Young Folks

"Young Folks"
Single by Peter Bjorn and John from the album Writer's Block
B-side	"Ancient Curse"
Released	June 2006
Format	CD, 7" Vinyl
Genre	Indie Pop
Label	Wichita
Peter Bjorn and John singles chronology
"Young Folks" (2006) "Let's Call It Off" (2006)

"Young Folks" is the first single from Peter Bjorn and John's third album Writer's Block, released in 2006. The single features Victoria Bergsman of The Concretes as a guest vocalist.

The first song attracted notice on websites such as MySpace and YouTube, and was used in a number of commercials and television shows (see below). Only since mid-2007 has the song earned extensive airplay on American radio, most notably on dance radio outlets like KNHC/Seattle, KNGY/San Francisco and Sirius Satellite's The Beat.

The song was ranked #5 on Pitchfork Media's "Top 100 Tracks of 2006" list[1]. Pitchfork reviewed the song on 19 July 2006, giving it three out of five stars [2]. NME also named the song #2 in their Tracks of the Year 2006.

Planet Sound named this their #2 single of 2006, losing out to Liam Frost's "The Mourners of St. Paul's".

On Peter Bjorn and John's recent Australian tour, Victoria Bergsman's vocals were performed by Tracey-Anne Campbell of Camera Obscura. The group performed the song on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on 29 January 2007, and on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on 18 May 2007 (the latter with Tonight Show Band member Vicki Randle on bongos). On 29 September 2007, the band played "Young Folks", with Victoria Bergsman's vocals, on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross on BBC1.

The single was re-released on 17 September 2007, when it reached number 13 in the UK, beating the original chart position of number 33 in 2006.

Vinyl track listing

1. "Young Folks" feat. Victoria Bergsman
2. "Ancient Curse"

CD track listing

1. "Young Folks" feat. Victoria Bergsman
2. "Ancient Curse"
3. "All Those Expectations"

Use of "Young Folks"

"Young Folks" has been featured in:

• the Las Vegas episode "The Glass Is Always Cleaner"
• the Journeyman episode "Friendly Skies"
• the series premiere of Dirty Sexy Money
• the series premiere of Gossip Girl
• the series premiere of Big Shots
• the Grey's Anatomy episode "Let the Angels Commit"
• the How I Met Your Mother episode "Monday Night Football", which aired February 5, 2007
• the weather lady's entrance in "Le Grand Journal" on [[Canal+]]
• the Stromberg episode "Lulu"
• the video was played during MTV's 24 Hours of Human Giant
• the fashion show for Chanel's Spring/Summer 2007 ready-to-wear collection
• the fashion show for Banana Republic's Spring 2007 collection
• MTV Australia's Christmas Throwie campaign, which consisted of throwing 2000 glowing LEDs to light up Sydney buildings
• a commercial for AT&T
• an advertisement for Sky Movies recent re-launch
• an advertisement for Napster
• an advertisement for Belgium internet provider Telenet
• an advertisement for Portuguese mobile operator Optimus
• an advertisement for Budweiser
• an in-store advertisement for American Eagle Outfitters
• Australian advertisement for Californication
• Promotional material for the Great British Beer Festival^[1]
• A commercial for the CBS series, "The Big Bang Theory"
• Theme song for the Danmarks Radio (Denmark's national TV-station) series "Chris og Chokoladefabrikken"
• The video game FIFA 08
• "Cuestión de sexo", a spanish series on "Cuatro TV"
• an advertisement for french supermarkets Champion

Covers

• German singer Nena covered "Young Folks" together with Oliver Pocher and Stephan Remmler in German as "Ich Kann Nix Dafür" (German for "It's Not My Fault") for the movie Vollidiot.
• Japanese singer Shugo Tokumaru covered the song in 2006 for the Cokemachineglow fantasy covers podcast. It was released as a single in Japan and received considerable airplay.
• Kanye West has rapped over this beat for his latest mixtape, Can't Tell Me Nothing.
• James Blunt has covered this song, most notably at a concert in San Francisco.
• Dawn Landes has also covered this song.

References

External links

• NME Track of the Year 2006

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