Blog
Background to Songs: One in a Trillion
Written by Jimmy
One in a Trillion beget two songs — itself and She Knows. And it uses the phrase Opposable Thumbs twice. How is this NOT your favourite SMCC song?
Five things:
1. This is a tribute to Bill Bryson, who writes this amazing opening to one of the chapters on the Short History of Everything. He essentially shows how luck we are to be alive – starting with the odds of the planet every existing. Seemed like a great idea for a love song – combining the odds of every meeting (starting with the fact that planet had to be in right place) with the odd fact that most couples seem ‘inevitable.’ I like that.
2. This is all about Opposable Thumbs. Finished the lyrics about put my face to the sun and toast the god’s with my opposable thumb while down in Spain. Had a vodka tonic, but did indeed hold it up and toasted the gods for bein’ around. And realised I needed opposable thumbs. So that was fun.
3. This is all about the talent of Andy, Ed, Mike and Rob. I had a tune, but wanted Ed to run with something and said – ‘it all comes down to a riff. Go do one.’ He, Mike and Rob went to front of house and came up with a great riff – that you’ll hear in ‘She Knows.’ We tried it on these lyrics with Imogen as lead, but it just never works. Ed had written She Knows, we just didn’t know it. So the song hung around studio a bit. Then I told Andy that I still like it and played the tune in my head. The verses were about right but i had about half the chorus. So Andy disappears to front room and comes back an hour later with the song – and I love what he did with the chorus.
4. This is all about Steph and Mikey. I loved the end with Andy’s final tune about ‘Soft Low Strings.’ And we had Steph with her cello and Mikey with his fiddle. And they came up with this great tune for the conclusion. Really changed the song.
5. This is about not letting it sound like Faith. When we got the final part done, we went back and added Mikey’s riff on violin to the song beginning and pulled out drums/base and most of Andy’s guitar. This gave it a very different feel that foreshadowed the end. But frankly, it also made sure it didn’t sound like Faith by George Michael. There I said it. Not very dignified but we needed to say it. We love Faith by the way. We just didn’t want to rip it off. Oh, and for the record – we didn’t.
And that’s what you need to know.
Jimmy