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Ebony and Ivory

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Vorlage:Dablink Vorlage:Infobox Single

"Ebony and Ivory" is a 1982 number-one single by Paul McCartney, performed with Stevie Wonder. It was released on March 29 of that year. The song is featured on McCartney's album Tug of War as well as several of Wonder's Greatest Hits albums. The song reached number one on both the UK and the US charts in 1982.

At the simplest level, the song is about the ebony (black) and ivory (white) keys on a piano, but also deals with integration and racial harmony on a deeper level. The title was inspired by McCartney hearing Spike Milligan say "black notes, white notes, and you need to play the two to make harmony folks!".[1] The figure is much older. It was popularized by James Aggrey in the 1920s, inspiring the title of the pan-African journal The Keys, but was in use from at least the 1840s.[2]

Although written by McCartney alone, the song was performed live in the studio by both McCartney and Wonder, though due to conflicting work schedules, both recorded their parts for the song's music video separately (as explained by McCartney in his commentary for The McCartney Years 3-dvd boxed set).

"Ebony and Ivory" spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was the fourth-biggest hit of 1982.[3] For McCartney, the song's run atop the chart was the longest of any of his post-Beatles works, and second longest career-wise (behind "Hey Jude" with The Beatles); for Wonder, it was his longest-running chart-topper.[4] The song also spent five weeks atop the adult contemporary chart.[5] It would also mark the first time that any single released by any member of the Beatles would hit the Billboard Black Singles charts.

Following the song's massive chart success, it was derided as "saccharine" and was later named as the tenth worst song of all time by Blender magazine.[6] On October 2007 it was named the worst duet in history by BBC 6 Music listeners.[7]

The song listed at #59 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of all time.[8]

This song has been parodied in many US television shows, such as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Everybody Hates Chris and Saturday Night Live, as well as movies such as Undercover Brother and Guess Who.Vorlage:Citation needed

Personnel

  • Paul McCartney: Bass, guitar, synthesisers, vocoder, percussion, piano and vocals
  • Stevie Wonder: Electric piano, synthesisers, drums, percussion and vocals

Chart positions

Chart (1982) Peak
position
UK Singles Chart 1[9]
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1[10]
U.S. Billboard AC 1[10]
German Media Control Singles Chart 1
Norwegian VG-lista Singles Chart 1[11]
Australian Kent Music Report 2
Swiss Singles Chart 2[11]
Swedish Singles Chart 2[12]
Austrian Singles Chart 3[11]
Japanese Oricon Singles Chart 26[13]
Japanese Oricon International Chart 1[14]

Notes

Vorlage:Reflist

Vorlage:Start box Vorlage:Succession box Vorlage:Succession box Vorlage:Succession box Vorlage:Succession box

Vorlage:End box

Vorlage:Paul McCartney Vorlage:Paul McCartney singles Vorlage:Stevie Wonder

  1. ↑ Martin, George (editor): Making Music, page 62. Pan Books, 1983. ISBN 0-330-26945-3
  2. ↑ 'Master and mistress, and neighbors, and negroes assemble, and black and white are seen strung along the great table, like the keys of a piano, and, like the aforesaid instrument, the black keys make fully as much noise as the white; all mingle for a while in the utmost harmony and good feeling....' Rev C F Sturgis, 'Duties of Christian Masters to their Slaves' (1849) quoted in Breedon, James O (editor), Advice among Masters: The Ideal in Slave Management in the Old South (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980), p262.
  3. ↑ Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Singles - 1982
  4. ↑ Whitburn, Joel, "Top Pop Singles: 1955-2006," 2007.
  5. ↑ The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 6th Edition, 1996
  6. ↑ Run for Your Life! It’s the 50 Worst Songs Ever! Blender;
  7. ↑ Ebony and Ivory voted worst duet. BBC News, 6. Oktober 2007, abgerufen am 8. Oktober 2007.
  8. ↑ The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs (60-51). Abgerufen am 30. August 2009.
  9. ↑ Chart Stats - Paul McCartney And Stevie Wonder - Ebony And Ivory. BPI, abgerufen am 6. August 2008.
  10. ↑ a b Tug of War > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles. allmusic, abgerufen am 16. Juli 2008.
  11. ↑ a b c Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder - Ebony & Ivory. norwegiancharts.com / VG-lista, abgerufen am 6. August 2008.
  12. ↑ Paul McCartney - Ebony & Ivory. swedishcharts.com, abgerufen am 6. August 2008.
  13. ↑ Paul McCartney Japanese Singles Chart listings. Original Confidence, abgerufen am 16. Juli 2008.
  14. ↑ Japan #1 IMPORT DISKS. Abgerufen am 30. August 2009.
Abgerufen von „https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ebony_and_Ivory&oldid=72034623“