Annoying Songs & Covers #17

“Blue (Da Ba Dee)”

Eiffel 65 is an Italian Eurodance group that formed in 1997 in the studios of the Turin based record company, Bliss Corporation. The group consists of Jeffrey Jey (Gianfranco Randone), Maurizio Labina, and Gabry Ponte, and producer Massimo Gabutti. “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” was the lead hit single from their debut studio album, Europop (1998). A second single from this album, “Move Your Body,” was also a hit. Their two follow up albums, Contact! (2001), and the self-titled Eiffel 65 (2003) did not quite have the international success of the first album but did well in Italy.

“Blue (Da Ba Dee)” was apparently inspired by a piano hook composed by Labina, and written by Randone, Labina, and Gabutti, with Ponte working on the beats and the final arrangement. It is, by leaps and bounds, the groups most popular single and among the biggest selling songs of 1999. Just to put that into perspective, other “top” songs from that year: Cher’s “Believe,” “Heartbreak Hotel” (Whitney Houston), and Christine Aguilera’s, “Genie in a Bottle.” The song reached number one in at least 18 countries! It went on to receive a Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance Recording at the 2001 Grammy Awards. The fact that it lost to “Who Let the Dogs Out” by Baha Men, tells you probably more than you need to know about what was going on 24 years ago. I promise that I will not include it as a bonus, which would be appropriate, since Randy and I started this series after that song was mentioned in a comments exchange a year and a half ago!

Back to the song. The color blue for the song was picked randomly, and the song’s lyrics tell a story about a man who lives in a “blue world.” It says that the man is “blue inside and outside” which, alongside the lyric “himself and everybody and everybody around ‘cause he ain’t got nobody to listen,” and “blue are the feelings that live inside me,” may indicate that the term blue represents his emotional state.” Ya think? But wait, it also might refer to the fact that many of this sad man’s possessions are blue, including his house and car (“a blue Corvette”).

You should probably know that I knew absolutely none of this from when I, unfortunately, heard the song for the first time way back when. As a rule, I am not very fond of “top ten” lists and their ilk, but if I was going to indulge in that subjective pursuit, this song would be right up there near the top, perhaps jostling for position with “Who Let the Dogs Out.” It is one of those songs that is so annoying that it stays with you when you truly wish it wouldn’t, kind of like a terrible itch in a place you can’t reach. Not that I want to sway your opinion of the song, just in case you have never heard it. And if you haven’t, I apologize in advance!

One would think that a song this annoying would not have a great deal of covers. Well, let me be the first to tell you that you would be wrong. In fact, I found no less than three metal covers! However, for your listening pleasure, I have chosen an Electroswing cover by Robyn Adele (Anderson), with backup vocals and harmony provided by Vanessa Dunleavy and Sarah Krauss, accompanied by electric piano, drums, double bass, and trumpet. I have featured Anderson previously, both as a solo artist and some of her performances with Post Modern Jukebox. I would like to tell you that she “rescues” the song, but that is not the case. I suppose you could say that they are “camping” it up, which is fine, but you still have to listen to it. There is nothing one can do about lyrics that put the capital “E” in Earworm.

Enjoy…or more appropriately, tolerate!

Eiffel 65. “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” 1998.

Robyn Adele with Vanessa Dunleavy and Sarah Krauss. “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” cover, 2019.

Come on, you knew it was coming! I have never laughed so hard watching a YouTube video, so here is Gothic Metal doing a Gothic Metal cover of “Blue,” featuring Violet Orlandi. 2021.

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