Reminiscing
"Reminiscing" is a song by Australian soft rock music group Little River Band, released in June 1978 as the second single from their fourth studio album Sleeper Catcher. The song was written by the band's rhythm guitarist Graeham Goble, and sung by their lead singer Glenn Shorrock. "Reminiscing" peaked at number 35 on the Australian Kent Music Report[2] and at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.[3]
| "Reminiscing" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
International 7" cover art | ||||
| Single by Little River Band | ||||
| from the album Sleeper Catcher | ||||
| B-side | "Take Me Home"/"So Many Paths" | |||
| Released | June 1978 | |||
| Recorded | 1978 | |||
| Genre | Soft rock[1] | |||
| Length | 4:11 (album version) 3:29 (7" version) | |||
| Label | EMI Music | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Graeham Goble | |||
| Producer(s) | John Boylan, Little River Band | |||
| Little River Band singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
At the Australian 1978 King of Pop Awards, the song won Australian Record of the Year.[4]
"Reminiscing" was given a BMI Five Million-Air award for five million plays on US radio—the highest achievement ever for any Australian popular song.[5]
According to Albert Goldman's biography, John Lennon named "Reminiscing" as one of his favourite songs. May Pang, erstwhile girlfriend of Lennon, said "Oddly, with all the fantastic music he wrote, "our song" was 'Reminiscing' by the Little River Band."[6]
Background and recording edit
In 2005, Goble spoke of his inspiration and recording of the song, saying "I loved watching old black and white movies, and I always also loved the music of Glenn Miller and Cole Porter, that whole era of writing, and it was my attempt to write a song to depict the romantic era. It came out very quickly, I wrote it in about half an hour. Even though a lot of people think it sounds complicated, on the guitar it's very simple to play. It nearly never got recorded – when the time came to record it, the keyboard player I wanted to use, Peter Jones, was out of town, so we cut the band track with a different keyboard player. It didn't work. A few days later when we tried it again with a different keyboard player, again it didn't work, and the band was losing interest in the song. Just before the album was finished, Peter Jones came back into town, the band and I had an argument because I wanted to give Reminiscing a third chance. Peter played on it, we cut it, and finished it, and sent the album to Capitol. Capitol said that they couldn't hear any singles on the album, and didn't know what to release. Five weeks later, someone at Capitol's New York office said 'You're all crazy, Reminiscing is a smash.' Capitol put it out, and it just immediately caught on fire, and became our highest chart hit."[7] Goble added "It's quite staggering; you don't realise you've written something like that until it happens, until it's history."[8]
Record World called it "a highly danceable ballad" and praised the lead vocal performance.[9]
Track listings edit
- Australian 7" (EMI 11738)
- A. "Reminiscing" - 4:11
- B. "Take Me Home" (Recorded Live at The Rainbow Theatre, London)
- New Zealand 7" (EMI 1043)
- A. "Reminiscing" - 3:26
- B. "So Many Paths" - 4:22
- North American 7" (Harvest 4605)
- A. "Reminiscing" - 3:26
- B. "So Many Paths" - 4:22
Chart performance edit
Weekly charts edit
| Year-end charts edit
|
Madison Avenue version edit
| "Reminiscing" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Madison Avenue | ||||
| from the album The Polyester Embassy | ||||
| Released | 5 March 2001[17] | |||
| Genre | Dance, house | |||
| Length | 3:35 | |||
| Label | EMI International | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Graeham Goble | |||
| Producer(s) | Andy Van Dorsselaer | |||
| Madison Avenue singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Australian band Madison Avenue covered the song and released it as a single in March 2001. Their version was certified Gold by ARIA.
Track listing edit
Australian CD single
- "Reminiscing (Da Classic Remix - Edit)" – 3:31
- "Reminiscing (Original Mix - Edit)" – 3:24
- "Everything You Need (Olav Basoski Remix)" – 7:32
- "Reminiscing (Da Classic Remix)" – 5:06
- "It's Alright (Album Mix)" – 5:12
Charts edit
Year-end charts edit
| Chart (2001) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Australian Artist)[19] | 9 |
Certifications edit
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[20] | Gold | 35,000^ |
| ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
Other cover versions edit
- In July 1978, Shorrock recorded a Spanish-language version of the song, titled "Recordando", using the original backing track and backing vocals.[21]
- Thumbs Carllile recorded a jazz cover on his 1979 album Guitar Wizard.[22]
- Barry Manilow covered the song for his 1996 album Summer of '78.
- Tommy Emmanuel's covered the song for his 1998 album Collaboration featuring Shorrock.
