Fly Me Away

Background and writing

"Fly Me Away" is a mid-tempo electronic song about the need to escape from the troubles of daily life. It was composed as a collaborative effort between Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory in late 2004 in a rented cottage in the countryside of Bath, England. The song was written and recorded while Goldfrapp and Gregory were "jamming in the recording studio, bouncing song ideas off each other". "Fly Me Away" is written in the common verse-chorus form and features instrumentation from synthesizers and an orchestra that was conducted by Nick Ingman.

The North American digital EP featured a cover version of "Boys Will Be Boys" as its B-side. The song was originally performed by British rock group The Ordinary Boys.

Marketing and release

In late 2006, "Fly Me Away" was featured in Christmas advertising campaigns for the US retail company Target. The song, along with "Number 1", was featured in winter themed television commercials. An instrumental of the song was also featured in advertisements for L'Oréal Feria, which starred actress Scarlett Johansson.

"Fly Me Away" was released as a various formats throughout the world. While most territories received a CD single and digital download release, the single was released as a limited edition 12-inch single in April 2006 in the UK. A DVD single was also issued and included the "Fly Me Away: Inflight Movies (Paris - New York - London)" film, directed by Hannah Holland, and Diane Martel's music video for "Ride A White Horse".

The Chris Hopewell-directed music video for "Fly Me Away" was never released. Clips from the video have, however, leaked on to the internet, appearing on the video sharing website YouTube. Instead, Goldfrapp released a performance video on their MySpace page and an animated short film version, directed by Andreas Nilsson and titled "Jakko & the Poet", on the Supernature Limited Edition DVD.

Chart performance

"Fly Me Away" was released in the United Kingdom on 1 May 2006. Because it was released as the fourth single, success was very limited since many consumers had already purchased the album, which at the time had been certified platinum in the UK. The song entered the UK Singles Chart on 8 May 2006 at number twenty-six. The following week it dropped thirty-five positions to number sixty-one and exited the singles chart in its third week of release. In Ireland, the song entered at number forty, remaining on the singles chart for one week. In the US, "Fly My Away" became Goldfrapp's fourth song to chart within the top ten of the Billboard Dance Chart, reaching number six.

Remixes

Carl Craig made the most well-known remix of the song, titled the "C2 rmx 4", which was included on the limited edition CD single. The track uses Goldfrapp's original vocals over a heavy bass line and layered synths. Craig also created two other C2 remixes, which focus on Gregory's instrumentation. Ladytron's remix of "Fly Me Away" remained close to the original, but was called less "fun and bouncy" by About.com reviewer Mike Stier. Stier also disliked Filippo Moscatello's "Naughty rmx" writing that it did not contain the "zest and zing" that Craig's remixes had.

Formats and track listings

These are the formats and track listings of single releases of "Fly Me Away".

Personnel

The following people contributed to Fly Me Away: