Our friend Paula of Light Motifs II has given us this week’s prompts for Song Lyric Sunday, hosted by Jim Adams. Her suggestions are Breakfast, Brunch, Dinner, Lunch, Snack and Supper.
I have chosen Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Deep Blue Something. A cute song and video that I remember from the 90s. but the band was really a one hit wonder. The good thing about Song Lyric Sunday is that when you start researching these songs you sometimes find a really interesting backstory. In this case it was Truman Capote’s connection to Rock Music!.
Songfacts
“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is a 1995 song recorded by American alternative rock band Deep Blue Something. Originally appearing on the album 11th Song, it was later re-recorded and released on their album Home. It was the band’s only hit, peaking at number five on the US Billboard Hot 100. Outside the United States, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” topped the UK Singles Chart and peaked within the top ten on the charts of Australia, Flanders, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, the Republic of Ireland and Sweden.
Follow-up singles failed to match the success of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, hence the reason for the band’s classification as a one-hit wonder.
Deep Blue Something lead singer Todd Pipes was inspired to write this song after seeing Audrey Hepburn in the film Roman Holiday, but he thought “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” would be a better title.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a 1961 movie based on a book by Truman Capote. It starred Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly, a high-priced escort looking for a rich man to marry. The movie made the song “Moon River” famous.
The song is a humorous and optimistic look at a failing relationship. One partner focuses on how different the two people are and how they aren’t going to last as a couple:
You say that we’ve got nothing in common
No common ground to start from
And we’re falling apart
The other partner, however, focuses on one small detail they have in common which is that they both like the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The speaker clings to this one detail and repeats it five times as the chorus in the song:
And I said, “What about Breakfast at Tiffany’s”
She said, “I think I remember the film”
and as I recall, I think, we both kinda liked it
And I said, “Well, that’s one thing we got”
Deep Blue Something was formed by four college students from the University of North Texas. This was their only hit, and they did not release another album until Byzantium in 1998.
Todd Pipes recalled to Q magazine November 2008 that promoting this song got to be pretty tiresome. He explained: “As the song had Breakfast in the title, radio stations thought it would be genius to have us on at breakfast time. We’d be up till 3 a.m. and they’d wonder why we were pissed off playing at 6am.”
Truman Capote (1924 – 1984) was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays and non-fiction are recognized literary classics. He was born in Louisiana and his early works, including The Glass Harp, are about the South. He then moved to New York, where he wrote scripts for plays and films plus further novels including his 1958 novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s. In the early 1960s, Capote’s career flagged until In Cold Blood (1965), his journalistic work about the murder of a Kansas farm family in their home, made Capote a celebrity.
Capote was 5 feet 3 inches tall and openly homosexual. His distinctive, high-pitched voice and odd vocal mannerisms were bought to life in Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Oscar-winning portrayal of him in the 2005 movie, Capote.
Apart from this song, Capote has several other connections to rock music. They include:
1) In 1972 Capote was commissioned by Rolling Stone to cover the Rolling Stones’ tour of North America. And though he set out on the tour and began taking copious notes, he quickly fell out with Mick Jagger and refused to write the article. “Mick Jagger is about as sexy as a pissing toad,” he later cattily averred.
2) Capote posthumously appeared on the sleeve of The Smiths’ 1985 single, The Boy with the Thorn in His Side. English fashion and portrait photographer Cecil Beaton took the picture in 1949.
3) Capote was name-checked along with a number of other famous people in the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 1991 track, “Mellowship Slinky In B Major.”
Lyrics
You'll say we've got nothing in common No common ground to start from And we're falling apart You say the world has come between us Our lives have come between us Still I know you just don't care And I said, "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?" She said, "I think I remember the film And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it" And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got" I see you, the only one who knew me But now your eyes see through me I guess I was wrong So what now? It's plain to see we're over And I hate when things are over When so much is left undone And I said, "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?" She said, "I think I remember the film And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it" And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got" You say that we've got nothing in common No common ground to start from And we're falling apart You say the world has come between us Our lives have come between us Still I know you just don't care And I said, "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?" She said, "I think I remember the film And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it" And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got" Ooh, and I said, "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?" She said, "I think I remember the film And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it" And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got" And I said, "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?" She said, "I think I remember the film And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it" And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got" Writer/s: Todd David Pipes Publisher: Warner Chappell Music, Inc. Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
