I'm Blue Da Ba Dee
 

Hello everyone.

I am clearly new to this forum, but I want to ask something of you all:

Why do you think a song like Eiffel 65's Blue (Da Ba Dee) caught on so well? Once it’s heard, it’s never forgotten, as its lasting hook, uplifting verses, and body-rocking rhythm are pure energy shot straight to the heart. It just dosen't make all that much sense to me, though. Is it the piano hook, the heavy vocoder use, or the silly lyrics? Any thoughs?

In all of my years. I have never, ever seen a song with such awful lyrics (don't get me wrong, though; the song is one of my all time favourites) that could catch on so well and get such great reception and success as a song!

I think it's gotta be the vocoder, primarily. I feel like a lot of songs catch on because of "a sound" - and the vocals sounded pretty original back in '98. And piano always was a big hit in popular electronic music ('specially trance) then. Children had just been released by Robert Miles a couple years prior, if I remember correctly.

Also, a goofy music video.

Repetitiveness of it

"If I was green I would die" was the original lyric for anyone interested.

I don't think I've ever heard of this song to be honest.

Give over.

What?

Sorry, it's a British expression that kinda means "Come on, you can't be serious", to me at least.

You must have been living under a rock in the 90's! Even I remember this song and I was only like 7 or 8 when it came out.

Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da Ba Dee) (Original Video with subtitles) - YouTube

lol watching it back now, so sh1t. 90's special effects :o:

Listening to it on YouTube right now, but no, I don't know it. It's possible that I've heard it somewhere before but it's not something I recognized after listening to it. It looks like it was more popular in Europe than it was here though, and it came out at a time when I would have had virtually no exposure to music like this. In 1999 I didn't watch MTV, didn't listen to top 40, didn't go to clubs, and was going to art school where I was surrounded by other people who also didn't watch MTV, didn't listen to top 40 and didn't go to clubs.

Or maybe it's just something college kids weren't listening to. I'm sure there's some crappy pop music I remember from when I was 6 or 7 that people 15 years older than me have no recollection of.

I'd be interested to know if other Americans my age (like Bob, Sidewinder or Engine) are familiar with this song or not.

This is like the time when I met a girl who didn't know who the Beatles were.

Really?

Wow, can't believe Janszoon isn't familiar with this song. It was designed in a way so that it gets stuck in your head and stays there.

That, Tubthumping, Rockafeller Skank (which actually holds up as a damn good song) all remind me of the cheesy 90s radio

No doubt I was wasting my time back then listening to nonsense like Swans, Godflesh, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs and Trans Am when I could have been listening to the genius that is Eiffel 65. :laughing:

Ha! I definitely don't remember ever hearing that song. But, like you, I wasn't ever in a situation where I would have. No bars, parties, friends, or casual acquaintances of mine at the time would have paid any attention to that, and I didn't listen to any top 40 radio. I have a vague recollection of knowing the name Eiffel 65 and I think that's because I saw their CDs in stores (probably in the used bins).

Although the first iteration of the chorus sounds familiar. Maybe that's because it's so generic, or maybe it was sampled in some hip-hop or something. None of the rest of the song rings a bell at all.

I did play Oddworld though, and it looks like they based the blue character in the video on that.

edit:
I'd be utterly shocked if anybody here has ever forgetten the sensational hooks and bodyrocking rhythms of Sexy Eyes by Dr. Hook. It was crazy popular in '79-'80.

You see, people? I'm not alone. :laughing:

I was living in Nowhere, Maine when that song came out in 4th grade, and I remember being desperate for the one pop radio station in the state to play it (I think I only heard it on the radio two or three times). My friends and I all knew it from that top 40 station, and I bought the album.

To reply to the OP, I think its catchiness had something to do with its overall techno vibe: that style of music was largely unpopular (at least in the US) at the time. I think it kinda revived a forgotten 80s sound...er...kinda.

How old are you?

It's not THAT catchy. It just annoys me. Most popular music does, but particularly this song.

I haven't heard I'm Blue Da Ba Dee either, plus I don't think I would want to listen to that song all the way through.

