FEATURE:
Groovelines
Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Murder on the Dancefloor
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I have covered before…
Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s 2001 album, Read My Lips. Its biggest single is Murder on the Dancefloor. Released on 3rd December, 2001, it is funny to think that it could have been a Christmas chart-topper! In the twenty or so years since Ellis-Bextor’s smash hit was released, she has gone on to release other great albums and achieve a great deal. This weas pretty early into her solo career. Read My Lips was her debut album, and it arrived a year after Spiller’s Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love). That vocal and co-write from Ellis-Bextor sort of introduced her to the wider world. Murder on the Dancefloor was her first real solo single success. It is a song that is still played widely. I have been thinking a lot about the great Dance and Pop single from the late-1990s and early-2000s. I am keen to feature Daft Punk’s Around the World, Modjo’s Lady (Hear Me Tonight), and Stardust’s Music Sounds Better with You down the line. The song was written by Gregg Alexander and Sophie Ellis-Bextor; produced by Alexander and Matt Rowe. An instantly appealing and catchy track, it peaked at number two on the U.K. single chart, remaining on the chart for twenty-three weeks.
I will continue with Murder on the Dance Floor soon. It is interesting thinking about Sophie Ellis-Bextor then. Now, she is part of the music landscape and we are very familiar with her work. When Murder on the Dance Floor was released in December 2001, she was a new artist making her first steps. I have looked at some of the interviews from the time. Rather than this being a diversion, I feel it gives context and background to the time when one of the biggest hits from that time was unveiled. Deborah Ross interviewed Ellis-Bextor for The Independent when Murder on the Dancefloor was released:
“Oh, dear. I'm not, I admit, best equipped to meet Sophie Ellis-Bextor, the newest "pop diva" and "chart sensation". In our house, we're either too old for pop (I've lately taken to favouring trousers with elasticised waists and listening to Radio 2), or too young. ("Who is Eileen Minogue?" my nine-year-old son asked recently.) So I put on Sophie's debut album, Read My Lips, which includes her latest single, "Murder On The Dance Floor", expecting little more than having to suffer it for whatever cruel length of time it takes me away from Abba and Jimmy Young, but – and here's a thing – I like it! I listen to it twice straight off, and then again later. It has proper tunes and proper lyrics, and her voice! She has a dazzlingly distinctive singing voice. Now, I'm not saying that I'm going to ditch the elasticised trousers. They're jolly comfy. They're good for eating in. But it's a start, no?
We meet at a London hotel. She is 22, and divinely and unusually beautiful. Sort of Audrey Hepburn-ish via the oriental angularity of, say, Vanessa Mae, and maybe a clean, shiny, newly minted 50p piece. She has a lot of edges going on, and was even called "rhombus-face" at school. (Private school, where the pupils presumably knew what a rhombus was.) Quite a lot has been made of the fact she's very middle-class, plus the daughter of the former Blue Peter presenter, Janet Ellis. Sophie, though, only went on the show twice. "Once to model a snood, and another time to model a dress made out of dustbin liners, with little yellow bows on it." Obviously, she's a lot more sartorially cool now.
She lives in Swiss Cottage, north London, with her DJ boyfriend Andy Bond. Do you ever hide your purchases from him? "No. He understands I like clothes. I do knock a tenner off the price sometimes, though." Sophie, look me in the eye. Just a tenner? "Ehem... and sometimes a bit more than a tenner."
At 17, while doing her A-levels, she became lead vocalist with an indie band, theaudience, who were critically successful but never commercially so. Still, Sophie had a good time trying to blag freebies from top designers. "I pretended to be my own manager, called myself Anna, and would phone them up saying: 'Would you like to send some things for Sophie?'" Estée Lauder was the best. Estée Lauder sent her a load of creams. "So I phoned them back, as Sophie, to thank them, and do you know what they said?" You sound like Anna? "No, they said that it's the first time a singer has ever phoned personally to say thank you."
Sophie still uses Estée Lauder, "particularly the cleanser". Sophie has beautiful skin. It's like porcelain. I wish I had skin like Sophie's. I wish I, Deborah Ross, who has flatteringly mentioned Estée Lauder quite a lot in this article, could be sent a load of free Estée Lauder stuff. Perhaps I'll get my manager to ring them tomorrow. Spookily, she sounds quite a lot like me.
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Anyway, when theaudience folded, as it did, Sophie was left at something of a loose end. But then the cult Italian DJ Spiller put together a disco-ish, instrumental track that he sent to Sophie, asking if she'd do the vocals. She played it and disliked it. Then she played it again and again and it grew on her. Finally, she and Spiller produced "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)", which became the dancefloor anthem of Summer 2000, and a number one. Yes, it was Posh vs Bex, and Bex won. What was your mum's reaction when she heard you were number one? "She cried." And yours? "I felt a bit sick."
I wonder if Sophie feels like a pop star now? "I didn't last year. But I do a bit more this year, although it's all rather tongue-in-cheek." Have you, Sophie, started acting like a pop star yet? Have you started demanding white muslin in your dressing-room and an obscure make of mineral water? "I haven't, but I am getting more confident. I do have the confidence to say 'no' to things now." She said 'no' when she was asked to tour with Robbie Williams. She just didn't fancy it. He, though, didn't take the rejection too well, and later described her face as looking like "a satellite dish". This, it must be said, is not only unkind, but also untrue. Obviously, Robbie didn't go to a private school and doesn't know what a rhombus is. Still, let's not get into all that. Or, as Sophie sensibly says: "I'm not going to say anything about it".
I think that Murder on the Dance Floor is one of the best single of the past twenty-five years. It is instantly catchy; a track that can unite young and older listeners. Play it fresh now and it still stands up and resonates! One of the big strengths of the song is its video. Directed by the legendary Sophie Muller, it revolves around a dance competition. The winner's prize consists of a pair of golden high-heel shoes and a big cash prize. Eager and optimistic of victor, Ellis-Bextor casually and covertly takes out the other competitors with some sneaky injuries and underhand tactics! With various methods of distraction, destruction and disqualification, she whittles down the competition. Pumped up and now with a reduced field, she turns her attention to the trio of judges. By deploying some chloroform, she takes out the only female judge on the panel. This means that she can use her femininity and beauty to wow and woo the male judges. Ellis-Bextor approaches a judge when he is alone at the judging table and seduces him. In awe and smitten, the lead judge succeeds in persuading the remaining judge to have Ellis-Bextor named the winner (this is much to her fellow dancers' chagrin and disapproval). It is a brilliant video perfectly acted by Ellis-Bextor; superb director from Sophie Muller. Murder on the Dance Floor is one of those songs where the video perfectly matches the lyrics and brings out new layers and nuances. Listening in 2022, I can still hear Murder on the Dance Floor and be moved by it. It has not aged or deteriorated like a lot of songs from 2001. Testament to the great writing and production, together with Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s vocal performance, that has turned Murder on the Dance Floor into a classic. If you need some energy and uplift, then put the song on loud and give it…
A proper spin.