Let Me Give the World to You
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"Let Me Give the World to You" is a song from American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. The song, produced with music producer Rick Rubin in 1997 during the sessions for '' Adore'' album, was removed from the album at the last second by band
frontman The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...
Billy Corgan William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band the ...
, who did so as a last-ditch effort to keep the record company from releasing it as a single against his wishes. A heavily reworked version was recorded for their 2000 album '' Machina II'' without Rubin's help, but the song would go unreleased for sixteen years until being put on the extended re-issue of ''Adore'' in 2014.


Background and recording

After the band's breakthrough success with the very guitar-heavy ''
Siamese Dream ''Siamese Dream'' is the second studio album by American alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins, released on July 27, 1993, on Virgin Records. Despite recording sessions fraught with difficulties and tensions, ''Siamese Dream'' debuted at num ...
'' album in 1993 among the
grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of p ...
movement of the early 1990s, the band moved into a more eclectic collection of music in their next album, '' Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness''. The band retained their guitar-driven sound, but also experimented in other musical sounds, most notably their single "
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", which had a stripped down, simple guitar and electronic sounds. The song ended up being the band's biggest hit, reaching number 12 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number one on the
Mainstream Rock Tracks Mainstream Rock is a music chart in ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in Ma ...
and on the
Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...
charts. The song's success inspired
frontman The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...
Billy Corgan William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band the ...
to pursue a more minimalist and electronic sound for their next album, which would be 1998's '' Adore''. However, the sessions were very long and difficult for the band; after the sprawling and massively successful album, Corgan found himself facing many difficult issues, including musical burnout, the absence of his "best friend and musical soul mate in the band" Jimmy Chamberlin, who was kicked out of his band due to continued issues with drug addiction, the end of his marriage, and the death of his mother to cancer.Corgan, Billy.
Starcrossed, and subsequently, a door is opened (1997)
" ''The Confessions of Billy Corgan.'' April 12, 2005.
The band's record label and management, growing concerned with the album's new direction and lack of progress, decided to send influential music producer Rick Rubin to assist Corgan in the studio. Corgan agreed to work with him on a song, the result being "Let Me Give the World to You". Corgan enjoyed working with Rubin on the track, but felt creative control slipping away, and limited his input to the one song. The track was considered to be on the album until just before the release of the album - it was completely mixed and mastered with the rest of the album, with it being planned as the album closer. Corgan felt that while it didn't really fit well ''Adores artistic direction, putting it at the end of the album helped it stand out less, and would serve as his backup plan as a future single if the album's new direction wasn't well received. Plans changed when Corgan learned at the last second that his record label was insisting that it instead be the album's lead single. Corgan felt that the poppy, upbeat sound misrepresented the album's more somber and introspective direction. Corgan explained:
And the true story is, I handed in the record to the record company. And I get the call, they want to make ‘Let Me Give the World to You’ the first single. And I was like, ‘Hell, no.’ And the only way I could stop them was to take it off the record. Someone asked me about this, ‘It sounds like it could have been a hit song at that time, so why take it off the record?’ And I said, ‘Because I spent a whole f—ing year trying to make this avant-garde thing.’ ‘Perfect’ or ‘Ava Adore’ were more representative f the album and now we’re gonna release the song with the dry, milquetoast production. And it isn’t even as avant-garde as the stuff on ''Mellon Collie'', much less ''Adore''! I didn’t want to step back to simple pop
n the single N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...
and then try to sell this avant-garde record! It wasn’t that I hated it, or even that I hated what Rick had done. He did a great job. It was more that I didn’t want to blow up everything I’d done for this one song. So the song had to go. And in the basement it went, for sixteen or eighteen years.
With the song being cut from the album, " Ava Adore" and "
Perfect Perfect commonly refers to: * Perfection, completeness, excellence * Perfect (grammar), a grammatical category in some languages Perfect may also refer to: Film * Perfect (1985 film), ''Perfect'' (1985 film), a romantic drama * Perfect (2018 f ...
" would subsequently be the singles released from the album in its place.


Release and promotion

While the song was withheld from the final version of ''Adore'' original release in 1998, a different, alternate version of the song was recorded and released on '' Machina II/The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music'' in 2000. The original ''Adore'' version was finally released in 2014, on the extended re-issue of ''Adore'', sixteen years after its initial planned release on ''Adore''. The song was debuted by the band putting it up for streaming on YouTube in August, followed by its official release on the ''Adore'' reissue in September.


Reception

Reception for the ''Adore'' version of the song was generally positive, with many journalists noting that it would have fit well into the rest of the band's catalogue of songs in the 1990s. '' Rolling Stone'' praised the song for being more "upbeat" and "straightforward" than their 1998 singles for ''Adore'', concluding that "It's got all the marks of the Pumpkins' big hits, making the decision to hold it in favor of " Ava Adore" all the more frustrating." Both Colin Joyce of ''
Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
'' and Michael Nelson of
Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several award ...
asserted that it sounded like it belonged on '' Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness'', the former calling it "essential listening" and the latter calling it "a really good song". ''
Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...
'' praised the song as well, calling it "immaculately produced" and disagreeing with Corgan's notion that it wouldn't have fit on ''Adores original release. The ''Machina II'' version of the song generally received less attention, due to the album being released for free on the internet just before the band's 2000 breakup, but still received positive marks from critics. Joshua Klein of '' The A.V. Club'' referred to the track as the most "shocking" of the album, referring to it as "prettier and more accessible than virtually anything the band has done".


References


External links

{{Smashing Pumpkins The Smashing Pumpkins songs Songs written by Billy Corgan Song recordings produced by Rick Rubin Song recordings produced by Billy Corgan Electronic rock songs