- Goble, Shorrock and Beeb Birtles, three of the original members of Little River Band, who reformed under the name Birtles Shorrock Goble, recorded "Reminiscing" for their 2003 CD and DVD Full Circle.
- Carl Riseley included a jazz cover of the song on his 2008 album The Rise.
- k.d. lang recorded the song for the Australian version of her 2011 album Sing It Loud.
- Little River Band, now with lead singer Wayne Nelson, re-recorded the song for their 2016 album The Hits - Revisited.
- Shorrock rerecorded "Reminiscing" for his 2019 album Glenn Shorrock Sings Little River Band.[23]
Samples edit
Biz Markie sampled the song for his song "Throwback" on the album Weekend Warrior.
In popular culture edit
- During American Idol's 2007 broadcast of Idol Gives Back, Ben Stiller jokingly threatened to sing the song nonstop until $200 billion in donations was achieved.[24]
- The song is featured in the Freaks and Geeks episode "Kim Kelly Is My Friend."[25]
- The song is featured in the film Monsters vs. Aliens.[26]
- The song is heard playing in the background during a scene in Knocked Up with Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd at a Las Vegas hotel room.[27]
- The song was used in the 2010 film The Other Guys.[28]
- The song was used in the episode of The Middle titled Taking Back The House.[29]
- The song is featured in the HBO series Divorce.[30]
- The song was used as a bumper for Tom Hatten's Family Film Festival.[31]
References edit
- ^ Fontenot, Robert. "Soft Rock Music and Songs - Oldies Music". Oldies.about.com. from the original on 21 January 2012. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
- ^ a b Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 179. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–2001. Record Research. p. 147.
- ^ "Australian Music Awards". Ron Jeff. Retrieved 16 December 2010.
- ^ "Graeham Goble's BMI Award For His Little River Band Hit, 'Reminiscing'". Shorrock, Birtles & Goble. 15 February 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
- ^ "Marvelous May..." ncf.ca. 23 September 2003. from the original on 19 January 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
- ^ Miller, Chuck (2005) Born in the Sign of Water 23 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine Goldmine, 4 February 2005. Retrieved on 14 January 2007.
- ^ Kruger, Debbie (2005) Songwriters Speak, Limelight Press, (ISBN 0-9757080-3-1).
- ^ "Hits of the Week" (PDF). Record World. 15 July 1978. p. 1. Retrieved 13 February 2023.
- ^ "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. 17 July 2013. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
- ^ "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. 17 July 2013. from the original on 19 September 2020. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
- ^ "Little River Band – Reminiscing". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
- ^ Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
- ^ "Billboard Top 100 - 1978". from the original on 4 October 2016. Retrieved 31 December 2010.
- ^ . Musicoutfitters.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
- ^ "Top 100 Year End Charts: 1978". Cashbox Magazine. from the original on 27 October 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
- ^ "The ARIA Report: New Releases Singles – Week Commencing 5th March 2001" (PDF). ARIA. 5 March 2001. p. 24. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 February 2002. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
- ^ "Little River Band – Reminiscing". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
- ^ "ARIA Charts - End of Year Charts - Top Australian Singles 2001". Aria.com.au. from the original on 24 December 2008. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
- ^ "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2001 Singles" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
- ^ "Little River Band – Recordando". Shorrock Birtles Goble. 18 July 1978. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
- ^ "Thumbs Carllile special limited edition CDs". Thumbscarllile.com. 22 June 2004. from the original on 7 December 2008. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
- ^ Desk, TV News. "'Glenn Shorrock Sings Little River Band' is Out Today". BroadwayWorld.com.
- ^ BenStillerTube (4 March 2008). "American Idol - Ben Stiller singing". from the original on 20 January 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2018 – via YouTube.
- ^ "Freaks and Geeks - S1E4 "Kim Kelly is My Friend" Music and List of Songs". What-song. from the original on 16 January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
- ^ "Monsters vs Aliens Soundtrack (2009) & Complete List of Songs". from the original on 13 August 2018. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
- ^ "Reminiscing (From". tidal.com. from the original on 16 January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
- ^ Lemire, Christie (4 August 2010). "Review: 'The Other Guys' goofs on buddy-cop movie cliches, and it actually works". The Canadian Press. Retrieved 29 August 2010.
- ^ "The Middle" Taking Back the House (TV Episode 2011) - IMDb, retrieved 13 December 2021
- ^ "HBO's Divorce skillfully captures the painful absurdities of a failed marriage". The Week. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
- ^ "Reminiscing by Little River Band Songfacts". www.songfacts.com. from the original on 16 January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.