "Symphonies" (David E Sugar Remix) - 5:50 # "Symphonies" (Duff Disco Remix) - 6:03 United States Remix EP # "Symphonies" - 3:39 # "Symphonies" (featuring Kid Cudi) - 3:46 # "Symphonies" (

Chris Lake Chris Lake (born 8 August 1982) is a British electronic music producer and DJ. He rose to fame in 2006 with his hit single, "Changes", featuring Laura V. Musical career Lake first became recognized for his bootleg remixes of the Prodigy's "Cli ...

Remix) (featuring Kid Cudi) - 6:44 # "Symphonies" (

Dada Life Dada Life are a Swedish DJ duo formed in 2006, which consists of Olle Cornéer and Stefan Engblom. They have released three albums, a number of singles and remixes and one compilation. The duo had early chart success in Belgium and the Netherlan ...

Remix) (featuring Kid Cudi) - 4:24 # "Symphonies" (Gigi Barocco Remix) (featuring Kid Cudi) - 4:42 # "Symphonies" (Passion Pit Remix) - 4:22

Chart positions

References

{{Kid Cudi songs 2009 songs 2009 singles Alternative dance songs British pop songs A&M Records singles Polydor Records singles