Common People

For the social division, see Commoner.
Not to be confused with Love of the Common People.

"Common People"
Single by Pulp
from the album Different Class
B-side"Underwear"
Released22 May 1995 (1995-05-22)
StudioThe Town House, London
Genre
Length5:50
LabelIsland
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Chris Thomas
Pulp singles chronology
"The Sisters EP"
(1994) 		"Common People"
(1995) 		"Mis-Shapes" / "Sorted for E's & Wizz"
(1995)
Music video
"Common People" on YouTube

"Common People" is a song by English alternative rock band Pulp, released in May 1995 by Island Records as the lead single from their fifth studio album, Different Class (1995). It reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming a defining track of the Britpop movement as well as Pulp's signature song.[2] In 2014, BBC Radio 6 Music listeners voted it their favourite Britpop song in an online poll.[3] In a 2015 Rolling Stone readers' poll it was voted the greatest Britpop song.[4]

The song is a critique of the wealthy wanting to be "like common people" – ascribing glamour to poverty.[5] This phenomenon is referred to as slumming or "class tourism".[5] The song was written by the band members Jarvis Cocker, Nick Banks, Candida Doyle, Steve Mackey and Russell Senior. Cocker had conceived the song after meeting a Greek art student while studying at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London (the college and the student feature in the lyrics). He came up with the tune on a Casiotone keyboard he had bought in a music store in Notting Hill, west London.

Justin Myers of the Official Charts Company wrote the song "was typical Pulp – a biting satire of posh people 'roughing it' and acting like tourists by hanging with the "common people". Jarvis delivered his scathing putdown with glee, in an iconic music video, directed by Pedro Romhanyi,[6] featuring actress Sadie Frost as the posh woman on the receiving end of Jarvis' acid tongue."[2] Pulp first performed the song in public during the band's set at the Reading Festival in August 1994. A year later, they performed it at Glastonbury Festival as the headline act. The song has since been covered by various artists. In 2004, a Ben Folds-produced cover version by William Shatner brought "Common People" to new audiences outside Europe.

  1. ^ Petridis, Alexis (17 November 2022). "The 70 greatest No 2 singles – ranked!". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 February 2023.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Official Charts was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference BBC poll was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference RollingStone poll was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b "Pulp's Common People — railing against class tourism". Financial Times. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  6. ^ "Pedro Romhanyi". IMVDb. Retrieved 15 March 2024.