Breakfast At Tiffany's (song)
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"Breakfast at Tiffany's" is a song by American
alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...
band Deep Blue Something. Originally appearing on their 1993 album '' 11th Song'', it was later re-recorded and released on their 1995 album ''
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''. Released as a single in July 1995 by
Interscope Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture ...
and Rainmaker, the song was the band's only hit in the United States,Pete Freedman, "Saturday Night Live Remembers Deep Blue Something," ''
Dallas Observer ''Dallas Observer'' is a free digital and print publication based in Dallas, Texas. The ''Observer'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music, and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue circ ...
'', April 22, 2010. Found a
Dallas Observer website
Accessed July 21, 2010.
peaking at number five on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in January 1996. Outside the United States, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" topped the UK Singles Chart and peaked within the top ten on the charts of Australia,
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, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, and Sweden. Todd Pipes said in a '' Q'' magazine article about the promotion of "Breakfast at Tiffany's", "As the song had 'breakfast' in the title, radio stations thought it would be genius to have us on at breakfast time. We'd be up 'til 3 am and they'd wonder why we were pissed off playing at 6 am." Follow-up singles failed to match the success of "Breakfast at Tiffany's", hence the reason for the band's classification as a
one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with ...
.


Inspiration and composition

"Breakfast at Tiffany's" is sung from the point of view of a man whose girlfriend is on the verge of breaking up with him because the two have nothing in common. Desperate to find something, the man brings up the
Audrey Hepburn Audrey Kathleen Hepburn ( Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend from the Classical Holly ...
film '' Breakfast at Tiffany's'', and his girlfriend recalls that they "both kinda liked it." He argues that this should serve as enough motivation for them to work out their problems based on the notion that love will always find a way to make things work. The film ''
Roman Holiday ''Roman Holiday'' is a 1953 American romantic comedy film directed and produced by William Wyler. It stars Audrey Hepburn as a princess out to see Rome on her own and Gregory Peck as a reporter. Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actress f ...
'' inspired the lyrics of the song, but songwriter Todd Pipes thought that one of Hepburn's other films would make a better song title.


Critical reception

Brian Wahlert called "Breakfast at Tiffany's" "a cute, catchy song that should fit in well on
adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...
,
Top-40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top ...
and
alternative radio Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college and commercial rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music. ...
" with memorable melody that makes it "a perfect single, along with the mildly repetitive, conversational lyrics of the chorus and the bright, acoustic guitar". However, Tom Sinclair of ''
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'' was unimpressed. He called it "possibly the year's most innocuous single, 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' is distressingly prosaic pop from a wimpy-sounding Texas quartet"; he added that it lacked any "musical piquancy". The ''
Houston Press The ''Houston Press'' is an online newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in the Midtown Houston, Midtown area. It was also a weekly print newspaper until November 2017. The publication is supported entirely ...
'' listed the song as the second worst by an artist from
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, after
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's "
Ice Ice Baby "Ice Ice Baby" is the debut single by American rapper Vanilla Ice. It samples the bassline of the song "Under Pressure" by British rock band Queen and British singer David Bowie, who did not receive songwriting credit or royalties until after i ...
". Kevin Courtney from ''
Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...
'' said, "Deep Blue Something are responsible for the tawdry "Breakfast in Tiffany's" single, and their album is home to much of the same style of overblown, rainswept sentiment." British magazine ''
Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...
'' gave the song top score with five out of five, naming it Single of the Week, writing, "Radio-friendly rock at its best from the Texan trio ic A mighty, bright chorus, quirky lyrics and some great guitar work should enable it to come close in the UK to matching its Top Five placing Stateside."
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and ''
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'' ranked the song number six on their list of the "50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs Ever".


Music video

The accompanying music video for "Breakfast at Tiffany's" features the band members arriving to a breakfast table and being served by butlers, beside the curb in front of Tiffany & Co. in
Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...
. At the end of the video a young woman dressed in a similar style to Holly Golightly's (
Audrey Hepburn Audrey Kathleen Hepburn ( Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend from the Classical Holly ...
) from the beginning of the film, except dressed in white rather than black, walks past on the sidewalk, and takes off her sunglasses. The band is also seen performing the song in a field, and on the bed of a flatbed truck in NYC.


Track listings

* US cassette single :A1. "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (LP version) – 4:11 :A2. "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (Crunch mix) – 4:11 :B1. "A Water Prayer" (LP version) – 3:20 :B2. "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (LP version) – 4:11 * Australian CD and cassette single, UK CD single # "Breakfast at Tiffany's" – 4:16 # "A Water Prayer" – 3:19 # "Sun" – 4:15 * UK cassette single and European CD single # "Breakfast at Tiffany's" – 4:16 # "A Water Prayer" – 3:19


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications


Release history


Other uses

* In 2010, the song appeared in a ''
Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...
'' skit, with four friends (played by
Will Forte Orville Willis Forte IV ( ; born June 17, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He was a cast member and writer on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' for eight seasons from 2002 to 2010. During his time on ...
,
Jason Sudeikis Daniel Jason Sudeikis ( ; born September 18, 1975) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. In the 1990s, he began his career in improv comedy and performed with ComedySportz, iO Chicago (Improv Olympic), and The Second City. I ...
,
Bill Hader William Thomas Hader Jr.''Finding Your Roots'', January 26, 2016, PBS. (born June 7, 1978) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and director. He was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' from 20 ...
and
Ryan Phillippe Matthew Ryan Phillippe ( ; born September 10, 1974) is an American actor. After appearing as Billy Douglas (One Life to Live), Billy Douglas on the soap opera ''One Life to Live'' (1992–1993) and making his feature film debut in ''Crimson Tide ...
) talking during the verses and singing the choruses. * In May 2012, Episode 24 of ''
New Girl ''New Girl'' is an American television sitcom created by Elizabeth Meriwether and produced by 20th Century Fox Television for Fox that aired from September 20, 2011, to May 15, 2018. The series revolves around quirky teacher, Jessica Day ( Zo ...
'' highlighted the cast members dancing to this song. The group was listening to this song from Nick's
mixtape In the modern music industry, a mixtape is a musical project, typically with looser constraints than that of an album or extended play. Unlike the traditional album or extended play, mixtapes are labeled as laid-back projects that allow artists mo ...
where he was trying to convince himself to stay together with a likewise dissimilar girlfriend.


References


External links


VH1
{{Authority control 1995 debut singles 1995 songs 1996 singles Deep Blue Something songs Interscope Records singles Number-one singles in Scotland UK singles chart number-one singles