Let Your Head Go

"Let Your Head Go" is a song recorded by English singer Victoria Beckham, intended for her unreleased second studio album. It was released as a double A-side with "This Groove" on 29 December 2003 by Telstar Records. In 2004, it was included on the video album The 'Réal' Beckhams, after her record company went bankrupt before it surfaced.

"Let Your Head Go"
Single by Victoria Beckham
from the album The 'Réal' Beckhams
A-side"This Groove"
Released29 December 2003
Recorded2002-2003
Genre
Length3:41
LabelTelstar
Songwriter(s)
  • Klas Baggstrom
  • Liz Winstanley
  • Roger Olsson
Producer(s)
  • Klas Baggstrom
  • Liz Winstanley
  • Roger Olsson
  • Mike Gray
  • Jon Pearn
Victoria Beckham singles chronology
"A Mind of Its Own"
(2002)		 "Let Your Head Go" / "This Groove"
(2003)
Music video
"Let Your Head Go" on YouTube

"Let Your Head Go" entered the UK Singles Chart at number three, the highest new entry for the week, and also tied with Emma Bunton's "Downtown" as the highest chart position for a solo Spice Girl since Geri Halliwell's "It's Raining Men" topped the chart in 2001. It became the 88th best selling UK single of 2004.

Background

In 2002, Beckham signed a contract with Telstar Records and 19 Management[1] worth £1.5 million. Beckham then began recording a pop-influenced album, Open Your Eyes, which yielded the single "Let Your Head Go", but she allegedly chose not to release it after being disappointed with the results.[2][3] Instead of pop, Beckham wanted a more urban sound and worked with urban producer Damon Dash to work on the R&B and hip hop influenced album Come Together.[1][4] A Dash-produced track "It's That Simple" featuring M.O.P. premiered on radio stations in July 2003,[4] generating mixed reviews.[4] Beckham's first single with Telstar, "Let Your Head Go"/"This Groove",[4] was released in the UK on 29 December 2003, following heavy promotion and many TV appearances across the Christmas period.[4] This double A-side lifted "Let Your Head Go" from Beckham's earlier pop-inspired work with "This Groove" one of her hip hop and R&B songs and remains Beckham's last single release to date. Outside of the UK, Damon Dash had plans for Beckham in the US, including a potential release of "Let Your Head Go / This Groove" under the name of "Posh Spice Victoria Beckham". The release was proposed for sometime between March to May 2004, but never eventuated.[5]

With the UK media describing her solo music career a failure, combined with a rumoured fall-out between Dash and Fuller, her hip hop album, Come Together, was not released.[6] She was dismissed from Telstar when the company became bankrupt, and gave up music to focus on her fashion career.[7]

Composition

"Let Your Head Go" is a dance-pop song.[8] The song's lyrics speak about letting oneself go in the form of dancing to music, or to feel free with music (to "let your head go" is to feel free).

Critical reception

Bradley Stern from MuuMuse called the track a "criminally underrated dance-pop tune".[9] Hollywood.com commented that "swansong “Let Your Head Go” restored a bit of dignity".[10]

Chart performance

Released on 29 December 2003, the single entered the UK Singles Chart at and peaked at number 3, charting for 8 weeks, despite weeks of intense publicity prior to its release. This was the highest new entry for the week. It became the UK's eighty-eighth best-selling single of 2004 with sales of 68,656 copies.[11] Like "Out of Your Mind", once again this track was released in the same week as a Sophie Ellis-Bextor track, the track this time being "I Won't Change You" from the aforementioned singer, which reached number 9.[12]

Music video

A music video was released in promotion of the song. The video features Beckham first tearing the clothes in her dressing room and appearing to go crazy, a reference to Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest. Beckham is then featured in two dream sequences, once as fragile in the wake of this "breakdown" and is being photographed heavily by paparazzi as she is escorted by psychologists, and once again in the same outfit being ignored by paparazzi, signaling that she is no longer relevant. She wakes from the nightmare and is seen attempting to grab from a box a cross with the letters OBE in neon lights. She is then seen having hair and makeup done and posing in the mirror (including her famous point gesture). She is seen on a throne, giving orders and watching dancers, as she plays with a crown. She walks between the dancers, sets the crown on the floor, walks back to the throne, and the abbreviation "VB" is seen, with her fingers making the letter V. Robert Compsey from Digital Spy noted that the video "proved she can laugh at herself".[8]

Track listings and formats

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Let Your Head Go".

Charts

All entries charted with "This Groove".

Credits

Published by Universal Music Publishing (UK) Ltd.; Universal Music Publishing (Sweden) Ltd. Additional production for Eye Industries. Engineered and all Additional Instruments at Sultra Studios, UK. Mastered at Masterpiece. Management byy 19 Management, A 19 Entertainment Production. 2003 19 Recordings Ltd. / Moody Productions Ltd. © 2003 19 Recordings Ltd. / Moody Productions Ltd. Marketed by Telstar Records Ltd. Distributed by BMG UK & Ireland Ltd through Bertelsmann Services (UK) Ltd. Made in the EU.[19]

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References
  1. "Beckham producer slights her talent". BBC News. 23 September 2003. Retrieved 19 December 2007.
  2. "Victoria Beckham's scrapped album leaked". Female First. 8 September 2006. Retrieved 18 December 2007.
  3. Regan, Susannah. "Beckham angry about album leak". Digital Spy. 8 September 2006. Retrieved 22 December 2007.
  4. "Beckham misses out on number one". BBC News. 4 January 2005. Retrieved 19 December 2007.
  5. "MTV News Round-Up 25 May 2004". MTV. 25 May 2004. Archived from the original on 10 December 2007. Retrieved 18 December 2007.
  6. "Beckham's Rapping Ridiculed". Contact Music. Retrieved 28 December 2007.
  7. Sherwin, Adam (26 July 2004). "Posh Spice has finally done something to improve pop music". The Times. London. Retrieved 28 December 2007.
  8. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/thesound/a516544/spice-girls-solo-singles-the-best-and-worst-listen.html#~pcrAMPKTK7eeby
  9. https://muumuse.com/2016/01/victoria-beckham-and-the-solo-album-that-never-was.html/
  10. http://www.hollywood.com/celebrities/worst-best-solo-spice-girls-careers-60232772/
  11. "UK best selling artists 2004". Top40-Charts.com. May 5, 2005. Archived from the original on May 24, 2011. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
  12. http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/official-charts-flashback-2004-victoria-beckham-let-your-head-goth__4693/
  13. "Hits of the World – Eurocharts" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 116 no. 3. 17 January 2004. p. 43. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  14. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – This Groove / Let Your Head Go". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  15. "Arhiva romanian top 100 – Editia 5, saptamina 2.02 – 8.02, 2004" (in Romanian). Romanian Top 100. Archived from the original on 20 February 2005. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  16. "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  17. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  18. "The Official UK Singles Chart 2004" (PDF). UKChartsPlus. p. 1. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  19. "Victoria Beckham - Let Your Head Go (CD) at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2012-06-24.
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