Format CD
12" Genre Trip hop
downtempo | Recorded 1996 (1996) Length 3:54 | |
B-side "Can't Find My Way Home" Released 30 September 1996 (1996-09-30) (UK) | ||
"6 Underground" is a song by the English band Sneaker Pimps, from their 1996 studio album Becoming X.
Contents
First released as a single in the United Kingdom in September 1996, the song reached number 15 on the UK Singles Chart and had moderate radio airplay in the United States. After the song was used in the 1997 American film The Saint, radio stations began playing it more frequently; many stations continue to keep the song in their playlists. The single was re-released in the UK in May 1997, where it reached number 9 on the UK Singles Chart. In the United States, the song peaked at number 45 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number 7 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Originally, the song was a club hit in the UK. After the commercial success and popularity of the album version of the song, the group released several remixes, some of which became hits in dance clubs and radio stations with a dance format. The version most frequently heard on radio was the remix by Nellee Hooper (which appeared as a hidden track on the album).
In 2000, the song was used as the main theme for the US primetime soap opera Titans.
Content
The horns and the harp melody at the beginning of the song are both sampled from "Golden Girl", a track from the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger (the song plays during a scene when Bond discovers Jill Masterson covered in gold paint).
Music video
The music video for the song, directed by Toby Tremlett, gives off a dark atmosphere. Throughout the video, the camera focuses on Kelli Dayton singing in the middle of a dark room sitting in a dentist chair that she spins around. The camera follows Dayton as she slowly walks around the darkened room singing the song. There are also several smaller lit rooms with oval windows within the larger dark room, depicting different scenes such as a man dressed in black practicing various poses, a woman dressed in a nightgown who is vacuuming the floor, a young woman posing around a chair in a red tie shirt and black skirt, a toddler dressed in a costume pouring spaghetti from a jar and tossing it around the room, and an overweight man eating spaghetti while sitting in a recliner. The small rooms with the oval windows could depict a view into people's private lives, and even a view into their souls. A can of worms is poured out by a band member. The other band members are usually seen lurking behind Dayton in this video, including in some scenes where the band is standing in one of the small, brightly lit rooms. At the end of the video, the people in the smaller rooms seem to freeze in place, and in the big room, the band poses at Dayton's dentist chair, and then the lights go out.
The video uses the Nellee Hooper edit of the song. Laura Prepon of That '70s Show fame was also featured in the video.
Artwork
The cover artwork of the 1996 single uses a photograph of a Lego Space moonscape. The piece is from the Command Centre playset marketed by The Lego Group from 1978 to 1988.