Beautiful Life (Ace of Base song)

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"Beautiful Life"
Single by Ace of Base
from the album The Bridge
Released October 30, 1995 (Europe)
November 7, 1995 (North America)
Recorded 1995
Genre Eurodance, techno
Length 3:38
Label Mega
Writer(s) Jonas Berggren, John Ballard
Producer(s) Jonas Berggren, Denniz Pop, Max Martin
Ace of Base singles chronology
"Lucky Love"
(1995)		 "Beautiful Life"
(1995)		 "Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry"
(1996)
Music sample
Beautiful Life

"Beautiful Life" is a song by Swedish band Ace of Base, released in October 1995. In North America, it was the first single released from The Bridge; in Europe, it followed "Lucky Love".

The song was written on January 1, 1994 by band member Jonas Berggren while he was in the Canary Islands. His earlier song "The Sign" had just hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. Berggren incorporated gospel elements into the song, and the single proved quite successful worldwide, reaching #15[1] on the Billboard Hot 100 in December, 1995 and on the UK Singles Chart. It also hit #1 on the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.

Music video

Bubbles version

The video for the song was directed by Richard Heslop, who would go on to direct the band's later video for "Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry". The video included computer-generated bubbles which whisked the band from place to place.

US version

According to music channel VH1 in the United States, the band's record label, Arista Records, insisted the bubbles be removed from the video, leading to a somewhat strange-looking U.S. video, with the band members looking at (and reacting to) bubbles that were no longer there. In Europe, both the versions (bubble video and bubble-free) were released.

Other videos

In addition to the two alternate videos, remix videos were also created, and VH1 released a Pop-Up Video version of the video in 1998.

Critical reception

J.D. Considine of Spin magazine said in a writeup about The Bridge that "the real genius of Ace of Base lies not with perky singing... but with the ability to make melancholy sound so damned appealing." The evaluation continues to narrow in scope as he continues to say "even the cheerfully titled 'Beautiful life' dampens its club-savvy stomp with a heartbreaking minor key chorus."[2]

Tracklistings

United Kingdom CD 1 / Australian CD

  1. Beautiful Life (Single Version)
  2. Beautiful Life (12" Extended Version)
  3. Beautiful Life (Junior's Circuit Bump Mix)

United Kingdom CD 2

  1. Beautiful Life (Single Version)
  2. Beautiful Life (Vission Lorimer Club Mix)
  3. Beautiful Life (Lenny B.'s House of Joy Club Mix)
  4. Beautiful Life (Uno Clio Mix)

US maxi single

  1. Beautiful Life (Single Version)
  2. Beautiful Life (12" Extended Version)
  3. Beautiful Life (Junior's Circuit Bump Mix)
  4. Beautiful Life (Vission Lorimer Club Mix)
  5. Beautiful Life (Lenny B's House Of Joy Club Mix)
  6. Beautiful Life (Uno Clio Mix)

Personnel

Charts

Chart successions

Preceded by Billboard Hot Dance Club Play number-one single
January 6, 1996 - January 12, 1996		 Succeeded by
"If I Were You" by k.d. lang
Preceded by
"El Tiburón" by Proyecto Uno
 Canadian RPM Dance chart number-one single
January 29, 1996 (1 week)		 Succeeded by
"Missing" by Everything but the Girl

Cover versions

Indie band Jukebox The Ghost recorded a cover of the song for Engine Room Recordings' compilation album Guilt by Association Vol. 2, which was released in November 2008.[22]

In 2015, the American dance-pop trio Punch !nc recorded a reimagined version of the song, titled "Heaven (Beautiful Life)." This version has reached number six on Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart.[23]

Appearances in other media

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ "Australian-charts.com – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  4. ↑ "Austriancharts.at – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  5. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  6. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life" (in French). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  7. ↑ Canada top singles peak
  8. ↑ Canada dance peak
  9. ↑ "Ace of Base: Beautiful Life" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  10. ↑ "Lescharts.com – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  11. ↑ "Musicline.de – Ace of Base Single-Chartverfolgung" (in German). Media Control Charts. PhonoNet GmbH. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  12. ↑ Search for Irish peaks
  13. ↑ "Nederlandse Top 40 – Ace of Base search results" (in Dutch) Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  14. ↑ "Charts.org.nz – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  15. ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life". Singles Top 60. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  16. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Ace of Base – Beautiful Life". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  17. ↑ "Archive Chart: 1996-02-03" UK Singles Chart. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  18. ↑ "Ace Of Base – Chart history" Billboard Hot 100 for Ace Of Base. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Allmusic. Ace of Base | Billboard Singles.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Canada Top 50 Dance Tracks of 1996
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Chart history for Punch !nc from Billboard
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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