Special (Garbage song)

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"Special"
Standard artwork for European commercial release
Single by Garbage
from the album Version 2.0
B-side"13 x Forever"
Released5 October 1998
RecordedMarch 1997 – February 1998
StudioSmart (Madison, Wisconsin)
Genre
Length3:44
Mushroom
Songwriter(s)Garbage
Producer(s)Garbage
Garbage singles chronology
"I Think I'm Paranoid"
(1998) 		"Special"
(1998) 		"When I Grow Up"
(1999)
Music video
"Special" on
YouTube

"Special" is song by American rock band Garbage from their second studio album, Version 2.0 (1998). It was released as the album's third single. The track contains a vocal interpolation of a lyric taken from "Talk of the Town" by the Pretenders.

Commercially, "Special" reached number 15 in the United Kingdom, number 52 on the US

MTV Video Music Award, and a VH1 Visionary Video award.[5]

In 2007, "Special" was

greatest hits album Absolute Garbage.[6]

Composition and recording

Garbage began writing their second album, which would go under the working title of Sad Alcoholic Clowns, in March 1997 in the band's label-head Jerry Moss's Friday Harbor, Washington, vacation house. The group demoed and made rough outlines for new songs, of which "Special" was one. When they felt they had made a good start, Garbage took the work they made in Washington back to their Madison, Wisconsin, base at Smart Studios and begin fleshing out the ideas and rough sketches over the following year.[7]

Garbage intended their second album to build upon the framework, music style and musical template laid down by

hard drives utilizing a 24bit Pro Tools
rig.

Garbage employed touring bassist Daniel Shulman to perform electric bass on "Special", which he performed using a Fender Precision Bass run through an Ampeg SVT and then treated with "severe" equalization to achieve a Paul McCartney-esque Höfner sound to the part.[9] The guitar solo intro (which returns at the end of both choruses) was performed on a 12-string Rickenbacker guitar.[9] At the end of the first chorus, Garbage recorded a multi-tracked harmony vocal from Manson ("I can't think of any latter-day bands where a female is singing those sort of stacked '60's style vocals").[10]

After the initial riff, at the beginning of each verse line, the pronounced word "I" was sung as a sample from the Beatles' "All I've Got to Do" song.[11]

While experimenting with various phrasing over the

royalties); Manson felt that she should send Hynde a copy of the song just to be sure, but before she could do so, Hynde sent a fax to Smart Studios giving her written consent. Manson was reluctant to let people think that "Special" was simply a paean to Hynde; her lyrics concerned a friendship Manson had moved on from after her friend had let her down. Manson: "Ultimately it's about those feelings of betrayal you have for people when you set your sights too high and expect too much and how that can lead to disappointment in the end."[12]

Release and promotion

Garbage debuted "Special" live on May 15, 1998, at a concert at Ryan's Ballroom in Combined Locks, Wisconsin, which was the first date of the Version 2.0 World Tour.[13]

In advance of the UK release, Garbage promoted "Special" in early September 1998 with a live performance of the song on

XFM and B-listed at Virgin, and also made the playlists of 52 regional radio stations.[14]

"Special" was released by

3-inch CD single format in blister pack packaging, featuring both B-sides and the Brothers in Rhythm remix of "Special". The 3-inch CD format was deleted after one week on sale.[15] Top of the Pops
broadcast the band's earlier pre-record of "Special" to mark its chart position.

Across Europe,

White Label Records as part of a recent merger of Festival Records and Mushroom Records, released "Special" on a single CD maxi format collecting together the five tracks from the commercial UK release on October 26.[15] "Special" peaked at number 54 on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart, and spent six weeks in the top 100.[18]

Unlike Garbage's previous single, "I Think I'm Paranoid", the release of "Special" throughout Europe occurred when Garbage were not performing locally, the band having launched the three-month-long North American fall leg of their

Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart dated January 9, 1999, at number 44.[23]

On January 4, 1999, "Special" was serviced to

41st Grammy Awards on January 6; Version 2.0 was nominated for both Album of the Year and Best Rock Album.[26] On January 26, "Special" was declared "#1 Most Added" track at Top 40 radio with 53 adds, beating out Whitney Houston's "It's Not Right but It's Okay".[19] "Special" peaked at number 11 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart on January 30, 1999, in its 14th week on the chart.[27][28]

Garbage returned from a sold-out European arena tour (where during a gap in dates they performed both "Special" and "The Trick Is to Keep Breathing" acoustically on French television show Nulle Part Ailleurs) to spend two months supporting Alanis Morissette on her North American Junkie Tour from February 16 in Cincinnati, Ohio.[29]

On March 6, "Special" peaked at number 10 on its ninth week on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart,

The Late Late Show
, and return to The Tonight Show to perform "Special" for a second time on April 2.

"Special" continued to ride high in the mainstream charts throughout May 1999; peaking at number 16 on the Hot Adult Top 40 issue dated May 8 (in its tenth week on that chart);

Top 40 Mainstream chart.[35] "Special" peaked at number 22 on the Top 40 Tracks chart seven days later.[36] During the week of May 22, "Special" reached its peak position on both the Hot 100 (at number 52, in its ninth week of 13)[37][38] and on the Hot 100 Airplay chart (at number 42, and in its eighth week of 10).[39]

Music video

In the year 3030, Queen Astarte has taken to the skies to defend her once peaceful homeland from the evil lords of Garbania who seek to rule the universe. She has but one last chance to thwart their wicked plan...

