A Swedish classic is reborn at the discotheque!
When Jonas Oakland first informed us of his intentions to record a cover version of Ankie Bagger’s definitive 80’s hit, ‘Where Were You Last Night’, we think we might have squealed. A guy who knows how to serve dance orientated pop, taking on one of our favourite Swedish pop songs of yesteryear. Of course it all could have gone horribly wrong. And taking on such a classic that’s beloved by so many is always going to be a huge risk. Eeeek! We had faith in him though – he’s got him some good taste, that chap.
The result is a shocker (in a good way!). He’s not just done a standard cover, he’s given it a complete makeover for a night out on 2011’s dance floors. Rather than easing it gently into its first trip to clubland in over 20 years, he’s decked it out in Nicole Miller, loaded it up on Patron Tequila, and taken it straight to a 2am warehouse club where the boys don’t wear tops and the girls just drink shots.
It’s still got an obvious parallel to the original. That great melody is instantly recognisable, and the passive aggressive frustration in the delivery of the lyrics (scribed by a one Alexander Bard, no less!) is all present and correct in his version too. So it’s a true and faithful cover. The update is really stun-city in the production. A dark electro house reimagining of the sounds being played in the club that Ankie’s ex frequented all night long, while she waited at home by the phone. We can imagine that in Jonas Oakland’s version of the track, the beats that caused his lover to stay out all night without him are those same beats that he’s forced to befriend in order to sing about it. Deep and dark!
‘Where Were You Last Night’ is released worldwide on iTunes and Spotify next Monday, November 28th. But Jonas is allowing scandipop.co.uk to stream a short clip of the track, to give people an idea of what it’s gonna sound like.
Here we are!
[audio:https://www.scandipop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Where-Were-You-Last-Night_snippet.mp3|titles=Where Were You Last Night_snippet]The full thing gets its premiere on Monday. And a video for the single will follow soon afterwards.
