Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Cherry Lips

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Length
  
3:11

Label
  
Mushroom Records UK

B-side
  
"Enough Is Never Enough" "Use Me"

Released
  
December 27, 2001 (See release history)

Format
  
12", CD single, CD maxi

Recorded
  
April–May 2001, Smart Studios, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

"Cherry Lips", also known as "Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)" is a 2001 song written, recorded and produced by alternative rock group Garbage for their third studio album, Beautiful Garbage. It was released the following year by Mushroom Records as the album's second international single, with the exception of North America, where Interscope issued "Breaking Up the Girl" in its place. A percentage of the royalties generated from the sales of "Cherry Lips" was donated to the International Red Cross.

Contents

"Cherry Lips" was a massive hit in Australia, where the single peaked at #1 on their Alternative chart, #2 on the Airplay chart, #3 on the Club chart and at #7 on the overall ARIA Singles chart. The single spent five non-consecutive weeks in the top ten, and was certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association. "Cherry Lips" also peaked at #8 in Italy, where it had been the sound of a prominent winter marketing campaign for Breil Stones.

In 2007, "Cherry Lips" was remastered and included on Garbage's greatest hits album Absolute Garbage. The song was also included on the album "Chelsea Mix" which was released to promote the My Scene dolls.

Song profile

"Cherry Lips" was written and recorded at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. Written just as Garbage were about to begin mixing their third album, "Cherry Lips" was a late inclusion to the album. The song began as a keyboard melody, and was originally known by the working title "Wonderjam". While recording the song, Steve Marker played a tuba, and recorded the output of the audio being run through a wah-wah pedal.

Daniel Shulman, at the end of his second set of scheduled bass sessions for the album, quickly created a sub-hook bassline for the chorus on a Sabre bass run through an Ampeg B15 amplifier. The band was happy with the bassline and used it on the final mix of "Cherry Lips".

Shirley Manson wrote the lyrics based loosely around two novels she had just read, Sarah and The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, written by author Laura Albert under the pseudonym of JT LeRoy. In the album sleeve notes, Manson dedicated "Cherry Lips" to "The Terminator", another alias of JT LeRoy. Manson later felt that "Cherry Lips" was "an adrenaline rush" and "probably the most celebratory song we've ever written".

"Cherry Lips" was first performed live with "Androgyny" on October 2 at an instore held in Chicago's Virgin Megastore.

In March 2003, "Cherry Lips" featured on the PlayStation 2 game Amplitude. While playing the "Cherry Lips" level, the game shows footage taken from the "Breaking Up the Girl" music video.

Single release

"Cherry Lips" was originally scheduled to be issued in the United Kingdom to support the band's mini-tour of Europe in November 2001. The release date was put on hold, however the single was serviced to radio stations. Garbage performed the song on Later With Jools Holland (along with "Til the Day I Die" and "Stupid Girl", MTV's Morning Glory and on Radio One's Evening Session as well as pre-recording a performance for Top of the Pops (along with "Breaking Up the Girl)".

The first territory to receive "Cherry Lips" as a single was Japan, where Sony Music Int'l issued a five-track CD maxi on December 27 collecting together remixes of the title track by MaUVe, Roger Sanchez and Howie B. The single was released to coincide with the announcement of Garbage's upcoming tour dates in Tokyo and Osaka, scheduled for February 2002. Sony followed up the single by releasing an exclusive extended play titled Special Collection, which collected together the international b-sides from "Cherry Lips".

PIAS Recordings issued "Cherry Lips" across Europe on January 7, 2002, as a four-track maxi CD featuring Beautiful Garbage out-take "Enough Is Never Enough" and the Roger Sanchez and Howie B remixes, as a two-track CD single backed with an edited version of the Roger Sanchez remix, and as a two-track 12" vinyl of the Roger Sanchez and MaUVe mixes. At the end of January, in Switzerland the single debuted #95 and peaked at #85 three weeks later, before recharting at #100 for a single week at the end of February; while in Netherlands "Cherry Lips" debuted at #86 and climbed over three weeks to #80. In Spain, "Cherry Lips" reached #15 on the airplay chart, while in Belgium, the single made the Ultratip (sales and airplay) charts in both the Flanders region (at #18) and the Wallonia region (#12). In Italy, where "Cherry Lips" had been licensed to the Breil Stones Winter 2001/02 campaign, the single debuted at #8. "Cherry Lips" remained on the Italian top twenty for six weeks.

In Australia and New Zealand, remixes of "Cherry Lips" were serviced to clubs on November 26, 2001; the single was sent to radio on December 3. The same day, both the music video and television advertisements for Beautiful Garbage began airing in the run up to the Christmas period, with heavy emphasis on "Cherry Lips". In December, the "Cherry Lips" remixes debuted at #10 on the ARIA Club chart, before peaking at #3 a month later. FMR scheduled the single to coincide with the Big Day Out rock festival, which Garbage were part of the line-up. The week before release, Beautiful Garbage climbed back up to #10 on the album chart, while the single hit #2 on the airplay chart. "Cherry Lips" was issued to stores on January 14 as a 2×CD single set; the first disc backed with Beautiful Garbage out-takes "Use Me" and "Enough Is Never Enough" and the Howie B remix, and the second limited edition disc containing remixes by Roger Sanchez and MaUVe. "Cherry Lips" debuted at #7 on the ARIA Singles Chart, both the second highest new entry, and Garbage's first Australian top ten single. On January 24, Garbage performed both "Cherry Lips" and "Androgyny" live on Channel V outside Fox Studios in Sydney. "Cherry Lips" dropped to #9, and then climbed up to #8 where it stayed for a second week. On the fourth week, the single reached #1 on the ARIA Alternative chart as "ARIA certified "Cherry Lips" gold for shipments of over 35,000 units. During this period, Beautiful Garbage climbed to #5 on the album chart, staying there for three weeks. On its fifth and sixth week, the single dropped to #12, and then reversed back up to the #10 spot. "Cherry Lips" eventually bowed out of the Australian Top 100 at the start of May after a fifteen-week chart run.

