"Ciao!" is a song by English

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 Lush from their 1996 album, '' Lovelife''. Written as a duet sung from the perspective of a breakup, the song was written by

Miki Berenyi Miki Eleonora Berenyi (born 18 March 1967) is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known as a member of the alternative rock band Lush and currently a member of Piroshka and the Miki Berenyi Trio. Biography Early life Beren ...

with

Jarvis Cocker Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp (band), Pulp, he became a reluctant figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Cocker h ...

Pulp Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit * Pulp (band), an English rock band Engineering * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture ...

making a guest appearance to sing the male vocals. "Ciao!" was never released as a single, but saw positive critical reception and has been performed live, with one performance featuring

Ian Astbury Ian Robert Astbury (born 14 May 1962) is an English singer, best known as the lead vocalist, frontman and a founding member of the rock band the Cult. During various hiatuses from the Cult, Astbury fronted the short-lived band Holy Barbarians ( ...

the Cult The Cult are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Bradford in 1983. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band had performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead vocalist Ian Astbury ...

as the male vocalist.

Background

"Ciao!" notably features

dueting with Lush vocalist

. According to Berenyi, she first met Cocker and Pulp in 1991, when the then-obscure Pulp performed as Lush's support act. Berenyi recalled, " ulpabsolutely blew me away and I became a regular at their gigs over the next several years." Berenyi had written the song as a duet after Lush drummer

Chris Acland Christopher John Dyke Acland (7 September 1966 – 17 October 1996) was an English drummer and songwriter. He was the drummer of the London-based alternative rock band Lush. Early life Acland was born at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary in Lanca ...

jokingly asked to sing a song on the new album. Ultimately, Acland declined and Cocker provided guest vocals, possibly because, according to Berenyi, he was amused by the demo of the song, which featured Berenyi singing the male part in a low voice. Cocker did two takes of the vocals after calming his nerves with brandy, contributing his spoken word part in the song's middle section.

Release

In addition to its release on Lush's 1996 album '' Lovelife'', "Ciao!" was released as a promotional single sent to radio stations. However, the band did not want to appear to be capitalising on the

Britpop Britpop was a mid-1990s United Kingdom, British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. Musically, Britpop produced bright, catchy alternative rock, with significant influences from British guitar pop of the 1960s and 1970s. B ...

trend and Cocker's popularity, so they did not release the song as a single (the band instead selected "500" as the album's third single). The song also was the title track to the 2001 compilation ''

Ciao! Best of Lush ''Ciao! Best of Lush'' is a compilation album by the band Lush, released in March 2001 by 4AD. The essay in the booklet was written by Dominic Wills and included quotes from members Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson. The best-of CD appeared almost ...

''. The song was also unpopular with

4AD 4AD is a British record label owned by Beggars Group. It was founded in London under the name Axis Records by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1980 as an imprint of Beggars Banquet Records. The name was changed to 4AD after the release of th ...

head

Ivo Watts-Russell Ivo Watts-Russell (born 1954) is a British music producer and record label executive. He was joint-founder with Peter Kent of the independent record label 4AD. He has produced several records, although he prefers to use the term "musical director" ...

. Berenyi joked, "Poor Ivo – he still can't believe that this song was on 4AD. Makes him shudder every time I remind him!" The band have performed the song live, with one performance featuring

as the male vocalist. Berenyi recalled, "When we went through it at the soundcheck, it became obvious that Ian had got a bit confused and thought we were going to cover the Cult's "Edie (Ciao Baby)". We're playing the intro and he’s going 'It's quite skiffle, isn't it?'. Chris was laughing so hard he could barely play".

Reception

Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. History ''Consequence of Sound'' was founded in Septem ...

'' compared Berenyi and Cocker to

Nancy Sinatra Nancy Sandra Sinatra (born June 8, 1940) is an American singer, actress, film producer and author. She is the elder daughter of Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra ( Barbato) and is known for her 1965 signature hit " These Boots Are Made for Walki ...

and

Lee Hazlewood Barton Lee Hazlewood (July 9, 1929 – August 4, 2007) was an American country and pop singer, songwriter, and record producer, most widely known for his work with guitarist Duane Eddy during the late 1950s and singer Nancy Sinatra in the 1960s ...

on "Ciao!", writing, "This death-of-a-relationship celebration is a potent anti-love song that's especially cathartic for anyone who’s ever needed convincing that they were more over a former flame than they actually were."

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

described the song as "irresistible," while the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'' called it "amusing." Berenyi spoke of the song positively, stating that the song made her laugh.

References

{{authority control 1996 songs Lush (band) songs British new wave songs