More Than This (Roxy Music song)

"More Than This" is a 1982 single by English rock band Roxy Music. It was released as the first single from their final album, Avalon, and was the group's last Top 10 UK hit (peaking at #6). Although it only reached #102 (on Billboard's Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart) in the United States, it remains one of Roxy Music's best-known songs in America.

"More Than This"
Single by Roxy Music
from the album Avalon
B-side"India"
ReleasedApril 1982 (1982-04)[1]
Recorded1981–1982 (1981–1982)
Genre
Length4:30 (Album version)
4:10 (7" single version)
LabelPolydor/Warner Bros./E.G./Atco
Songwriter(s)Bryan Ferry
Producer(s)Rhett Davies, Roxy Music
Roxy Music singles chronology
"Jealous Guy"
(1981)		 "More Than This"
(1982)		 "Avalon"
(1982)

The American alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs released a successful cover version in 1997 which peaked at #25, and British singer Emmie released a dance cover version which reached #5 in the UK in January 1999.

The cover of the single's release is the painting Veronica Veronese, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, which was completed in 1872 with Alexa Wilding as the model.

Composition

The song was written by the lead singer Bryan Ferry, who has stated in interviews that he began writing the songs for Avalon while on the western coast of Ireland, which he believes contributed to the dark melancholy of the album.

"More than This" is somewhat unusual for a pop song in that Ferry's lead vocals end at 2:45 minutes, leaving the last 1:45 minutes as a synthesizer-driven instrumental outro.

Charts
Chart (1982) Peak
position
Australian Kent Music Report[3] 6
Belgium VRT Top 30[4] 13
Dutch Top 40[4] 24
German Media Control Singles Chart[4] 24
Irish Singles Chart[5] 6
New Zealand Singles Chart[4] 12
Norwegian Singles Chart[4] 2
Radio Luxemburg Singles[6] 3
Spanish Singles Chart 10
Swedish Singles Chart[4] 17
Swiss Singles Chart[4] 6
UK Singles Chart[7] 6

Personnel

Cover versions
  • Bill Murray performed the song in the film Lost in Translation, directed by Sofia Coppola. Murray sings in a scene where his character is at a karaoke party. His performance is included as a hidden track after a period of silence at the end of the soundtrack album.
  • The song is played in the movie Matchstick Men when Roy Waller, Nicolas Cage and his teenage daughter Angela (Alison Lohman) are in a bowling alley together.
  • The song is featured in Community, season 5 episode 6, “Analysis of Cork-Based Networking”
  • The song is featured in The Americans season 5 episode 4, "What's the matter with Kansas?"
  • The song is featured on the soundtrack to the 2018 movie "The Book Club".
  • The song is featured in the 2002 Rockstar video game Grand Theft Auto Vice City, as a playable song in the in-game radio.
  • Emmie's 1999 version featured in Dancing Stage Euromix.
gollark: ?choose "make esolang" "make esolang"
gollark: Well, I suppose you'll just have to work fast before anyone else is likely to be using it.
gollark: So you can probably use that.
gollark: ?random 0 1
gollark: ABR has no ++choose command.

References
  1. Strong, Martin C. (2006). The Essential Rock Discography. Edinburgh: Canongate Books. p. 931. ISBN 1-84195-860-3.
  2. Peake, Steve. "Top Soft Rock Songs of the 1980s". LiveAbout.
  3. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  4. Hung, Steffen. "Roxy Music - More Than This". swisscharts.com. Retrieved 2013-02-21.
  5. "The Irish Charts - All there is to know". Irishcharts.ie. Archived from the original on 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2016-11-05.
  6. "Ultimate Music Database". Umdmusic.com. Retrieved 2016-11-05.
  7. "The Official Charts Company - More Than This by Roxy Music Search". The Official Charts Company. 6 May 2013.
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