Sit Down (song)

"Sit Down"
Single by James
from the album Gold Mother (re-recorded version)
Written	Late 1988
Released	19 June 1989 (1989-06-19)
Genre	Madchester indie dance[1]
Length	7:39 (original) 4:05 (re-release)
Label	Rough Trade (1989) Fontana
Songwriter(s)	Jim Glennie Larry Gott Tim Booth Gavan Whelan
Producer(s)	Gil Norton Steve Power (1991 version)
James singles chronology
"Ya Ho" (1988) "Sit Down" (1989) "Come Home" (1989)
Official video
"Sit Down" on YouTube
Re-release cover
Cover of the 1991 release on Fontana
James re-release singles chronology
"Lose Control" (1990) "Sit Down (re-recording)" (1991) "Sound" (1991)
James late-1990s singles chronology
"Runaground" (1998) "Sit Down '98 (Apollo 440 mix)" (1998) "I Know What I'm Here For" (1999)

"Sit Down" is a song by English band James, originally released in June 1989 by Rough Trade Records. In its eight-and-a-half-minute original form, the song reached number 77 on the UK Singles Chart and was ranked number eight in John Peel's Festive Fifty of that year.

After experiencing success as part of the Madchester music scene, a new version was released in March 1991 that was shorter and with new lyrics. Released via Fontana Records, it reached number two on the UK Singles Chart, spending three weeks there. It was the 20th best-selling single of 1991 in the UK.^[2]

In 2013, the song placed fourth in a poll by BBC Radio 2 and the Official Charts Company to find the greatest track to miss out on the number-one spot in the UK charts.^[3] In the same year, James performed the song with Peter Kay for Comic Relief. On 30 March 2017 a version of the song was used in the promo of the seventh season of the hit HBO series Game of Thrones.^[4]