| "Young Folks" | ||||
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| Single byPeter Bjorn and John featuringVictoria Bergsman | ||||
| from the albumWriter's Block | ||||
| B-side | "Ancient Curse" | |||
| Released | 7 August 2006 (2006-8-7) | |||
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| Producer(s) | Peter Bjorn and John | |||
| Peter Bjorn and John singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Young Folks" onYouTube | ||||
"Young Folks" is the first single from Swedish bandPeter Bjorn and John's third album,Writer's Block (2006). The single featuresVictoria Bergsman as a guest vocalist. The song received generally positive reviews from critics and performed well in the record charts, reaching the top 40 in Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. A music video made for the song features animated versions of Peter and Bergsman performing the song in various locations.
The song first attracted notice on websites such asMyspace andYouTube, and was used in a number of European commercials and television shows. Since mid-2007, the song has earned extensive airplay on American radio, most notably on dance radio outlets likeKNHC/Seattle,KNGY/San Francisco and Sirius Satellite'sThe Beat. It is notable for being a popular song withwhistling (the whistling was originally added in as a placeholder for another instrument).
The song was ranked No. 5 onPitchfork Media's "Top 100 Tracks of 2006" list.[3]Pitchfork reviewed the song on 19 July 2006, giving it three out of five stars.[4] The song was also voted No. 2 in the 2006NME Track of the Year poll.[5]Planet Sound named this their No. 2 single of 2006. The song was named the No. 1 song of 2007 according to theiTunes Store.Y-Rock on XPN also named the song No. 1 of 2007. In October 2011,NME placed it at No. 92 on its list 150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years.[6] It was included inSpinner's 10 Best Whistling Parts in Songs.[7]Rolling Stone put the song also on its list of the 15 Best Whistling Songs of All Time.[8] Australian radio stationTriple J ranked the song at number 16 on itsHottest 100 of 2006 list.[9]
The single was re-released on 17 September 2007, reaching No. 13 in the United Kingdom, beating the original chart position of No. 33 in 2006.
The animated video for the song was directed by Ted Malmros with animation by Graham Samuels. It is featured in the video gameSingStar Pop 2, as well as inLips.
The video starts off with Peter and Victoria sitting in a park, on a bench. Peter teaches Victoria how to whistle. Then the video switches over to them both sitting in a bus where the song starts. Throughout the video, scenes of the band playing the song can be seen and eventually the video ends with a big party where everybody "seems to disappear".
The group performed the song onLate Night with Conan O'Brien on 29 January 2007, and onThe Tonight Show withJay Leno on 18 May 2007 (the latter withTonight Show band memberVicki Randle onbongos). On 29 September 2007, the band played "Young Folks", with Victoria Bergsman's vocals, onFriday Night with Jonathan Ross onBBC1. When the band performed the song at the 2007Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Bergsman's vocals were performed by Bebban Stenborg ofShout Out Louds. On Peter Bjorn and John's 2008 Australian tour, Victoria Bergsman's vocals were performed byTracyanne Campbell ofCamera Obscura.
2006 CD single[12]
2007 CD single[13]
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
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| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[30] | Platinum | 60,000‡ |
| Italy (FIMI)[31] | Gold | 25,000‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[32] | Platinum | 600,000‡ |
| United States (RIAA)[33] | Platinum | 1,000,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
"Young Folks" has made numerous appearances in media, including in the pilot episode of the television seriesGossip Girl, and in advertisements for UK home improvement retailerHomebase from 2009 to 2013, andGoogle Nest (smart speakers) in 2017, in which the product's natural language processing was demonstrated by the phrase "play that hipster song with whistling."[34] It also was part of the tracklist in the video gamesFIFA 08 andFIFA 23.
German singerNena covered "Young Folks" together withOliver Pocher andStephan Remmler in theGerman language as "Ich kann nix dafür" ("I'm not responsible for it") for the movieVollidiot. This version was the 78th best-selling single of 2007 in Germany.[35]
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