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XPR 2210
XPR 2211
When (1995)
CD [UK] | Front
12'' [UK] | Front
Tape [UK] | Front
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Remix Services
Hot Tracks 15-1 CD [US] | Front
Ultimix 59 CD [US] | Front
Appearances
CD | Front
Written and produced by Sunscreem. Assistant producer Gary Hughes.
Design and art direction: Sunscreem & Andrew Sutton @ Thinkelectric. Original cover photography: Gerd Ludwig (“Tree”).
℗+© 1995 Sony Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd. Published by BMG Music Publishing Ltd. Distribution: Sony Music.
Remix Services
UK Release Date: 21 Aug 1995
Paul Carnell on the origins of When
Many years ago there was a dog named What (aka Wot-the-dog) living on the farm by our old studio. He had a great trick of picking up one of the farmyard chickens in his mouth and running round and round the building (the chicken didn’t seem to mind – in fact, I think she quite enjoyed it). One day we were listening to an unnamed demo that Lucia had made; the song needed a working title and just at that moment What ran past the window with the chicken in his mouth – so we wrote “What” on the tape sleeve.
The next demo idea that Lucia wrote was duly named “Which,” then “Why,” and finally one was called “When”!!! Once this song was finished off and used on the second album, we did consider renaming it “The Reign is Falling.” However, by then we’d been calling it “When” for so long that it didn’t seem right. Everyone at the record company liked the original working title, and the apocalyptic lyrics had sort of written themselves around it anyway.
We got frequently asked about this upon release of “When.” I think we generally said it was because people had asked “WHEN’s the next single out?”, but this was because we didn’t think anyone would accept the story about Wot-the-dog (and by this point we were fed up with telling the truth to journalists because they never believed it anyway).