In New Zealand, the band's performance in Auckland and airplay for the single resulted in Beautiful Garbage re-charting at #12 on the RIANZ album chart. "Cherry Lips" debuted three weeks later at #39, before climbing to peak at #22 by the start of March. Beautiful Garbage rebounded on the album chart at the end of the month, reaching #16 in April.

Garbage kicked off the re-scheduled release of "Cherry Lips" in the United Kingdom at the start of January 2002, by performing the song on cd:uk, T4 and on the Pepsi Chart Show and provided interviews to music shows to air in the run-up to release. Mushroom Records issued "Cherry Lips" to record stores on January 21 in a 12" vinyl format and a 2×CD single set. The first disc was backed with "Enough Is Never Enough", the Howie B remix and a QuickTime music video, the second featured "Use Me" and the Roger Sanchez remix. The 12" featured full-length versions of the Roger Sanchez and MaUVe mixes. A week later, "Cherry Lips" debuted at #24 on the UK Singles Chart. The single dropped to #40 after three weeks. An internet-only remix of "Cherry Lips" produced by Girls Against Boys bassist Eli Janney was streamed online on various sites to promote the song. On February 1, Mushroom partnered with The Sun tabloid and Asda supermarket to give away a free CD titled Garbage:Sampler that included the "Cherry Lips" remix. The single also peaked at #27 on the Irish Singles Chart.

In place of "Cherry Lips", Interscope issued "Breaking Up the Girl" as the second single from Beautiful Garbage in North America and did not release any further singles from the album. Despite this, on June 3, 2002, Garbage performed "Cherry Lips" on The Tonight Show.

Music video

The music video for "Cherry Lips" was directed by Joseph Kahn on a set installed in a loft located in Brooklyn, New York on October 22, 2001. The video was produced by Supermega/Palomar; collaborating on the music video were top hair artist Renato Campura, make-up artist Mathu Andersen and stylist Kithe Brewster. Visual effects were handled by Chris Watts.

The video treatment Kahn filmed featured Garbage performing in a loft space, but only seen on mirror reflections, on monitor displays or reflected in the camera lens. As the chorus begins, it becomes apparent that the band are invisible. The special effect was rendered by filming Garbage wrapped in green gauze suits under their clothing and digitally replacing their bodies with the background. The insides of their clothing were replaced using CGI. Monitors visible to the viewer were fed playback footage of the band performing 'as normal'. For the breakdown and coda, Manson removed her clothing (except her boots and gloves) and performed an invisible striptease, and then walked across the room towards a bathroom mirror displaying her composited reflection. The twist ending showed the invisible Manson urinating while standing up.

Manson dyed her red hair to platinum blonde the night prior to the shoot. Kahn expressed concern over the change, as he felt Manson was strongly identified as a redhead. To compliment her new colour, she was given a 1950s-era beige palette "for a glamourous but not overdone" look. Vig filmed all his close-up scenes at the start of the day; he had been suffering from a food poisoning infection. A stand-in was used for his greenscreen shots. The set was dressed to resemble a strip club, vintage neon signs were procured from over the city to provide an authentic backdrop.

The "Cherry Lips" video premiered on Australia's Rage on December 3, on MTV Europe in the United Kingdom and on VIVA in Germany on December 17. MTV Europe required an edit to the scenes where Manson stamped on lightbulbs; an alternate edit was re-serviced with the scenes obscured in early 2002. VH1 continued to broadcast the original version. The "Cherry Lips" video was nominated for a Bulgarian MM Music Award in the category of Best Video by an International Act.

The "Cherry Lips" video was first made commercially available in QuickTime format on the CD-ROM enhanced section of the "Cherry Lips" CD singles. A remastered version of the "Cherry Lips" music video was included on Garbage's 2007 greatest hits DVD Absolute Garbage, and made available as a digital download via online music services later the same year.

Manson admitted later that she regretted the video: "We were quite literally blackmailed by our record company into making a video that we knew from the storyboard was a shockingly bad idea", she revealed. "We fought so hard not to do it, but we didn’t hold enough cards, and so were forced to capitulate."

Remixes and alternate versions

In 2005, Garbage remixed "Cherry Lips" themselves (subtitling the remix "Le Royale mix") for the B-side of the "Why Do You Love Me" DVD single. In 2007, the Roger Sanchez remix was remastered, edited and included on the Absolute Garbage bonus disc Garbage Mixes.

Critical reception

"Cherry Lips" came in at #11 in the 2001 Triple J Hottest 100.

References

Cherry Lips Wikipedia