1. Background

2. Music and structure

3. Music video

4. Track listing

5. Reception

6. Charts
    Weekly charts  Year-end charts  Certifications 

7. Cover versions

8. In popular culture

9. References

10. External links

"Lovefool" is a song written by Peter Svensson and Nina Persson for The Cardigans' third studio album, First Band on the Moon (1996). It was released as the album's lead single on 14 September 1996 in the United Kingdom and internationally on 5 October 1996. After a re-release in 1997, the song found international success, peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart and achieving moderate success on other European charts. In North America, the song reached number three in Canada and number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 Airplay Chart (it did not chart on the Hot 100 due to rules in place at the time). It also made appearances on six other Billboard charts. In Australasia, the single topped the chart in New Zealand and climbed to number 11 in Australia. In both countries, the single was certified Gold.

The song was featured in the film Romeo + Juliet just two months after the release of the single, as well as in the 1999 film Cruel Intentions and the 2007 comedy Decameron Pie.

Background

Persson wrote the lyrics to the song at an airport while waiting for a plane. She said that, at the time, the song had "a slow bossa nova feel". She also added that "the biggest hits are the ones that are the easiest to write".^[1]

Music and structure

"Lovefool" is a song that is performed in several keys and modulates based on chorus and verse. The chorus is in the key of A major using a I-IV-ii-V chord progression. The verses use a i-iv-VII-III chord progression in A minor. It is written in common time and moves at 112 beats per minute. The song's middle 8 is four bars long.^[2]

Music video

Two videos were shot for the song. The first one for the U.K. and Europe -- "much more bleak, much more our original style" says Nina Persson.^[3] "We had an actor playing a sort of handsome-man-love-interest of mine, and he was supposed to be a kind of gangster and the band played his gang members."

The second one was directed by Geoff Moore in New York.^[4] It features a man being lost on an island and putting a message in a bottle into the water. A woman implied to be his lover is shown on a dock reading a newspaper and at the end of the video receives and reads the message and smiles. The video also shows the band performing the song in what looks to be the interior of the bottle released by the man lost at sea, as well as Nina Persson looking out from the bottles neck and later through a periscope at the woman. Midway through the song, the band is also interviewed by several scuba equipment-wearing reporters who descend from a ladder into the room.

Track listing

1. "Lovefool"
2. "Nasty Sunny Beam"
3. "Iron Man" (First Try)

1. "Lovefool" (radio edit)
2. "Lovefool" (Tee's Club Radio)
3. "Lovefool" (Tee's Frozen Sun Mix)
4. "Lovefool" (Puck version)

1. "Lovefool" (Radio edit)
2. "Sick & Tired" (live)
3. "Carnival" (live)
4. "Rise & Shine" (live)

Reception

The song was initially a hit in Europe, reaching number 15 on the Swedish Singles Chart and peaking at number 21 on the UK Singles Chart on its first release in 1996, and at number two when reissued in 1997 following its use in Romeo + Juliet. It then achieved international success, becoming a number-one hit in New Zealand and peaking just outside the top 10 in Australia at number 11. "Lovefool" became a crossover hit in the US after peaking at number nine on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart then reaching number two on the Hot 100 Airplay chart. It reached number one on the Top 40 Mainstream chart and number two on the Adult Top 40, staying there for eight nonconsecutive weeks behind No Doubt's "Don't Speak" and Jewel's "You Were Meant for Me".^[5] It was not eligible to chart on the Hot 100 at the time as singles not made commercially available in the US were ineligible to chart (these rules were later changed in December 1998).

"Lovefool" came eighteenth in the 1996 Pazz & Jop poll and nineteenth the following year.^[6][7] Slant Magazine listed the song number 40 on its "100 Best Singles of the 1990s" list,^[8] and Pitchfork Media ranked it number 66 on its "Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s".^[9]

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Cover versions

• New Found Glory recorded a cover version for their album From the Screen to Your Stereo Part II.
• American actress and singer Leighton Meester performed a version of the song in June 2015 for The A.V. Club{{'s}} A.V. Undercover series.^[19]
• Japanese pop singer Dream Ami has recorded a cover of the song.^[20]

In popular culture

The song was featured in the films Romeo + Juliet', Cruel Intentions, The Smartest Guys in the Room and Hot Fuzz (in a parody of Romeo + Juliet).

The song was used in television shows, a season three episode of the American version of The Office, a season one episode of Nip/Tuck, in season one of My Name Is Earl, as well as the films In 1997, the band played the song on the graduation episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, several episodes of Daria, All My Children, Sunset Beach, and The Young and the Restless, Haven, in the sixth episode of Orphan Black season one, and House of Hancock.

References

External links

• "Lovefool" lyrics
• {{Allmusic|class=song|id=t1489636|label=Lovefool}}

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