Common People (single)


Click here to see more of the artwork

Details

  • Release date: 22 May 1995
  • Label: Island
  • Formats: CD (2 versions), cassette, 12" (in 1996), 7" (in 1996)
  • Recorded: January 1995 (The Town House, London) - except the acoustic versions
  • Chart position: 2 (UK)

Credits

Releases

Date

Formats and catalogue numbers

Notes

22 May 1995

CD1 'day-time sleeve' - CID613

CD2 'night-time sleeve' - CIDX613

Cassette - CIS613

Original UK release.

CD1 'day-time sleeve':

  1. Common People (5:51)
  2. Underwear (4:07)
  3. Common People (7" edit) (4:07)

CD2 'night-time sleeve':

  1. Common People (5:51)
  2. Razzmatazz (acoustic version) (4:05)
  3. Dogs Are Everywhere (acoustic version) (3:05)
  4. Joyriders (acoustic version) (3:31)

CD2 came with a silver Pulp sticker.

Cassette:

  1. Common People (7" edit) (4:07)
  2. Underwear (4:07)
  3. Common People (5:51)

1995

CD - PHCR8341

Japanese release.

Tracklisting:

  1. Common People (Motiv8 Radio edit)
  2. Common People (Motiv8 Club Mix)
  3. Common People (Vocoda Mix)

1995

12" vinyl - 854 465-1

German promotional release.
The remixes on tracks 1 and 2 are not available anywhere else.

Tracklisting:

  1. Common People (Doggy Disco Mix) (11:10)
  2. Common People (TTP Understand The Acid Remix) (6:42)
  3. Common People (Motiv8 Club Mix) (7:50)

1996

CD - 854 689-2

European release.

Tracklisting:

  1. Common People ('96)*
  2. Do You Remember the First Time?
  3. Babies
  4. Mile End

* Same as the 7" edit except the word 'screw' is muted.

February 1996

CD - 854 577-2

French release.

Tracklisting:

  1. Common People
  2. Whiskey in the Jar (Black Session)
  3. 59 Lyndhurst Grove (Black Session)

Black Session tracks recorded 30 October 1995 (France Inter, Paris).

20 November 1996

12" vinyl - 12IS613

7" yellow vinyl - IS613

UK vinyl release.

7":

  1. Common People
  2. Underwear

12":

  1. Common People
  2. Underwear
  3. Common People (Motiv8 Club Mix)
  4. Common People (Vocoda Mix)

7 July 2023

Streaming and digital download

Newly uploaded to streaming services as "Common People EP", with a scan of the CD1 artwork; the fourth of a series of Island Records-era EPs reissued to coincide with the 2023 tour.

Tracklisting:

  1. Common People (5:51)
  2. Underwear (4:06)
  3. Razzmatazz (acoustic version) (4:04)
  4. Dogs Are Everywhere (acoustic version) (3:03)
  5. Joyriders (acoustic version) (3:33)
  6. Common People (7" edit) (4:05)

Notes

On the original CD singles, both Common People and Underwear run fractionally faster than they do on the Different Class album, likely just a consequence of being transfered from analogue tape masters (CD2 runs 1.5 seconds faster than the album, CD1 is just 0.8 seconds). Underwear starts and ends with silence, where on the album it segues out of F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E. and continues directly into Monday Morning.

The first upload of the 2023 digital EP erroneously copied Common People and Underwear from the Different Class album, and the 7" edit faded out slightly early. These tracks were corrected sometime before 18th August, with both replacement tracks labelled "Single Version".

Sleeve notes

There is a war in progress - don't be a casual(ty). The time to decide whose side you're on is here. Choose wisely. Stay alive in '95.

Commentary

The release of the digital EP in 2023 was heralded by the following commentary from Pulp's social media accounts, believed to have been written by Mark Webber:

“Common People” had its live premiere at the Reading Festival on 27 August 1994 & it was clear from the outset that this song was something special. With the legendary Chris Thomas as producer, we worked together to create a huge wall of sound. Everyone got so excited about the track that we wanted to release it as soon as possible - even though we hadn’t really started working on the rest of “Different Class”, which we knew wouldn’t be ready until much later in the year. Sometimes it feels so right that you just have to do get on and do it.

The single was teased by a series of “You can’t buy …” billboards and adverts in the music press & then it crashed into the charts at No. 2. (Sadly kept from the top spot by a couple of crooning actors.) Suddenly Pulp were everywhere, all over the radio and daytime television. And then we went to Glastonbury … It was an exhilarating time & another new beginning for the band.

So it might seem strange to have these older songs as b-sides, but the truth is that at the time we weren’t exactly prepared for the relatively new (rip-off) concept of releasing CD1 & CD2 versions of a single. We just didn’t have anything else ready. After searching through tapes we settled on these three tracks that had been recorded live in the GLR Radio studios on 22 March 1994 for the Pete Aherne Show. They’d previously been released in France on a limited edition CD single of “Do You Remember the First Time” & we thought we should make them more widely available.

Now, can you still do the “Common People” dance?

Promotional video

Details here.

Reviews

NME, 13th May 95:

Mirth-quakingly obvious single of the week

When 'Common People' was first aired at Reading last year it seemed to your correspondent the most potent political statement of cultural ambivalence since the Manic Street Preachers. But that's festival "fever" for you. Herein lies a simple truth: artistic rich people are forever wishing to be artistic skint people in the name of empathy with the belaguered because guilt is the price of privilege. A sound pop idea honed eloquently into a grand colossus of vindication in velveteen trews, this is the one that bestrides Jarvis' gifts for jocular panache and moulded songsmithery and radiates in the pop nook this week as Pulp's very own 'Sympathy For The Devil'. With even more jokes.

'Underwear' is a calmer affair, with a sombre Jarvis noting, "If fashion is your trade / When you're naked / You must be unemployed, yeah?" thus skewering the very souls of several pop notables of the day, including himself. Peerless perfection. So next time some gimp supposes "You're that amusing curiosity from oop North, show us the pineapple up yer cardy" Jarvis can feel free to bend their limbs into an approximation of a poodle and attend his new Ronnie Corbett hairdo for Top Of The Pops with measured aplomb. Ruddy superb.

(View as image)

Charts and sales

UK Singles Chart

Week

Date

Position

1

3 June '95

2

2

10 June '95

2

3

17 June '95

3

4

24 June '95

6

5

1 July '95

11

6

8 July '95

13

7

15 July '95

18

8

22 July '95

23

9

29 July '95

31

10

5 August '95

38

11

12 August '95

46

12

19 August '95

60

13

26 August '95

71

UK Sales Awards

Award

Copies sold*

Date

Silver

200,000

1 July 95

* Awards are based on wholesale rather than retail sales.

Page last modified on April 20, 2024, at 07:13 PM