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Killer (atb)

"Killer"
Adamskikiller.jpg
Single by Adamski
from the album Doctor Adamski's Musical Pharmacy
B-side
  • "Bassline Changed My Life"
  • "I Dream of You"
Released 21 March 1990
Format
Recorded 1989–90
Genre
Length 4:10
Label MCA
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) Adamski
Adamski singles chronology
"N-R-G"
(1990)
"Killer"
(1990)
"The Space Jungle"
(1990)
"N-R-G"
(1990)
"Killer"
(1990)
"The Space Jungle"
(1990)
Seal singles chronology
"Killer"
(1990) Killer1990
"Killer"
Seal-killer-1991.jpg
1991 7" UK single
Single by Seal
from the album Seal
B-side
  • "Hey Joe" (live)
  • "Come See What Love Has Done" (live)
Released 4 November 1991
Format
Recorded 1991
Length
  • 4:17 (radio version)
  • 6:33 (single version)
  • 6:21 (album version)
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) Trevor Horn
Seal singles chronology
"The Beginning"
(1991)
"Killer"
(1991)
"Violet"
(1992)
"The Beginning"
(1991)
"Killer"
(1991)
"Violet"
(1992)

"Walk On By"
(2004) Walk On By2004

"Killer 2005"
(2005) Killer 20052005

"A Father's Way"
(2006) A Father's Way2006
"Killer" / "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone"
George Michael Killer.jpg
Single by George Michael
from the album Five Live
Released 10 April 1993
Format
Recorded
Genre Acid house
Length 5:58 (full), 4:15 (single)
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) George Michael
George Michael singles chronology
"Somebody to Love"
(1993)
"Killer" / "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone"
(1993)
"Jesus to a Child"
(1995)
"Somebody to Love"
(1993)
"Killer" / "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone"
(1993)
"Jesus to a Child"
(1995)
"Killer"
Atb Killer.jpg
Single by ATB
from the album Movin' Melodies
Released 31 May 1999 (1999-05-31)
Format
Genre
Length 4:01
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
ATB singles chronology
"Don't Stop!"
(1999)
"Killer"
(1999)
"The Summer"
(2000)
"Don't Stop!"
(1999)
"Killer"
(1999)
"The Summer"
(2000)

"Killer" is a song by British acid house producer Adamski. Written by Adamski and Seal and produced by Adamski, "Killer" was Adamski's breakthrough single, but is now more notable for featuring Seal as a vocalist. A major hit in the UK, it reached number one, spending four weeks at the top of the chart in May and June 1990. In total, the single sold over 400,000 copies in the UK, earning it a BPI Gold certification.

Journalist Dave Simpson conducted a pair of interviews for The Guardian in 2013 with Seal and Adamski, concerning the origins of Killer. Adamski recounted that Seal had seen him perform in 1989 at an illegal rave called 'Sunrise 5000' at the Santa Pod Raceway. Seal had afterwards handed a demo tape to Adamski's MC, Daddy Chester, with which both were impressed. Seal had previously been singing in blues bands but a year spent travelling in Asia had recently changed his view of life and he had since become involved in the rave scene.

Adamski and Seal later happened to meet on New Year's Eve 1989 at a club named Solaris in London, and Seal was invited to work on one of a number of pieces that Adamski was performing at that time. Adamski had an instrumental track he called The Killer because he felt that it sounded 'like the soundtrack to a movie murder scene'. According to Adamski, Seal's vocals were recorded against this track on 27 January 1990: coincidentally the same day that 10,000 people gathered in Trafalgar Square (not far from the studio where they were working) for the 'Freedom to Party' demonstration against a government crackdown on rave culture, which Adamski himself attended. The track featured only two instruments - keyboard and a Roland TR-909 drum machine - and occupied only eight tracks of a 48-track mixing console.

In the Simpson interviews, both Adamski and Seal recalled that they were in financial trouble at the time of recording. Seal was almost penniless and was living in a squat. Although Adamski had his own following as a DJ and was enjoying success with his previous single N-R-G, he was on a government scheme which paid his rent and allowed him £40 a week. Both Adamski and Seal were struck by the popularity of Killer following its release on 21 March 1990. The song went to the top of the UK charts, reached the top ten in many European countries, and sold strongly across the world. Adamski recounted his surprise at people singing the memorable bassline to him in the street and, in particular, at hearing the track played at a wedding in a hotel at which he stayed following a performance in Cambridge. Seal told Simpson, 'within a week, I went from being a relative nobody – this weird guy at raves, with silver bits in my hair – to a household name.'


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Wikipedia

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