Hide and Seek (Imogen Heap song)

"Hide and Seek" is a computer-assisted voice-only song written, produced, and performed by English singer Imogen Heap. The song was released in 2005 as the first single from her second album Speak for Yourself. The single was certified gold by the RIAA on 3 April 2009. Itself influenced by Paul Lansky's "Her Song",[1] the track was later sampled in Jason Derulo's "Whatcha Say", a song receiving international success.[2] As of 2009 the song has sold 647,000 copies in United States.[3]

"Hide and Seek"
Single by Imogen Heap
from the album Speak for Yourself
B-side"Cumulus"
Released19 May 2005
Recorded2005
GenreFolktronica, ambient
Length4:29 (album version)
3:01 (radio edit)
LabelMegaphonic
Songwriter(s)Imogen Heap
Producer(s)Imogen Heap
Imogen Heap singles chronology
"Aeroplane"
(2002)		 "Hide and Seek"
(2005)		 "Goodnight and Go"
(2006)

Heap's commentary

In a 2005 interview, Heap stated that the song's lyrics were ultimately about having painfully lost someone and how others react to things that happen to someone else.[4]

Composition

The original version is performed with a keyboard-controlled digital harmonizer (similar to a vocoder) generating distorted harmonies of Heap's voice, lending the song its memorable altered a cappella sound.[5]

Music video

The music video for the song was directed by Joel Peissing, featuring Heap singing against a gently flashing white backdrop. The video is presented in a heavily pillarboxed format.

Covers, remakes, and samples

Canadian guitarist Antoine Dufour recorded a solo guitar version of the song. It is featured on his album Convergences. British alternative rock band Fightstar covered the song as a B-Side to their single, "The English Way". This is performed mainly by lead singer Charlie Simpson on vocals and piano, and second vocalist Alex Westaway performing backing vocals. The Christian crunkcore band And Then There Were None has also covered the song. Additionally, English rock/folk artists The Dunwells recorded a guitar-only version of the song with three-part harmony featuring vocalists Joseph Dunwell, his brother David Dunwell, and the band's drummer, Jonny Lamb singing counterpoint.[6] It is featured on the band's 2012 EP Leaving of the Rose. British band Amber Run also recorded a cover of the song in 2012.[7]

Jason Derulo's 2009 single "Whatcha Say" prominently sampled Heap's song.[8] The single topped the Billboard Hot 100.[9]

The song is covered by Tim Waurick with Jordan Litz on his first album, TimTracks, released in 2010.[10]

Slushii did a cover of "Hide and Seek", saying there that he wanted to cover one of his favorite songs.[11]

In 2017, musician Jacob Collier published his version of the song to YouTube.[12]

On May 22, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tim Blais published a cover/parody titled "Quarantine."[13]

Other appearances in media

The song gained popularity after being featured as background music at the climax of the season two finale of the American television series The O.C., later parodied in a 2007 Saturday Night Live digital short called The Shooting. This later became a popular Internet meme, spawning many parody videos, with the music typically overlaid on dramatic scenes from television shows, video games, movies, and anime, mainly those involving a shocking or slow-motion death of a major character.

The song also appears in the films The Last Kiss, The Town, Warren Miller's Off the Grid and Three Steps Over Heaven. It has also been featured in the series So You Think You Can Dance, CSI: Miami, Smith, The L Word, The Real World: Sydney, Gossip Girl, Degrassi: The Next Generation, the German telenovela Anna und die Liebe, Nirvanna the Band the Show, the Norwegian television drama Skam and the Hulu mini-series Normal People.[14]

Track listings

CD single

  1. "Hide And Seek (Radio Edit)" – 3:02
  2. "Hide And Seek (Album Version)" – 4:29

Vinyl

  1. "Hide And Seek" – 4:29
  2. "Cumulus" – 3:34

Charts
Chart (2005–2008) Peak
position
Canada Digital Songs (Billboard)[15] 57
Italy (FIMI)[16] 8
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[17] 125
US Digital Song Sales (Billboard)[18] 37

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[19] Gold 500,000*

^shipments figures based on certification alone

Mixes

Release history
Region Date Label
United States 19 May 2005 RCA Victor
United Kingdom 26 September 2005 Megaphonic
gollark: Anyway, can we get the research forks to focus on specific areas?
gollark: It's fine, we're probably overthinking this a lot...
gollark: I expect quantum stuff would probably just be special-purpose hardware running specific tasks while coordinated by classical computers.
gollark: There is Shor's algorithm, which lets you factor primes much faster or something.
gollark: Come to think of it, we could probably put a lot of computing hardware into the solar power stuff, which presumably has a lot of power and some cooling.

References
  1. Roden, Al (May 2009). "Now Tip Your Hat". Q. Bauer Media Group.
  2. Heap, Imogen [@imogenheap] (30 September 2009). "Jason Derulo had my permission @mannieefreeshh. Love or hate me for it – Hide and Seek has a life of it's [sic] own. I love it's [sic] madcap journey x" (Tweet). Retrieved 18 January 2018 – via Twitter.
  3. Sutherland, Mark (20 June 2009). "Greatest Synchs". Billboard.
  4. barcodexl. "Imogen Heap Interview". Barcodezine.com. Archived from the original on 24 November 2005. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  5. Powers, Genevieve (1 January 2006). "Imogen Heap". Electronic Musician. Archived from the original on 14 September 2011. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  6. Alexis Beniash (27 February 2014). "The Dunwells – "Hide and Seek" – The Rock Boat XIV" – via YouTube.
  7. Amber Run Official (17 December 2012). "Amber Run – Hide & Seek (Imogen Heap Cover)" – via YouTube.
  8. "Jason Derulo's Whatcha Say sample of Imogen Heap's Hide and Seek". WhoSampled. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
  9. "Billboard Hot 100 – Week of October 31, 20092".
  10. "TimTracks – Albums". www.timtracks.com.
  11. Slushii (13 February 2018), Imogen Heap – Hide And Seek (Slushii Cover)
  12. "Hide and Seek - Jacob Collier (Live from House)". Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  13. "Quarantine by A Capella Science". Bandcamp. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  14. McHenry, Jackson (1 May 2020). "How Normal People Chose 13 Key Songs for Marianne and Connell". vulture.com. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  15. "Imogen Heap Chart History (Canada Digital)". Billboard. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  16. "Imogen Heap – FIMI" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  17. "H & Claire – Hysterix". The Official Charts Company. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  18. "Imogen Heap Chart History (Digital Song Sales)". Billboard. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  19. "American single certifications – Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 11 January 2016. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Single, then click SEARCH. 
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