"Velouria" is a song by the American
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...
band
Pixies
A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas aro ...
, written and sung by the band's frontman
Black Francis. "Velouria" was released as a
single in July 1990 and was the band's first
UK Top 40
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 ...
hit. It was included as the third track on their album ''
Bossanova'' released a month later. The song features extensive use of
theremin
The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...
. It featured on the influential 1990
Madchester
Madchester was a musical and cultural scene that developed in the English city of Manchester in the late 1980s, closely associated with the indie dance scene. Indie-dance (sometimes referred to as indie-rave) saw artists merging indie music ...
compilation album ''
Happy Daze''.
Lyrics
Black Francis said of the lyrics to the song in an interview with ''SongFacts'', "It's folklore based; the
Rosicrucians of 1920s San Jose California had some pretty interesting ideas."
Composition
The song has been labeled as
punk rock and
surf rock by critics.
Video
As "Velouria" was climbing up the UK Top 40, the band was offered a spot on ''
Top of the Pops
''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most o ...
''. However, a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
rule stated that only singles with videos could be performed on the show. To counter this, a cheap video was made with the band being filmed running down a quarry.
In the video, 23 seconds of footage (the time needed for the band members to reach the camera) is slowed in order to last for the duration of the song. However, the effort in filming the video was in vain; Pixies did not play "Velouria" on ''Top of the Pops'' while the single was in the charts.
''. This version was praised by Black Francis as his favorite cover of a Pixies song.
''.
* 2008 – A cover of the song appeared on ''Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of the Pixies'', part of the
series of albums.
;Sources
*Frank, Josh; Ganz, Caryn (2005). ''
''. Virgin Books. .