Your Woman

"Your Woman"
Plain slipcase with opening
Single by White Town
from the album Women in Technology
B-side "Give Me Some Pain"
Released 13 January 1997
Format
Recorded 1996
Genre
Length 4:20
Label
Songwriter(s) Jyoti Mishra
Producer(s) White Town
White Town singles chronology
">Abort, Retry, Fail?_"
(1996)		 "Your Woman"
(1997)		 "Undressed"
(1997)

">Abort, Retry, Fail?_"
(1996)		 "Your Woman"
(1997)		 "Undressed"
(1997)
Audio sample
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"Your Woman" is a song by British one man band White Town. It was released on 13 January 1997 as the lead single from the album Women in Technology. It features a muted trumpet line taken from "My Woman" by Al Bowlly. The song peaked at #1 on the UK Singles Chart.

Outside the United Kingdom, the single reached #1 in Iceland and Spain, peaked within the top ten of the charts Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland and Finland and peaked within the top thirty of the charts in the United States.[1] "Your Woman" was White Town's only hit.[2][3]

The song was named the 158th best track of the 1990s by Pitchfork Media.[4] In the booklet of 69 Love Songs, The Magnetic Fields' frontman Stephin Merritt described "Your Woman" as one of his "favourite pop songs of the last few years."[5]

Background and writing

White Town's sole band member and writer of "Your Woman", Jyoti Prakash Mishra, has stated that the lyrics could stem from or be related to multiple situations. He says "When I wrote it, I was trying to write a pop song that had more than one perspective. Although it’s written in the first person the character behind that viewpoint isn’t necessarily what the casual listener would expect".[6]

Mishra writes that the themes of the song include: "Being a member of an orthodox Trotskyist / Marxist movement. Being a straight guy in love with a lesbian. Being a gay guy in love with a straight man. Being a straight girl in love with a lying, two-timing, fake-arse Marxist. The hypocrisy that results when love and lust get mixed up with highbrow ideals."[6]

The '>Abort, Retry, Fail?_' message that appeared on some inlay cards is explained by the artist thus: "Well, this cheerful message became a kind of shibboleth for me and sort-of characterizes what's been going on for me the last few years." The song was mixed on a computer, this being the Atari ST.

This track earned White Town spot #31 in the 1996 John Peel Festive Fifty, two weeks before going on general sale.

Music video

The music video was produced in black and white silent film style. Most of the outdoor scenes were filmed in Derby.

In the video, there are numerous elements of acting, cinematography and editing that suggest an old fashioned film style. The exaggerated gestures of the hat wearing woman, helpless and fearful, and those of her quick tempered lover hint at the acting style from 1920s expressionist films. The ostensive metaphors, such as the use of hypnosis on the woman by the man or the recurring shots of crossroad signs bearing names of romantic relationship related attitudes, remind of the 1920s and 1930s efforts to express subjectivism in film.

The use of circular masks, as to emphasise focal points or for a mere elegant look, also belongs to the aforementioned period. At the point where the woman first enters the man's bedroom and in the final rope scene, match cuts are used in a manner resemblant of that from silent experimental films. Mishra can be seen for brief moments on television screens in the background.

There is also a scene where the woman closes the door on the man's arm, as she tries to escape from his advances. This is a direct reference to a very similar scene from Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel's surrealist film Un chien andalou (1928).

Charts

Tyler James version

"Your Woman"
Single by Tyler James
from the album The Unlikely Lad
Released 22 August 2005
Format CD, Digital download
Recorded 2004
Genre Pop
Length 3:45
Label Island Records
Tyler James singles chronology
"Foolish"
(2005)		 "Your Woman"
(2005)		 "Single Tear"
(2012)

"Foolish"
(2005)		 "Your Woman"
(2005)		 "Single Tear"
(2012)

British singer songwriter Tyler James released a cover of the song. It was released as the third and final single from his debut studio album, The Unlikely Lad (2005). It was released as a digital download in the United Kingdom on 22 August 2005. The song peaked to number 60 on the UK Singles Chart.

Track listings

Digital download
No.TitleLength
1."Your Woman"3:45
2."Temptation"3:15

Chart performance

Chart (2005) Peak
position
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[34] 60

Release history

Region Date Format Label
United Kingdom 22 August 2005 Digital download[35] Island Records
CD[36]

Princess Chelsea version

"Your Woman"
Single by Princess Chelsea
from the album Your Woman - Single
Released 6 February 2009
Format Digital download
Recorded 2004
Genre Pop
Length 4:39
Label Lil' Chief Records
Producer(s) Chelsea Nikkel, Jonathan Bree
Princess Chelsea singles chronology
"Your Woman"
(2009)		 "Monkey Eats Bananas"
(2009)

"Your Woman"
(2009)		 "Monkey Eats Bananas"
(2009)

New Zealand musician Princess Chelsea released a cover of the song in 2009. It was released as her first single, and was a non album single. It was released as a digital download.[37]