I don't see the comparison between "I'm Blue Da Ba Dee" and "Rockfella Skank." I might be extremely partial because the latter has a sample of Duane Eddy's guitar playing, but I think it is a much better song. I never saw it as cheesy but as laid back and cool, and the video is laid back, cool, and humorous as well.

I didn't say there was anything comparable about the two other than they both remind me of a point of time in my life.

Wow.

I understand those three songs you mention are your songs, but just as you are suprised at Janszoon of not knowing it I guess am just as suprised at anyone who want to remember it. Maybe it's just that I don't understand why people think Janszoon should remember it, like it's a must know...

I don't think the song is the type of song that "gets stuck in your head and stays there" like the other two songs... maybe it is but in a bad way. In fact when I played the song on YT after 10 seconds I wish I could forget what I just heard immediately.

I'm not sure why we're over-complicating things here. All 3 songs remain stuck in my head despite rarely ever hearing them since the late 90s, so they remind me of that time.

I'm not sure how things are over-complicated, you mentioned three songs and I mentioned the one I like the most, Rockafeller Skank.

No, you went off on some nonsensical tangent about how I shouldn't be grouping the three together. :laughing:




I like the Blue song, always have.
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h1...gonna-hate.gif

No, you kinda misunderstood, I only gave my opnion, 'I don't see the comparison...' I never said "[you] shouldn't be grouping the three together" or you shouldn't make such a comparison. I'm not sure how things became over-complicated, or went off on a tangent. I think you are responding to things I haven't said.

I'll see you in the Musicbanter Improvement Thread when sopych complains about that rediculous picture of redicule.

And I explained that I never made a comparison... to which you went off on a nonsensical tangent about.

But this is boring me so let's drop it.

I would be happy if a mod could delete the whole third page it would be fine with me.

I can't believe that there are individuals that haven't heard this song (nothing personal). I was about 6 or 7 years old when It came out and somehow It got stuck in my head, probably because of the rhythm.

I wish I was one of those individuals that never heard that song.

I'm seeing a pattern here that everyone (including me) who doesn't know it was an adult when the song came out. It must have had some special appeal to young children.

Well I was a child when it came out, and I loved it. Funnily enough I recall it being the catalyst for me getting into techno. Of course after a while the song became incredibly annoying and didn't get out of my head very easily.

My friends and I loved the Blue song when it came out, but now that I listen to it it was kinda of cheesy I guess. The video just shows how awful graphics really were in the 90s! Extremely catchy tune though.

Well, it's official. That song is going to be stuck in my head all day today. I haven't thought about it since about 2000!



_______________________

"The object of the superior man is truth." –Confucius

Ajay Mac - AKA A.J.

I always lump "I'm Blue" in with stuff like the Vengaboys "We Like To Party"...anything that showed up on those crappy Now compilations in the late 90's. It reminds me of when I first moved Southeast Asia...they loved the **** out of that kind of music. It was seriously playing everywhere I went.

Ahh . . . crappy '90s music. I can still jam out to that stuff. I love it!


_______________________

"The object of the superior man is truth." –Confucius

Ajay Mac - AKA A.J.

I remember the very day I heard that song. (was around 2001 or so) I was working as a welder, fabricating parts for commercial heaters in a hot ass factory in Florida. There was always someone with a radio on, tuned to the local station that played pop and party hits, so we could listen to absolutely asinine crap while we did repetitive, meaningless work for minimum wage and have something to hate more than what we were doing with our lives.

I was SUBJECTED to it the first time I heard it. And was tortured by it for months thereafter. It made some of the other crap that came on the radio a welcome relief.

I learned so many lyrics for ridiculous songs that I hate, the whole year and a half. I couldn't wear ear plugs or headphones. (safety thing because there were forklifts going about constantly)

That, along with the heat of the factory and the welding slag burning me constantly was the reason I vowed to myself that my actual career path would involve computers, because they're always located in offices.

The effects were awful even when the music video was new. I remember watching it and thinking it was shit .. all of it.