Children (Robert Miles song)

Background and writing

Miles has stated two motives for the writing of "Children". One was as a response to photographs of child war victims his father had brought home from a humanitarian mission in the former Yugoslavia; the other, inspired by his career as a DJ, was to create a track to end DJ sets, intended to calm rave attendants prior to their driving home as a means to reduce car accident deaths.

"Children" is one of the pioneering tracks of dream house, a genre of electronic dance music characterized by dream-like piano melodies, and a steady four-on-the-floor bass drum. The creation of dream house was a response to social pressures in Italy during the early 1990s: the growth of rave culture among young adults, and the ensuing popularity of nightclub attendance, had created a weekly trend of deaths due to car accidents as clubbers drove across the country overnight, falling asleep at the wheel from strenuous dancing as well as alcohol and drug use. In mid-1996, deaths due to this phenomenon, called strage del sabato sera (Saturday night slaughter) in Italy, were being estimated at around 2000 since the start of the decade. The move by DJs such as Miles to play slower, calming music to conclude a night's set, as a means to counteract the fast-paced, repetitive tracks that preceded, was met with approval by authorities and parents of car crash victims.

Critic Boris Barabanov claimed a similarity between "Children" and Russian singer Garik Sukachov's song "Гарик Сукачев – Напои меня водой" ("Napoi menia vodoi"), and says the song was written before "Children". Sukachov explained that he gave his consent for the melody to be used.

Music videos

Billboard ascribes the final stage of the song's promotion to the airing of its music video on music television networks such as MTV Europe and Germany's VIVA. Two videos were produced, the first being the one Billboard discusses: black-and-white footage of a small girl riding in a car through a diverse range of landscape which was directed by Matt Amos. The locations are London (Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square), Paris (The Eiffel Tower can be seen), Geneva (place du Molard, rue Coutance) and countryside in Switzerland (Robert Miles's home country), and France and Italy near the Mont-Blanc Tunnel.

The second video, filmed in colour, alternates between images of Miles DJing at a nightclub rave and images of children at play, thereby touching upon both of the themes of the song.

Reviews

Billboard magazine attributes the song's widespread success to its melodic nature, characterized by an "instantly recognizable" piano riff (which, ironically, was not found in the track's original version). They identify this factor as making the song accessible to a broader audience beyond clubbers and fans of electronic dance music alone by means of radio airplay. Synthmania.com, which identifies the song as being written on a Kurzweil K2000, calls this the "dream house piano" sound, consisting of "standard piano, syn bass and string/pad sounds bathed in delay and reverb".

Upon including the track on 2002's The Very Best of Euphoria compilation, TheManAdam, co-creator of the Euphoria series of trance DJ mix albums, said that the song "had a major influence on [his] generation of remixers and producers when [they] all at first started making trance".

Chart performances

"Children" was first released in Italy in January 1995 on Joe T. Vanelli's DBX imprint label, as part of the Soundtracks EP. Subsequently, following exposure at a gathering of DJs and record producers in Miami, the track was licensed by the UK-based Platipus Records who were represented by UK licensing agency Dynamik Music. In conjunction with Miles' manager, Gavin Prunas, the track was licensed to Deconstruction Records; it was then licensed to more than a dozen additional record labels in Europe through DBX, Deconstruction as well as appearing on the Platipus Records Volume 2 compilation released worldwide via Dynamik Music.

"Children" was a success worldwide peaking at number one in more than 12 countries and holding that position for several weeks. "Children" reached number one in the following countries: Austria (six weeks), Belgium, Denmark, Finland (three weeks), France (11 weeks), Italy, Norway (five weeks), Germany, Spain, Sweden (seven weeks) and Switzerland (13 weeks); beyond that, according to Billboard magazine, it reached the top five in "every European country that has a singles chart". It spent 13 weeks at number one on the Eurochart Hot 100, reached number two on the UK staying 17 weeks on the chart, and it reached number 21 in the US, holding that position for four weeks. Along with U2 members Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr.'s reworking of the Mission: Impossible theme, it marked the first time since November 1985 that two instrumentals had simultaneously charted in the top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100.

French nightclubs began playing the imported record from Italy in 1995, making France one of the first countries to popularize the track. Spreading through the underground from clubs to, eventually, the radio, it was licensed there by an independent record label in November 1995. Spain and Italy itself were the other early adopters that brought the track into clubs. Club charts in these countries signalled "Children"'s popularity to other countries: In Denmark, club and radio play followed the single's release, while in Belgium radio play only followed by crossing over from club play, and in the Netherlands radio play was the primary factor in the single's promotion. In Germany, a domestic release came after demand built up from club play through promotional releases from the UK and Italy.

In the United Kingdom, BBC Radio 1 did not play the song on its daytime playlist at first, though Radio 1 DJ Pete Tong did play it for three weeks in a row on his Essential Selection program in 1996. Tong's appointing it Essential Tune of The Week each week for three weeks in a row culminated in a frenzied bidding war amongst UK major record companies. Meanwhile, Kiss FM was among the first to play the song, even using it in one of the station's minute-long television commercials. Still, "Children" reached the number two position on the UK Singles Chart prior to promotion and marketing.

Cover versions and samplings

In 2001, the trance project 4 Clubbers covered the song and it spent two weeks on stage one in the German Dance Charts (number one). The string quartet Escala, most famous notably from Britain's Got Talent, covered the song for their debut album which was released in May 2009. The song also served as inspiration for one of the songs in the video game Garou: Mark of the Wolves, notably the theme of protagonist Rock Howard.

DJ Calvin West released a cover version of the song on March 2, 2011, on Spinnin' Records. On March 28, 2016, Keanu Silva released his cover also on Spinnin' through the SPRS imprint.

In 2004, the song was sampled for "Do You Know (I Go Crazy)" by Angel City, reaching number one on the UK Dance Charts. In 2009, it was sampled for "Rollin' (Remix)" on the Kid Cudi mixtape Dat Kid from Cleveland. The song was sampled by Jackie Chain on his upcoming EP Ain't Slept in Weeks for fall 2010 release. The track is also sampled on Natalie Bassingthwaighte's track "Could You Be Loved?", from the album 1000 Stars.

In 2012, the song is sampled in (and forms the basis of) musician Dot Rotten's dubstep and rap single, "Overload", released digitally as a single on June 3. The prominent piano part is present from the beginning of the song and recurs throughout.

In 2015, rapper Tyga sampled the song in his single "Stimulated". In the song, "Children"'s recognizable piano intro is sampled and repeated with the addition of a kick drum. The irony of sampling a song titled "Children" in a rap song defending statutory rape wasn't lost on the general public, due to the controversy the artist is facing dating underage reality television personality Kylie Jenner.

4 Clubbers version

In 2001, German trance group 4 Clubbers remixed the song and released it as a single. It reached the top 20 in Spain and charted in France, Germany, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

Track listing

1. "Children" (Club Radio Edit) – 3:38
2. "Children" (FB vs. JJ Radio Edit) – 3:28
3. "Children" (Club Mix) – 9:00
4. "Children" (Future Breeze vs. Junkfood Junkies Mix) – 7:49

Jack Holiday and Mike Candys version

In 2012, Jack Holiday and Mike Candys remixed the song and released it as a single.

Track listing

1. "Children" (Radio Edit) – 3:07
2. "Children" (Christopher S Radio Edit) – 3:08
3. "Children" (Original Higher Level Mix) – 5:00
4. "Children" (Christopher S Remix) – 5:35
5. "Children" (Mike'N'Jack Club Mix) – 4:56
6. "Children" (Steam Loco Mix) – 4:57