‘Golden Brown’ is a song by the English rock band the Stranglers, released as a single in 1982. Noted for its distinctive harpsichord instrumentation, it was the second single released from the band's sixth studio album La folie (1981). The single peaked at No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart, making it the band's highest-charting single in the country. It has also been recorded by many other artists.
The music was largely written by keyboardist Dave Greenfield and drummer Jet Black, with lyrics by singer/guitarist Hugh Cornwell. The music was adapted from an unused part of ‘Second Coming’, a track which featured on their previous album. In his 2001 book The Stranglers Song by Song, Cornwell states: "'Golden Brown' works on two levels. It's about heroin and also about a girl... both provided me with pleasurable times."
Initially, the band's label was hesitant to release the song as a single. Burnel recalled, "We had to insist on it being released. We'd been taken over by EMI and they thought we were awful – and they hated 'Golden Brown. They said: this song, you can't dance to it, you're finished". The label ultimately released the song during the Christmas season, leaving it to compete with holiday songs. Burnel stated, "They thought, it's weak, it's gonna die, it's gonna drown in the tsunami of Christmas shit… but it didn't. It developed legs of its own, it became a worldwide hit".
Originally featured on the group's album La folie, which was released in November 1981, and later on the US pressings of Feline (1983), ‘Golden Brown’ was released as a single in January 1982, and was accompanied by a music video. The single reached No. 2 in the official UK Singles Chart in February 1982. David Hamilton, disc jockey on the middle-of-the-road and comparatively conservative BBC Radio 2, made the single his "record of the week". In a 2017 interview for Dutch television station Top 2000 a gogo, Hugh Cornwell said that he believed the song would have made it to the top spot if bassist Burnel had not told the press that it was about heroin, at which point broadcasters removed it from their playlists. "I would have waited till it got to Number 1 and then said it," he commented. EMI instead blamed the single's failure to reach the top spot on sales of both the studio and live single releases of the Jam's ‘Town Called Malice’, the number one single at the time, being counted together. The song also reached the Top 10 in Ireland, Flanders, the Netherlands, and Australia.
The video for ‘Golden Brown’ depicts the band members as explorers in Egypt in the 1920s and performers for a fictional "Radio Cairo". The video is intercut with stock footage of the Giza pyramid complex, the Great Sphinx, Bedouins riding camels, and camel racing in the United Arab Emirates. The performance scenes were filmed in the Leighton House Museum in Holland Park, London, which was also featured in the video for "Gold" by Spandau Ballet in 1983.
Label – Liberty
Songwriters – Hugh Cornwell, Jean-Jacques Burnel, Dave Greenfield, Jet Black
Producers – The Stranglers, Steve Churchyard
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]Golden brown, texture like sun
Lays me down, with my mind she runs
Throughout the night, no need to fight
Never a frown with golden brown
[Verse 2]
Every time, just like the last
On her ship, tied to the mast
To distant lands, takes both my hands
Never a frown with golden brown
[Verse 3]
Golden brown, finer temptress
Through the ages, she's heading west
From far away, stays for a day
Never a frown with golden brown
[Instrumental Break]
[Outro]
Never a frown (Never a frown)
(Never a frown) With golden brown (With golden brown)
(With golden brown) Never a frown (Never a frown)
(Never a frown) With golden brown (With golden brown)
(With golden brown) Never a frown (Never a frown)
(Never a frown) With golden brown (With golden brown)
(With golden brown) Never a frown (Never a frown)
(Never a frown) With golden brown (With golden brown)