It ended up topping the charts in the UK and remains their best-loved song, but British band Razorlight say that they originally planned to give 2006’s America to another artist.
The revelation came last night, when Razorlight’s Andy Burrows and Johnny Borrell played an intimate show in central London and told the stories behind some of their biggest hits.
Of America, lead singer Borrell said: “My plan, which Andy probably didn't like, was based on when Prince wrote Nothing Compares 2 U and no one knew it was a Prince song until it became this big hit [for Sinéad O’Connor],” he explained. “I was like: Wouldn't it be so cool if we wrote this song and found some amazing artist to do it?”
It’s perhaps worth saying that Nothing Compares 2 U wasn’t written for Sinéad O’Connor – the original version was recorded by the Prince-backed band The Family, and featured on their one and only album in 1985. After O’Connor made it famous, Prince would reclaim it, performing it extensively right up until the time of his death.
Unfortunately for Borrell – but fortunately, in hindsight, for Razorlight – his plan to do something similar didn’t work. The song was shopped around, but there were no takers.
“Six months later, we still had this song,” says Borrell. “Don't get me wrong, I loved the song. I was living in the rehearsal studio at the time, and I had written this riff years ago. I think it was the first riff I ever wrote - for a really bad song about northeastern England when I was away on a very long camping holiday when I was 13.”
For some reason, Borrell thought that said riff could work now: “I never used guitar pedals, but I looked at this pedal on the floor and thought, ‘You know, I could put that with the 'Lost in America' song and see what happens.’”
Success happened, but there were soon bumps in the road. Burrows and Borrell fell out and didn’t speak for a decade, though they reconciled and reformed in 2021.
The duo are now celebrating the 20th anniversary of Razorlight’s eponymous second album, on which America features, and to mark their occasion, they’re released the original Lost in America demo, which is missing that guitar riff and has a slightly different groove.
Not quite as different as the one that Borrell originally proposed, though – the one from Billy Joel’s Movin’ Out, Anthony’s Song. “I sat down and said, ’Why don't we just write a song with a drop beat like that, but minus the trumpet?’” he recalls. Turning to Burrows, he adds: “You looked at me like, "Well, we could, but you wouldn't like it.’"
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