British pop star Sophie Ellis-Bextor is making her American TV debut tonight on Jimmy Fallon — 20 years late.
Bextor’s “Murder on the Dance Floor” was released in 2001, made a little bit of noise, and went away. Now it’s a hit thanks to the movie “Saltburn” and the crazy naked dance star Barry Keoghan performs to it at the end of the film.
The actual writers of the song (with Bextor) was Gregg Alexander, the leader of the cult hit group, New Radicals. The latter group had two smash hits with “You Gotta Get What You Give” and “Someday We’ll Know.” After those releases in 1998-99, Alexander announced that was it, he was going on to do other things.
Alexander is also well known for writing “The Game of Love” for Carlos Santana and Michelle Shocked (original version with Tina Turner) and the soundtrack to the great John Carney movie, “Begin Again.”
His frequent collaborator is Danielle Brisebois, who was featured on “Archie’s Place” and “Knots Landing” years ago. But Brisebois is foremost a songwriter. Her Natasha Bedingfield hit, “Unwritten,” is hot again thanks to the movie “Anyone But You.”
You see — good songs stand the test of time! “You Gotta Get What You Give” is one of the greatest pop songs ever. Joni Mitchell once said that she loved it so much it encouraged her to not to give up her career in the 1990s. Years later, I introduced her to Alexander at Clive Davis’s pre-Grammy dinner and couldn’t have been more effusive!
When I ran into Gregg last week in LA, he told me that “Murder on the Dance Floor” was actually supposed to be on the famous New Radicals album.
“I made a demo of it,” he said, “with my voice. We were going to do it and then it was put aside. I may release it now that Sophie’s version is a hit all over again!”
And who got murdered on the dance floor, I asked? “Hopefully, no one!” Alexander replied.