Track listings

Digital download
No.TitleLength
1."Your Woman"4:39

Other covers

  • Polish hip hop duo Peel Motyff sampled the song in "Nie jest tak źle" in 2001, on their album Sieć.
  • Naughty Boy, featuring Wiley and Emeli Sandé, sampled the song in "Never Be Your Woman" in 2010.
  • Finnish band Cats on Fire covered the song in 2010, on their album Dealing in Antiques.[38]
  • Australian singer songwriter Darren Hayes performed an acoustic version of the song, in a BBC Radio 2 live session with Jo Whiley in November 2011.[39]
  • Australian indie rock band British India performed a version live on radio station Triple J's weekly segment Like a Version in October 2013.[40]
  • German electronic duo Kush Kush sampled the song in "Fight Back With Love Tonight" in 2017, which peaked at #1 on the Russian music charts on 23 October 2017.[41]
  • White Town released a new version of the song on its twentieth anniversary named "Your Woman 1917", which is recorded with instruments common in 1917.[42]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003. Record Research. p. 279.
  2. ↑ McAlpine, Fraser. "10 Greatest British One-Hit Wonders". BBC America. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  3. ↑ Mishra, Jyoti. "Your Questions Answered". White Town. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  4. ↑ http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7854-the-top-200-tracks-of-the-1990s-200-151/5/
  5. ↑ Ewing, Tom (15 January 2000). "An Interview With White Town's Jyoti Mishra". Freaky Trigger. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  6. 1 2 "White Town – Your Questions Answered!". Whitetown.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-03-16.
  7. ↑ "Australian-charts.com – White Town – Your Woman". ARIA Top 50 Singles.
  8. ↑ "Austriancharts.at – White Town – Your Woman" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40.
  9. ↑ "Ultratop.be – White Town – Your Woman" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
  10. ↑ "Ultratop.be – White Town – Your Woman" (in French). Ultratop 50.
  11. ↑ "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved 2012-03-16.
  12. ↑ "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved 2012-03-16.
  13. ↑ "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved 2012-03-16.
  14. ↑ Billboard - Google Books. 1997-04-12. Retrieved 2014-03-31 – via Google Books.
  15. ↑ "White Town: Your Woman" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland.
  16. ↑ "Lescharts.com – White Town – Your Woman" (in French). Les classement single.
  17. ↑ "Musicline.de – White Town Single-Chartverfolgung" (in German). Media Control Charts. PhonoNet GmbH.
  18. ↑ "Íslenski Listinn Topp 40 (NR. 209 Vikuna 20.2. '97 - 26.2. '97)" (PDF) (in Icelandic). Dagblaðið Vísir. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
  19. ↑ "Irish Singles Chart – Search for song". Irish Recorded Music Association. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
  20. ↑ "Hit Parade Italia - Indice per Interprete: W". Hit Parade Italia. Retrieved July 6, 2012.
  21. ↑ "Search result: MTV Europe single charts since 1991". Charts Surfer. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  22. ↑ "Nederlandse Top 40 – White Town" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40.
  23. ↑ "Charts.nz – White Town – Your Woman". Top 40 Singles.
  24. ↑ "Norwegiancharts.com – White Town – Your Woman". VG-lista.
  25. ↑ Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
  26. ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – White Town – Your Woman". Singles Top 100.
  27. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – White Town – Your Woman". Swiss Singles Chart.
  28. ↑ "White Town Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard.
  29. ↑ "ARIA Charts - End of Year Charts - Top 100 Singles 1997". Aria.com.au. Retrieved 2014-03-31.
  30. ↑ "Top Singles - Volume 66, No. 15, December 15, 1997". RPM. Retrieved 2011-02-20.
  31. ↑ "Rock/Alternative - Volume 66, No. 15, December 15, 1997". RPM. Retrieved 2011-02-20.
  32. ↑ http://www.hitparadeitalia.it/hp_yends/hpe1997.htm
  33. ↑ "Billboard Top 100 - 1997". Retrieved 2010-08-28.
  34. ↑ ""Your Woman" - search results". Theofficialcharts.com\Accessdate=2014-03-31.
  35. ↑ "iTunes - Music - Your Woman - Single by Tyler James". Itunes.apple.com. 2005-08-22. Retrieved 2014-03-31.
  36. ↑ "Amazon.de - Tyler James - Your Woman". Amazon.de. Retrieved 2014-04-23.
  37. ↑ "Your Woman by Princess Chelsea". Princesschelsea.lilchiefrecords.com. Retrieved 2014-03-31.
  38. ↑ "Cats On Fire with compilation of older songs". Eardrumsmusic.com. 2010-03-23. Retrieved 2012-03-16.
  39. ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b016x4h8
  40. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOUWYgpTgIY
  41. ↑ "City & Country Radio – Top Week Hits – Tophit Music Charts". TopHit.ru. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  42. ↑ "White Town: Your Woman 1917 - single review - Storge". Storge. 2017-12-23. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
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