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"Wouldn't It Be Good" is a song by the English singer-songwriter
Nik Kershaw Nicholas David Kershaw (born 1 March 1958) is an English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He came to prominence in 1984 as a solo artist. He released eight singles that entered the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart during the decade, i ...
, released on 20 January 1984 as the second single from his debut studio album, '' Human Racing'' (1984). The release was Kershaw's second single, with the non-album track "Monkey Business" as its B-side; it was a bonus track on the 2012 re-release of the album. The
music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...
was directed by
Storm Thorgerson Storm Elvin Thorgerson (28 February 1944 – 18 April 2013) was an English art director and music video director. He is best known for closely working with the group Pink Floyd through most of their career, and also created album or other art f ...
.


Background and recording

"Wouldn't It Be Good" was the second single from Kershaw's debut studio album '' Human Racing'' (1984). It spent three weeks at No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart and was successful throughout Europe, as well as a top-10 entry in Canada and Australia. Kershaw is also most closely associated with this song in the United States, where it narrowly missed the top 40. Kershaw performed it at
Live Aid Live Aid was a two-venue benefit concert and music-based fundraising initiative held on Saturday, 13 July 1985. The event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, a m ...
in London's
Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...
in July 1985. Kershaw's first single from this album had failed to be a major hit, and it was on the strength of this recording's success that the earlier single, " I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", was promoted for a re-release. This time the single went all the way to No. 2 in the UK, becoming his highest-charting single there to date. Kershaw remembers that this was one of the last songs he wrote for the ''Human Racing'' album, mapping out the chords first on a keyboard. However, the aggressive guitar sound he wanted led to a clash in harmonics and therefore the result sounded rather unpleasant. Thus he decided to create a kind of "guitar orchestra", inspired by work of
Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...
's
Brian May Sir Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, animal welfare activist and astrophysics, astrophysicist. He achieved global fame as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock band Queen ...
, where the notes were separated into single lines and harmonies. Kershaw elaborates on the layering of the guitar lines: According to Kershaw, there were about 20 guitars on this song alone, and there was a bit of trouble in trying to get the other instruments being overdubbed (such as bass and keyboards) in tune with the guitars. The main synthesizer riff was produced using a combination of PPG Wave 2.2 and a
Yamaha DX7 The Yamaha DX7 is a synthesizer manufactured by Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units. In the early 1980s, th ...
.


Release

"Wouldn't It Be Good" was released in a single version and an extended 12" version. A remix by Simon Boswell, clocking in at 7:20, appears on the album ''Retro:Active 4: Rare & Remixed''. In 1985, "Wouldn't It Be Good" appeared on the soundtrack to the film '' Gotcha!''


Music video

In the
music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...
for "Wouldn't It Be Good", Kershaw is an extraterrestrial visitor who observes the characteristics of the people around him. It was directed by graphic designer
Storm Thorgerson Storm Elvin Thorgerson (28 February 1944 – 18 April 2013) was an English art director and music video director. He is best known for closely working with the group Pink Floyd through most of their career, and also created album or other art f ...
, was released in 1984 and received heavy rotation on
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
, which helped the song reach No. 46 on the US charts. It used
chroma key Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a Visual effects, visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two or more images or video streams together based on colour hues (colorfulness, chroma range). The techniq ...
technology to achieve the alien suit's special effects. The music video was filmed in mid-January 1984 over a period of three days, primarily in and around St. James' Court Hotel, London. The closing scenes were recorded at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, near
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
. According to Kershaw, the song was about "always wanting it better than everyone else", a concept which the director of the video further developed and integrated into the video plot of Kershaw being the alien who steps into other people's shoes. But in the end the alien realises that it was not such a good idea at all, and decides to return to his home planet.


Critical reception

In a review of the single's 1991 reissue, Stephen Dalton of ''
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'' praised it as "a deeply felt ennui at the hopeless dreams and aspirations of idealistic youth" and a "welcome re-release from a much underrated innovator of early
synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...
".


Track listings

* 7-inch single : A. "Wouldn't It Be Good" – 4:35 : B. "Monkey Business" – 3:28 * 12-inch single : A. "Wouldn't It Be Good" (special extended mix) – 6:50 : B. "Monkey Business" – 3:28


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications


Cover versions

* In 1984, German singer Juliane Werding recorded a German-language version, titled "Sonne auf der Haut". * In 1986, Danny Hutton Hitters did a rendition which appeared on the soundtrack for the 1986 film ''
Pretty in Pink ''Pretty in Pink'' is a 1986 American teen romantic comedy-drama film about love and social cliques in American high schools in the 1980s. The film stars Molly Ringwald, alongside Harry Dean Stanton, Jon Cryer, Annie Potts, James Spader, a ...
''. * In 1986,
Barbara Dickson Barbara Ruth Dickson (born 27 September 1947) is a Scottish singer and actress whose hits include " I Know Him So Well" (a chart-topping duet with Elaine Paige), " Answer Me" and " January February". Dickson has placed fifteen albums on the UK ...
covered it for her studio album ''The Right Moment'' * In 1992, American singer-songwriter
Tommy Page Thomas Alden Page (May 24, 1970– March 3, 2017) was an American singer-songwriter, best known for his 1990 hit single "I'll Be Your Everything (Tommy Page song), I'll Be Your Everything" and was later a music industry executive. Page collabor ...
did a cover for his studio album, ''A Friend to Rely On''. * In 2006, German
dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance musi ...
act
Cascada Cascada (, Spanish language, Spanish, 'Waterfall'), is a German dance music act founded in 2004 by singer Natalie Horler and DJs/composers/ producers DJ Manian and DJ Yanou. They functioned as a trio from 2004 to 2021, with their last track ...
recorded their version for their studio album '' Everytime We Touch''. It reached No. 54 in the Swedish national record chart.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wouldn't It Be Good 1984 songs 1984 singles Cascada songs MCA Records singles Nik Kershaw songs Song recordings produced by Peter Collins (record producer) Songs written by Nik Kershaw Music videos directed by Storm Thorgerson