"Special" music video opening crawl

The music video for "Special" was filmed over a four-day shoot in London by director Dawn Shadforth for Black Dog/RSA Films. Shadforth came to Garbage's attention when they viewed her clip for "Beat Goes On" by electronica group All Seeing I.[40] Her innovative storyboard treatment for "Special" highly impressed the band, as her concept was not an obvious idea for a song like "Special".[40]

In her concept for "Special", Shadforth featured the members of Garbage in a

sci-fi art; while each filmed their parts in a cabin set built upon a gimbal to give realism to the shots.[41] Stylist William Baker, who worked on the video, said, "Dawn wanted to present Shirley Manson as a space-age fighter pilot, with shots showing her sexily manipulating the controls of her craft." (Shadforth later used techniques she used on the "Special" video in her 2001 music video for Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out of My Head".)[42]
The video ends with the phrase, highly ominous in context of its story line, "To be continued..." However, Shadforth, as of early July 2016, had formed no known plans for any follow-up videos.

Design and Art Direction award for Best Direction in Pop Promo Video and was nominated for a CAD (Creative and Design) Award for Best Special Effects (to Paul Simpson, Stuart Gordon, and Sean Broughton).[5]

The "Special" music video began airing across Europe in mid-September 1998 and premiered on North American music stations on December 6, 1998.[47] A remastered version of the full-length video was included on Garbage's 2007 greatest hits DVD Absolute Garbage,[6] and the original shorter edit made available as a digital download via online music services later the same year.[48] The full length video was made available to North American online music stores in 2010.[49]

Track listings

Credits and personnel

Charts

Chart (1998–1999) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[18][50] 54
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[51] 42
Canada Rock/Alternative (RPM)[52] 24
Europe (European Hot 100 Singles)[53] 70
Iceland (Íslenski Listinn Topp 40)[54] 5
Scotland (OCC)[55] 8
Spain (AFYVE)[56] 25
UK Singles (OCC)[17]
 15
UK Indie (OCC)[57] 2
US Billboard Hot 100[38] 52
US Adult Top 40 (Billboard)[34] 16
US Alternative Airplay (Billboard)[28] 11
US Dance Club Songs (Billboard)[31] 10
US
Mainstream Top 40 (Billboard)[35]
 18
US Top 40 Tracks (Billboard)[36] 22

Release history

Region Date Format Label
United Kingdom September 21, 1998 Airplay
Promotional discs and 12-inch remix packs
Mushroom
October 5, 1998
Europe
  • CD single
  • CD maxi single
 BMG
United Kingdom October 12, 1998
3-inch CD single
 Mushroom
United States Modern rock radio Almo Sounds
Australia October 28, 1998 CD maxi single Mushroom
United States January 25, 1999 Contemporary hit radio Almo Sounds

References

  1. ^ Hogwood, Ben (July 23, 2007). "Garbage – Absolute Garbage – Greatest Hits". musicOMH. Retrieved October 21, 2014. strong supporting cast of the power pop trio Push It, Special and When I Grow Up
  2. ^ "42nd Annual Grammy Awards nominations". dIGITALhIT. Retrieved February 19, 2009.
  3. ^ "Garbage". RockontheNet.com. Retrieved September 20, 2006.
  4. ^ "Rob Thomas, Eagle-Eye Cherry Receive BMI Awards". MTV News.
  5. ^ a b "Realise Studio: Awards". RealiseStudio.com.
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  7. ^ "Garbage Experiment With New Sounds For Next Album". Addicted to Noise. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved November 24, 2010 – via Garbage.net.
  8. ISSN 0006-2510 – via Google Books
    .
  9. ^
    ISSN 0733-5253
    .
  10. ^ Murphy, Peter S. (May 13, 1998). "Modern Life is Rubbish". Hot Press. Archived from the original on December 8, 2000. Retrieved July 20, 2011 – via Garbage.net.
  11. ISSN 0035-791X
    .
  12. ISSN 0025-9012
    .
  13. ^ a b c d "Garbage 1998 setlists". Garbagebase.com. Archived from the original on June 24, 2011. Retrieved November 24, 2010.
  14. ^ a b Beautiful Garbage promotional history press release.
  15. ^ a b c d e ""Special" release discography". The Garbage Discography site. Retrieved November 24, 2010.
  16. ^ Kaufman, Gil (August 7, 1998). "Garbage Record Acoustic B-Side For Next Single". MTV News. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  17. ^ a b "Garbage: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  18. ^ a b Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.
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  25. ^ Hits magazine ("Special" trade ad).
  26. ^ Harris, Beth (January 6, 1999). "Women rule Grammy nominations". Reading Eagle – via Google News.
  27. ISSN 0006-2510
    – via Google Books.
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    – via Google Books.
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  32. ISSN 0006-2510
    – via Google Books.
  33. ISSN 0006-2510
    – via Google Books.
  34. ^ a b "Garbage Chart History (Adult Pop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  35. ^ a b "Garbage Chart History (Pop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
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    – via Google Books.
  40. ^
    ISSN 1533-4732. Archived from the original
    on February 12, 2001.
  41. ^ "Mirrorball; Dawn Shadforth (part 2 of 3)". Blackwatch Production / Channel 4. Archived from the original on January 22, 2011. Retrieved July 21, 2011. Alt URL
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  46. ^ "VH1/Vogue dole out fashion awards". CNN. December 6, 1999. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
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  49. ^ "Special by Garbage". iTunes Store. United States. Retrieved July 21, 2011.
  50. The ARIA Report – via Imgur
    .
  51. ^ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 8161." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  52. ^ "Top RPM Rock/Alternative Tracks: Issue 7036." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  53. OCLC 29800226
    – via World Radio History.
  54. ISSN 1021-8254 – via Timarit.is
    .
  55. ^ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  56. ISBN 84-8048-639-2
    .
  57. ^ "Official Independent Singles Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 7, 2018.

External links

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