"Richard III" | ||||
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Single by Supergrass | ||||
from the album In It for the Money | ||||
B-side |
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Released | 31 March 1997 | |||
Studio | Sawmills (Golant, UK) | |||
Genre | Rock[1] | |||
Length | 3:13 | |||
Label | Parlophone | |||
Songwriter(s) |
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Producer(s) |
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Supergrass singles chronology | ||||
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Alternative cover | ||||
"Richard III" is a song by English rock band Supergrass. It was the second single released from the band's second album, In It for the Money (1997), after "Going Out", which was released over a year before. "Richard III" was released in March 1997 and reached number two on the UK Singles Chart on 6 April, their highest placing since "Alright" / "Time" in 1995, which also peaked at number two. The song also reached number 21 in Iceland and number 30 in Ireland.
The song's name comes from the band's method of creating working titles for songs—giving them people's names. This was the third called "Richard" and the band liked the reference to the king Richard III and the Shakespeare play Richard III in which the king is depicted as a dark and evil character, as it matched the menacing tone of the song.[2] Neither the king nor the play is mentioned in the song. Both the 2nd CD (of the CD release format) and the 7-inch vinyl format have the "Richard III" cover design but with the colours altered instead. A Peel session of the song was released on the CD single for "Mary".