B-side "Teddy the Dink" Format 7" Vinyl Genre New wave | Released 1980 Recorded 1979 Length 3:38 | |
"Echo Beach" is a song recorded by the Canadian group Martha and the Muffins in 1979. It was released as a single from their album Metro Music in 1980 and won the Juno Award for Single of the Year. It was certified gold in Canada on October 1, 1980, a month after Metro Music achieved gold status. "Echo Beach" was the band's only significant international hit, although they had several other hits in Canada. It reached No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart, and No. 6 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report).
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In 2003, Q magazine listed it among the 1001 best songs ever. In 2005, "Echo Beach" was named the 35th greatest Canadian song of all time on the CBC Radio One series 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version.
Background
Echo Beach, as mentioned in the song, does not refer to a real beach but is rather a symbolic notion of somewhere the narrator would rather be, somewhere 'far away in time'. In reality, the song was created while Gane was working checking wallpaper for printing faults. He found the work rather dull and his mind drifted to times he would like to live over again. One such time was an evening spent at Sunnyside Beach on the shoreline of Lake Ontario in Toronto in summer. In 1977, Echo Beach was a reference made to a faded time and place gone in the lyrics of the song "Hiroshima Mon Amour" by the band Ultravox.
"Echo Beach" was only the third song that Gane had written.
The map shown on the cover of one version of the single is of the Toronto Islands, while another single shows the sand bar and Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset.
Concert venue
In June 2011, concert promoter Live Nation opened a 4,000-person outdoor concert facility in Toronto and named it after the song.
Other versions
The song was covered by British pop star Toyah in 1987, reaching number No. 54 in the UK Singles Chart, and was released in Germany. The singer regularly includes the song in her live concert sets.
The Australian singer Robert Forster covered the song on his 1995 album I Had a New York Girlfriend. A cover by Gabriella Cilmi was used as the theme tune for the short-lived British soap opera Echo Beach, and was included as the final track on her debut album, Lessons to Be Learned in 2008.
Music from "Echo Beach" was used for the song Egoiste, which translates to Selfish, an adaptation sung by French singer La Grande Sophie for her 2006 album La Suite.
The 2009 song "Box 'n' Locks" by MPHO samples the melody from Echo Beach.
in 2013, "Echo Beach" was covered by the British pop-rockabilly combo, The Rocker Covers on their second album, New Old Stock.